Helotiales 



Heliotiaceae 



Chlorociboria aeruginascens Green Elfcap 18 

 Jul 12 Pamber Heath (RDNHS). 



CONTRIBUTORS 



Many thanks are due to the following for their help: 

 RDNHS Reading and District Natural History Society 



TVFG Thames Valley Fungus group 



HFG Hamshire Fungus Group 



Gordon Crutchfield (GC), Martin Sell (MS), Chris Bucke (CB), Pat and Harold Gough (PAHG), Sandra 

 Parkinson (SP), Rod D'Ayala (RD'A) 



Note 1 : Battaraea Phalloides 



Anybody looking through Roger Phillip's book will see that a number of species are listed as 'rare'. This 

 is often because species can not be identified exactly in the field and identifying them under a 

 microscope involves much time and skill. Often, both young and mature specimens are needed and 

 without a return visit to the site this isn't always possible; hence specimens go unrecorded. Because 

 there are few authenticated records, they get listed as 'rare', when under-recorded is probably the 

 correct terminology. 



This is not the case with Battaraea Phalloides. Anybody noticing a picture of it it any book will realise 

 what a distinctive species it is. When I first came across it at the end of August 2012, I recognised it 

 immediately. I was jogging along the road from Emmer Green to Kidmore End and there it was on the 

 roadside verge, just before the houses in Chalkhouse Green. 



Although this was the first time I had ever seen it, it was present at this spot right through until the end 

 of the year. At first there were nine specimens with a few new ones appearing later. The old ones having 

 quite a 'woody' stipe seemed to last a long time. Unlike most fungi, they didn't seem to get eaten by 

 mice or slugs and the woody stems took a long time to decompose. 



It will be interesting to see if it comes up again at this spot next year. 



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