Sand Dune Fungi

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(With updates April 2020.)

At the end of September Vanna and I visited Holkham in North Norfolk to look for some of the specialist sand dune fungi that grow there.

Our friend Sarah, who took me to see Sticky Nightshade a few years ago, kindly gave us and our friend Ian a lift. When we arrived we met up with two of Sarah’s friends, Phil and Jane. Phil has a lovely photography blog, which now features some of the fungi we saw.

It has been a dry autumn so far in Norfolk and our first impression was that fungi were much less plentiful than at the same time last year. However, we managed to see an interesting selection, as well as a few flowers and insects. The soundtrack of the day was wind blowing the Marram Grass and the call of Pink-footed Geese – autumn had definitely arrived.

Here are some of the specialist sand dune fungi:

Dune Cup, Peziza ammophila

Our most impressive find was Dune Cup, Peziza ammophila. This cup fungus can be found amongst the sparse growth of Marram Grass (Ammophila arenaria) in consolidated areas of sand dunes. It develops underground and forms a deep cup- or urn-shaped structure, often mostly covered by sand. By blowing onto the cup, sand triggers the discharge of ripe spores, which are blown to new sites on the dunes. The fungus is a saphrophyte – it lives on dead and decaying organic matter. It is not considered to be edible.

Dune Cup, Peziza ammophila

Dune Cup, Peziza ammophila

Partly buried in the sand, the Dune Cup looks rather like a tiny moon crater and we half expected to see Clangers nearby. The Dutch name for the fungus is Zandtulpjes – “sand tulip”. The name ammophila means “lover of sand”.

Dune Cup is restricted to coastal sand dunes in Britain. Dune Cups occur in coastal dune systems in other parts of Europe and North America, though it is thought that “Peziza ammophila” is actually a species complex.

Dune Waxcap, Hygrocybe conicoides

I am a great fan of Waxcaps, a group of colourful fungi with a cool, waxen texture and often greasy or shiny caps, which I wrote about back in 2013.

Dune Waxcap, Hygrocybe conicoides, is a dune specialist, and grows in the grassier, more consolidated parts of dunes. Its name “conicoides” refers to its resemblance to Hygrocybe conica, the Blackening Waxcap, when young. However, the Dune Waxcap only blackens slightly, just on its stem, unlike H. conica.

Dune Waxcap, Hygrocybe conicoides

Dune Waxcap, Hygrocybe conicoides

The Dune Waxcap can also be found in coastal areas of Scandinavia, Germany, Spain and the eastern United States and Canada. It is thought to have been introduced to Hawaii.

Tiny Earthstar, Geastrum minimum

The Tiny Earthstar, Geastrum minimum, is indeed very small. It is exquisite and also rather rare, restricted to sand dunes at Holkham in Norfolk and Sandscale Haws and Drigg in Cumbria, although it is reported to be widespread in Europe.

There are about a dozen species of Earthstars (Geastrum) in Britain, named because they have a central spore sac, surrounded by rays that project outwards, giving the appearance of a star. The spores are dispersed when a raindrop hits the spore sac, or when a breeze blows across it.

The Collared Earthstar, Geastrum triplex, our largest species, has rays that are 5 – 11cm across when open. In contrast, the rays on a Tiny Earthstar are just 1.5 – 3cm across.

Tiny Earthstar, Geastrum minimum

Tiny Earthstar, Geastrum minimum

The Dwarf Earthstar, Geastrum schmidelii, is a similar size and is also found at Holkham. We saw some in 2017 but not this year. This guide from Kew Gardens includes a useful comparison of the two species. The most obvious difference is that the Dwarf Earthstar has a pleated pore opening.

Dwarf Earthstar, Geastrum schmidelii

Dwarf Earthstar, Geastrum schmidelii

Agaricus devoniensis

Agaricus devoniensis is another sand dune specialist, though it can occasionally be found on sandy soil away from the coast. Like other sand dune fungi, it survives in inhospitable surroundings by feeding on dead and decaying organic matter amongst the sand. It has whitish flesh but flushes pink when bruised. The smell is “mushroomy”.

Agaricus devoniensis is a relative of the cultivated mushroom, Agaricus bisporus. but I wouldn’t eat it because it is quite rare and also because “it is as edible as any nice meal topped with a liberal sprinkling of sand… you simply have to grit your teeth and get on with it“.

Dune Roundhead, Stropharia halophila

I thought the photograph below (taken on a previous trip to Holkham on 30th September 2017) was Agaricus devoniensis, but it turns out to be Dune Roundhead, Stropharia halophila.

I had no inkling of this until I was contacted in early April 2020 by Marco Contu from Sardinia. He has studied sand dune fungi for many years and he pointed out my error.  I checked with other members of Norfolk Fungus Study Group and they confirmed Marco’s identification.

Agaricus devoniensis

Stropharia halophila (Originally misidentified as Agaricus devoniensis.)

It turns out that Stropharia halophila is a pretty rare fungus. It was described as a new species in 1988, from Southern Italy.

The NBN Atlas shows just one record for the UK, from Ainsdale in Lancashire, but the species has already been seen in Norfolk: Penny David (the wife of dune fungus expert Maurice Rotheroe) found it at Holkham in 1992 and her record was confirmed by Thomas Laessoe.

Stropharia halophila is being assessed for the Global Red List of fungi. It has been recorded “from very few, scattered and fragmented localities” in France, the British Isles, Italy and the Netherlands. The fungus is thought to be saprotrophic on the litter of Marram Grass, Ammophila arenaria.

Sand Stinkhorn, Phallus hadriani

We looked in vain for another sand dune specialist, Sand Stinkhorn, Phallus hadriani (also known as Dune Stinkhorn). This is a relative of the common and very smelly Stinkhorn, Phallus impudicus, which is found (and more often smelt) in woodland during the summer months.

Both species have the same phallic appearance, but Phallus hadriani is smaller and the “egg” from which the fruit body grows is pinkish-lilac, rather than white.

I’m used to the rotting flesh smell of the Stinkhorn so when I found a specimen of Sand Stinkhorn at Holkham last September I was pleasantly surprised by the much more delicate, slightly perfumed odour. Not everyone is as lucky – while I agree with the descriptions of the smell as “faint and pleasant” and “like violets”, some people think it is “fetid or putrid”. (More recently I have found some more mature specimens and they are a lot smellier, though not in the same league as Phallus impudicus.)

Dune Stinkhorn, Phallus hadriani

Sand Stinkhorn, Phallus hadriani

Outside the British Isles, Phallus hadriani has been introduced to Australia on woodchip and in North America it grows on decomposing tree stumps and roots.  In Poland it forms a symbiosis with xerophilous grasses and the Black Locust tree, Robinia pseudoacacia.

The specific name hadriani is named after the Dutch botanist Hadrianus Junius (1512–1575). Also known as Adriaen de Jonghe, he was the author of a 1564 pamphlet on Stinkhorn fungi.

(We returned to Holkham dunes in autumn 2019, when sand Stinkhorn was present in good numbers. Fungi are like that – every year is different, which is part of the joys of looking for them.)

Sand Stinkhorn, Phallus hadriani

The pinkish lilac egg of Sand Stinkhorn, Phallus hadriani

 

References

There is not that much information on the internet about these fungi, compared to some of the subjects I have written about, so I have relied heavily on the First Nature website for much of the information here. Other sources include Wikipedia and the excellent book “Collins Complete Guide to British Mushrooms & Toadstools” by Paul Sterry and Barry Hughes (Harper Collins 2009), where specialist sand dune fungi are described on page 340. Thanks to members of Norfolk Fungus Study Group and Marco Contu for their help with Stropharia halophila.

Bindweed Rust, Puccinia convolvuli

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Puccinia convolvuli

Bindweed Rust, Puccinia convolvuli. View of the fungus on the upper surface of Hedge Bindweed leaves (Calystegia sepium).

Bindweed Rust, Puccinia convolvuli

Bindweed Rust, Puccinia convolvuli. View of the fungus on the underside of Hedge Bindweed leaves (Calystegia sepium).

A week ago (11th September 2018) Vanna and I took the train to Woodbridge in Suffolk. It’s a lovely place to visit, with interesting old buildings, good pubs and independent shops and walks beside the River Deben. We visited the churchyard of St. Mary’s Church, to see a large and impressive nesting aggregation of Ivy Bees (Colletes hederae). There were masses of male bees flying low over the ground, looking for females emerging from nest holes. Each female was surrounded by a cluster of male bees, forming a mating ball, in which one lucky male was able to mate. A few females had already mated and were digging out their nest holes or flying off to nearby Ivy to collect pollen and nectar. We chatted with several visitors, who had seen us taking photographs and read printed signs thoughtfully put there to explain what the bees were doing.

After a pub lunch we walked down a footpath next to an Ivy covered hedge, on the hunt for more bees to photograph, but we were soon distracted. Near the start of the path there was a big patch of Hedge Bindweed, Calystegia sepium, and Vanna noticed that many of the leaves were covered in orange-brown pimples. On closer inspection these appeared to be some sort of rust, which we didn’t think we’d seen before.

When we came home I did an online search and found out from the excellent Plant Parasites of Europe website that the fungus was probably Puccinia convolvuli. Vanna also posted photos on Facebook, on the British Plant Galls site, and Malcolm Storey confirmed the identity of the fungus. Previous records in the UK have been of only a few pustules per leaf, rather than whole leaves covered in them.

Puccinia convolvuli has only recently been discovered in Britain and there have only been a handful of records so far, the first from near Weymouth in Dorset in 2009. I sent the details of our find to the Suffolk Fungi Recorder, Neil Mahler, and he confirmed that our sighting was the first record for Suffolk. Since we came home we’ve been looking at Hedge Bindweed here in Norwich, but haven’t seen any infected plants here yet.

Further afield, Puccinia convolvuli occurs in other parts of Europe and in Asia and North America. It will also infect other species of bindweed, including Mallow Bindweed (Convolvulus althaeoides), Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) and California Rose (Convolvulus japonicus, now known as Calystegia japonica).

Although Hedge Bindweed (Calystegia sepium) has lovely flowers, it is often a troublesome weed, as it grows very vigorously and has deep roots that are hard to dig out. As Puccinia convolvuli can cause extensive damage to the plant, it is not surprising it has been studied as a possible biological control of Hedge Bindweed. In his 1992 Masters thesis Jonathan Beener of Eastern Illinois University concluded that further investigation was worthwhile. (Beener, Jonathan C., “Evaluation of Puccinia convolvuli (Pers.) Cast. as a Biological Control of Calystegia sepium (L.) R. Br.” (1992). Masters Theses. 2118.). There have also been several studies biological control of bindweeds by another fungus, Phomopsis convolvulus, such as in the journal Weed Science (Morin, L., Watson, A., & Reeleder, R. (1989). Efficacy of Phomopsis convolvulus for Control of Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis). Weed Science, 37(6), 830-835.)

Both Jonathan Beener’s thesis and the Phrygana website state that Puccinia convolvuli prefers growing in more humid places. This means that  growth of the fungus is restricted in more open situations (such as fields), which could limit its use as a biological control. It will be interesting to see how the fungus spreads throughout the British Isles, and whether it does better in wetter western areas.

Worldwide, Puccinia convolvuli is not the only rust that grows on bindweed. In 2003 a related species of Puccinia was identified in Japan, Puccinia calystegiae-soldanellae, growing on Sea Bindweed, Calystegia soldanella (Zhuang Li, Teruo Sano, Takashi Fujita, Fusaka Nakai, Yukio Harada (2004). Puccinia calystegiae-soldanellae, a new rust species on Calystegia soldanella from Japan. Mycoscience, 45 (3),Volume 45, Issue 3, pp200 – 205.)

When you go for a walk, keep an eye open for infected bindweed leaves and, if you find any infected with Puccinia, send a record (with photos) to your local fungi recorder. To help you, you can compare specimens with the excellent photographs of Puccinia convolvuli on the Plant Parasites of Europe website, Bioimages and Phrygana websites.

The photos on this page are by Vanna Bartlett.

Spring Sandwort, Minuartia verna

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Spring Sandwort, Minuartia verna. Arnside area, Cumbria, end of July 2018.

At the end of July we returned to Arnside in Cumbria and spent a week in the same holiday cottage as last year.

Our visit coincided with a welcome spell of cooler weather with sunny spells and some rain. Although the weather reminded us of last June’s visit, when we saw Bloody Crane’s-bill (Geranium sanguineum), Bog Asphodel (Narthecium ossifragum) and Dark Red Helleborine (Epipactis atrorubens), much of the the vegetation was very different. Following weeks of drought young birch trees on Gait Barrows had brown leaves and on the lower slopes of Arnside Knott, in short turf over limestone rocks, last year’s carpets of flowers had mostly frizzled up.

I say “mostly”, because there was one plant that was still managing to flower: Spring Sandwort, Minuartia verna. It’s a small and rather subtle plant, but its cushions of leaves and pretty white flowers were a welcome contrast to the curled up brown leaves of Rock Rose (Helianthemum nummularium) and other plants.

Spring Sandwort, Minuartia verna, is a member of the Carnation family, the Caryophyllaceae, like Spanish Catchfly (Silene otites) and Corncockle (Agrostemma githago), which I’ve already written about. The genus Minuartia is widely distributed in the northern hemisphere, in Europe, Asia and North America. Estimates of the number of species in the genus varies: the range in Hortipedia is given as 127 to 244 species. The plants are found in inhospitable alpine and arctic environments, in stony places and on rocky ledges, and many can tolerate very low temperatures. Minuartia verna sometimes grows alongside Mossy Saxifrage (Saxifraga hypnoides), which also has cushions of leaves and white flowers, but with a closer look the two species are usually easy to tell apart.

Minuartia verna is a short-lived perennial and in the British Isles it flowers from May to August. It can be found in areas of Carboniferous limestone and in the British Isles it is quite scarce, found mainly in Northern England, but also North Wales (particularly Cwm Idwal and the Great Orme), parts of Northern Ireland, The Burren in Southern Ireland and in a few areas of the Scottish Highlands (see distribution map). There is also a morphologically distinct population of the plant on the Lizard in Cornwall. The plant usually grows below 600 metres (1960 feet) above sea level, although it has been recorded at 875 metres (2800 feet) on Snowdon in North Wales. Outside the British Isles, it grows in limestone areas in many other European countries and has several subspecies. For gardeners, it makes a good alpine plant.

Minuartia is named after Juan Minuart (1693-1768), a Spanish botanist, pharmacist and plant collector and the specific name “verna” means spring. The Irish name is Gaineamhlus earraigh and the Welsh name is Wlyddgwyrdd y mynydd (which I am told means “mountain breeze”, which is rather lovely).

Another English name for Minuartia verna is Leadwort. The plant is tolerant of heavy metals and grows quite happily on spoil heaps (see picture) and around old mine workings, of lead, zinc and copper. Plants like this that can tolerate high levels of heavy metals are known as metallophytes. Some are obligate metallophytes and will only grow in these conditions. Minuartia verna is classed as a facultative metallophyte – it can tolerate heavy metals but will happily grow elsewhere too.

The ability of Minuartia verna to grow in places contaminated with heavy metals has been documented in several scientific papers, including: