As we approach the half way point of our mushrooms and other fungal events there are two stand out finds from recent events. Whilst we have found lots of interesting species so far, these two are note worthy as they both appear to be county firsts.
Jewelled Amanita - Amanita junquillea
One of our participants discovered three specimens of this beautiful Amanita on our North Wales event. The Jewelled Amanita has only been noted once before in North Wales, on Anglesey, so this find is new for VC49 - the county recording area of Caernarvonshire.
This species is named as Amanita gemmata in most field guides, but recently it was shown that this name is not correct.
Echinoderma echinaceum
The second of our recent finds came from Moston Fairway on a recent event with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, an interesting site almost in the heart of Manchester. This distinctive mushroom was found and appears to be a new county record. It currently does not have a common name, for such a pretty species it really should do.
Who knows what we may find during the rest of the season!
Dave