Jeremy Bartlett's LET IT GROW blog

The wonder of plants and fungi.

Winter Fungi

Posted on 24 December, 2012 by Jeremy Bartlett26 January, 2016

Velvet Shank, Flammulina velutipes and Chondrostereum purpureum on Horse Chestnut

In January I wrote about my first sighting of Velvet Shank, Flammulina velutipes, on a beech log in Grapes Hill Community Garden. Then a few days ago I found more Velvet Shanks growing on a Horse Chestnut on The Avenues in Norwich. They were so perfect I couldn’t bring myself to pick and eat them, preferring to leave them for other passers by to look at.

The Velvet Shanks were accompanied by a pretty purple bracket fungus, which I eventually identified as Chondrostereum purpureum.

It took me a while to identify the fungus, as it isn’t in most of my fungi books and Roger Phillips’ book ‘Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe’ shows some rather old specimens, not very like the ones I’d found. However his website (Roger’s Mushrooms) has some pictures submitted by members of the website, which look much more like my specimen. There are some more good pictures on the Arbtalk website, which also reveals that the fungus’ hosts include Beech, Birch, Cherry – and Horse Chestnut. The fungus is also called ‘Violet Crust’ and ‘Silver Leaf’.

The University of British Columbia (UBC) Botanic Garden website has a lovely picture of Chondrostereum purpureum. The accompanying article provides lots more information.

Chondrostereum purpureum isn’t edible. It causes Silver Leaf in fruit trees – plums in particular, but also apples, cherries and apricots. It has a wide distribution across the world. Leaves on infected branches have a silvery sheen and the affected branch will eventually die. Fungal spores infect new trees via wounds. The New Zealand Horticulture and Food Research Institute has a useful fact sheet on the disease on its website.

Velvet Shank, Flammulina velutipes and Chondrostereum purpureum on Horse Chestnut

For the organic grower, the best way to deal with Silver Leaf is to avoid pruning susceptible trees (in particular stone fruit such as such as plums) during the winter or on damp, cool days when there are likely to be more spores in the air. The New Zealand Horticulture and Food Research Institute has a useful pruning guide here.

Chondrostereum purpureum is being trialled in British Columbia for the control of aspen regrowth in forests (reference), as it infects broadleaves but not conifers. However, the article on the UBC Botanic Garden website notes that “given how easily fungi spread, one wonders if this could have deleterious effects on the British Columbia orchard industries, even with assurances that this ‘mycoherbicide is restricted to the target vegetation’ “. Indeed… this comment is especially relevant given our recent experience of aggressive fungal diseases such as Ash Dieback (Chalara fraxinea).

The Garden At The Belvedere Centre (8)

Posted on 4 December, 2012 by Jeremy Bartlett31 October, 2018

Just over three months have elapsed since our Garden Open Day at the Belvedere Centre Garden on 3rd September 2012.

Since then we’ve had several garden tasks. Work has included planting crocuses and white Anemone blanda, weeding, clearing ivy (just from the top of the wall where it has been doing damage) and, more recently, clearing fallen leaves from the many trees both inside and outside the garden. Now there are just some Italian Alder leaves to go. In spite of several sharp frosts these are still green at the time of writing.

In the last two days we have weeded two beds outside the front of the Belvedere Centre, between the Centre and the Belvoir Street foot and cycle path, with the help of volunteers from The Prince’s Trust. We need to have a conversation with Norwich City Council, who own the beds, about the best way to plant them up and look after them.

Working outside the Belvedere Centre

Just over a week ago the Belvedere Centre held a Christmas Art and Craft Fair, in conjunction with the local art and craft group N Art 2. Children made some lovely Christmas decorations (wishcatchers) from old CDs and these now hang on one of the pergolas. On a sunny, windy day these sway and glitter in the wind and add cheer on a cold winter’s day.

Wishcatchers in the Belvedere Centre garden

Medlar, Mespilus germanica

Posted on 20 November, 2012 by Jeremy Bartlett1 November, 2018

It’s that time of year… Summer’s fruit and vegetables are just a memory and even the display of autumn leaves is coming to an end. But there’s one seasonal treat that makes November worth waiting for: the Medlar, Mespilus germanica.

Until a couple of years ago I hadn’t tried Medlars but now I have done I look forward to eating them every year.

Medlars still on the tree, mid November

Medlars are members of the family Rosaceae and are relatives of the apple. They don’t ripen properly in this country so you have to wait for them to soften and turn brown, a process known as “bletting”, from the French word blettir, meaning to make soft. This will happen indoors if you pick the fruit in early November and store it, or outdoors after hard frosts. The first Medlars I ate were lying underneath a tree in the snow, and they were delicious.

The texture of Medlars is mushy and the colour is an unappealing brown, so it’s unlikely supermarkets will ever bother to stock this fruit. Furthermore, Medlars look like small russet apples but with an open calyx that gives rise to the fruit’s more vulgar names: “open arse” and “dog’s arse” ( “cul-de-chien” in French). The scientific name is more polite: Mespilus is derived from the Greek Mesos meaning “half” and Pilos meaning “ball”’ in reference to the shape of the fruit.

Don’t be put off by appearances. The taste of Medlars is lovely, a unique combination of cooked apple, date and apricot. The fruit is lovely raw – just scoop out the flesh, avoiding the large seeds (usually four per fruit). It is better baked in a moderate oven (gas mark 4) for 15 minutes and served with honey and cream or creme fraiche.

If you have access to enough fruit (1 kilogramme or more), medlar jelly is a lovely accompaniment to game or cold meats. The secret is to use a mixture of bletted and unbletted fruit – the former for flavour and the latter for its greater pectin content. Last year I had a problem setting my medlar jelly because I was using mostly bletted fruit. This year I had a better mixture of fruit and I also added some thick slices of lemon skin with pith and my jelly set very quickly. The recipe I use is:

Making Medlar Jelly

Medlar Jelly

Day 1: Take 1kg of bletted and unbletted Medlars (ideally half and half) and cut them in half and boil them for an hour in a preserving pan, with the juice of half a lemon and just enough water to cover the fruit. Keep stirring to a minimum, to stop the jelly from going cloudy. Set up a jelly bag on a frame (I use a kitchen stool) and let the cooked fruit drip through the jelly bag into a bowl.

Day 2: Measure the juice into a preserving pan and add 375g sugar to each 500ml of Medlar juice, a vanilla pod and a muslin bag containing some thick slices of lemon with pith (to add extra pectin). Boil for five to ten minutes. (If you have a jam thermometer, boil until the mixture reaches just below jam temperature.) Pour into sterilised jars. Repeat if the mixture hasn’t set.

The above recipe is adapted from one in Mark Diacono’s excellent book “A Taste Of The Unexpected” (Quadrille Publishing, 2010). Another recipe, which I haven’t tried yet, is Medlar Cheese, which sounds delicious.

Don’t eat the seeds. The Plants For A Future website warns that Medlar seeds contain hydrocyanic acid but they are rather large and solid so will probably break your teeth or choke you before you die of cyanide poisoning.

The Medlar is a native of south-east Europe but sometimes occurs in the wild in Britain, often as a relic of cultivation (see distribution map).The Romans are thought to have introduced Medlars to central Europe and recently Medlar seeds have been found in Switzerland in deposits from the Second Century AD (reference – PDF file)*.

The Medlar is a lovely tree to grow in your garden too. Its leaves are dark green, large and leathery and it bears large white, star shaped flowers in the late spring and golden yellow-brown leaves in autumn. It grows up to 3 – 5 metres tall. Medlars often have a lovely, twisted and drooping shape and don’t require much pruning. They are self-fertile, so you only need one in your garden to produce fruit.

*For an overview of the Medlar’s origin and history, see “The Medlar (Mespilus germanica, Rosaceae) from Antiquity to Obscurity” by John R. Baird and John W. Thieret in Economic Botany Vol. 43, No. 3 (Jul. – Sep., 1989), pp. 328-372.