• Welcome to BirdForum, the internet's largest birding community with thousands of members from all over the world. The forums are dedicated to wild birds, birding, binoculars and equipment and all that goes with it.

    Please register for an account to take part in the discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.
ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

What is this plant? (1 Viewer)

Leif

Well-known member
Around the base of the fungus you can see a creeping plant with long narrow leaves arranged radially about a stem. Does anyone know what the plant is? It seems to have its own flora of Cortinarius fungi. The location is Christmas Common though I have seen it elsewhere, also with mychorrizal Cortinarius with no nearby trees. Thanks.
 

Attachments

  • AmanitaVaginata.jpg
    AmanitaVaginata.jpg
    51.3 KB · Views: 190
Leif said:
Around the base of the fungus you can see a creeping plant with long narrow leaves arranged radially about a stem. Does anyone know what the plant is? It seems to have its own flora of Cortinarius fungi. The location is Christmas Common though I have seen it elsewhere, also with mychorrizal Cortinarius with no nearby trees. Thanks.

Hi Leif, the plant is Common Rock-rose, Helianthemum nummularium (= H. chamaecistus).

As you will have read in Field Mycology, there are a number of ectomycorrhizal fungi associated with it. In fact there are some Scottish sites a friend and I have known for several years with such fungi and a we had been building up a rather longer list, with various notable Amanita, Russula, etc. species when, slightly to my annoyance, the first report from elsewhere appeared in print!
We have a very distinct-looking but unnamed Cortinarius with a coppery-brown cap, an unnamed Hebeloma allied to H. hiemalis and other such mysteries.

It seems that Helianthemum can pick up normally birch mycorrhizal species (after birch has been cleared?) and evidently you have another there. What are you calling your Amanita?
A. submembranacea?

What would be interesting, I think, would be for anyone suitably placed to check out our other British Helianthemum species - H. apenninum on limestone in S.W. England and H. oelandicum (H. canum) in scattered limestone localities. No reports of mycorrhizal fungi yet, as far as I know, but I bet they have them.
 
Alan: Thanks. I thought you might know the answer! On Christmas Common there must be an acre or more where Common Rock-rose forms a carpet, displacing grass and other plants. It is very attractive and has a pleasant soft and springy feel under foot. Each year large numbers of Cortinarius and Lactarius appear, forming dense clusters. Most Corts are small, very dark and unidentifable, by me anyway. There is a interesting species that looks like a small variant of the Common Funnel Cap and I assume it is simply a small strain. The notable species at that location is Entoloma bloxamii which occurs in huge numbers, as do numerous other rare species. And of course Red Kites routinely soar overhead.

The Amanita is slightly deceptive as for some reason the image has an orange colour cast but the cap is actually grey. I think I messed up the colour profile. Anyway I am archiving my slides and will rescan that one, with the colours corrected. I classified it as A. vaginata. There were many specimens, and all were rather robust. I don't know if they are associated with the Common Rock-rose, as there were shrubs nearby.

On a separate issue, I was recently out collecting wax caps and came across a very large species that was not unlike Hygrocybe punicea. It was large - ~4" across - and had the typical shape i.e. pointed cap, margin splitting and upturned. The stem was robust and the flesh white. However the cap gills and stem were coloured as per Lactarius hepatica, and the mushroom smelt very strongly of something sweet and aromatic, vaguely like a cross between honey and cedar wood. It was not H. punicea which I have found on several occasions on the South Downs. Any ideas? it did occur to me that maybe it was H. punicea that had gone off due to some parasitic mould, though that is just a wild guess.
 
Leif said:
Alan: Thanks. I thought you might know the answer! On Christmas Common there must be an acre or more where Common Rock-rose forms a carpet, displacing grass and other plants. It is very attractive and has a pleasant soft and springy feel under foot. Each year large numbers of Cortinarius and Lactarius appear, forming dense clusters. Most Corts are small, very dark and unidentifable, by me anyway. There is a interesting species that looks like a small variant of the Common Funnel Cap and I assume it is simply a small strain. The notable species at that location is Entoloma bloxamii which occurs in huge numbers, as do numerous other rare species. And of course Red Kites routinely soar overhead.

Sounds like a great site you have!


The Amanita is slightly deceptive as for some reason the image has an orange colour cast but the cap is actually grey. I think I messed up the colour profile. Anyway I am archiving my slides and will rescan that one, with the colours corrected. I classified it as A. vaginata. There were many specimens, and all were rather robust. I don't know if they are associated with the Common Rock-rose, as there were shrubs nearby.

Yes, I was trying to make your Amanita something more exotic, but after going back and forward between various books and coloured illustrations and comparing the quite divergent concepts of different authors, I am forced to conclude that A. vaginata is indeed the safest name. I thought too that it seems a little robust, the volva is maybe a little grey (?) and, for what it is worth, there are fragments of veil left on the cap, but probably none of these matter.
A shame you cannot be sure your Amanita is with the Helianthemum. The two I am definitely getting with Helianthemum up here are A. pantherina and A. gemmata, the latter as a buff-coloured variant.

As for your Hygrocybe, I have no suggestion at all!

Alan
 
Warning! This thread is more than 20 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top