Peter Lovett's ramblings
Yellow Waxcap, Cuckfield, West Sussex UK, 12 October 2024
For illustrated talks on natural history and history see www.peterlovetttalks.co.uk
For illustrated talks on natural history and history click here for www.peterlovetttalks.co.uk
Saturday, 16 November 2024
Thursday, 31 October 2024
No mow May is good. For birds, no mow patches all year is better.
No mow May provides a feast for pollinators, tackles pollution, reduces urban heat extremes, and locks away atmospheric carbon below ground.
Reference: https://www.plantlife.org.uk/campaigns/nomowmay/?gad_source=1
In this Cuckfield, West Sussex garden patches of Common Knapweed have been left to set seed and are unmown up to now. The result has been glorious. A flock of five Goldfinches and a Blue tit fluttered all over dead stems feasting on the seed heads earlier this week.
Earth tongue and Stag's horn fungi in a Cuckfield, West Sussex garden.
Earth tongue, Geoglossum species |
Expand these pictures to see the Earth tongues below.
Glutinoglossum glutinosum is a saprophytic species. Its fruitbodies grow scattered on soil in moss beds or in grassy areas. The fungus has been used as an indicator of medium-quality grassland in the UK. Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutinoglossum_glutinosum
Xylaria hypoxylon, Candlesnuff or Stag's horn fungus |
The candlesnuff fungus, also known as the 'Stag's Horn', has an erect, simple or forked fruiting body with a downy stalk. It grows in groups on dead and rotting wood, and can be found on stumps and branches of all sorts of trees. Fungi belong to their own kingdom and get their nutrients and energy from organic matter, rather than photosynthesis like plants. It is often just the fruiting bodies, or 'mushrooms', that are visible to us, arising from an unseen network of tiny filaments called 'hyphae'. These fruiting bodies produce spores for reproduction, although fungi can also reproduce asexually by fragmentation. Reference: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/fungi/candlesnuff-fungus
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