Crocicreas coronatum a Mushroom with Eyelashes

e6filmusere6filmuser Registered Users Posts: 3,376 Major grins
edited October 27, 2016 in Holy Macro
On 19th October I was looking for macro subjects, the autumnal weather having stopped the supply of insects in our garden.

I happened to look down at the ground when I was next to our large patch of Goldenrod. Some of the long-dead stems which were horizontal on the ground had what turned out to be tiny mushrooms on them. Further examination showed that there were two species.

The more numerous one was a flattish-capped mushroom with no gill, or pore, structure, just some coarse fibres. It was cream above and white underneath.

The other was much more interesting. It reminded me of the Common Eyelash but lacked any intense colour. The form (see image) is of a goblet. The outside is white and the rim yellow with hyaline (ice-like), sometimes black, hairs, which seem to start off as teeth, but that may be foreshortening due to viewing from above. The inside of the cup seems to start off as deep, custard yellow and become paler with age. Old ones become brown externally. The diameters are about 2mm.

I sent an image to Mike Harrison of Thames Valley Fungus Group and he directed me to an almost identical image, of Crocicreas coronatum, on the www.bioimages.org website. Mike also told me that, although the species has been recorded about 500 times in the UK, there are no official records for my home county, Berkshire. This genus is in the Discomycetes, Helotiales and the species was previously in Peziza aka Cyathicula coronata.

These proved to be very difficult to photograph, the circular cross-section of the goblets, together with the vertical hairs, used all the DOF I could find, even at f16 (effective f22) with the reversed HM40.

I have chosen what I think is a representative selection of images and some crosseye stereograms.

I used the Kiron 105 at f16, fitted with a x1.5 Kiron (effective ca f22), TC to get suitable magnification for the larger groups. I then went in close (FOV 6mm wide) with the Schneider HM 40mm reversed on a Kiron x1.4 TC. Illumination was 3 TTL RC flash guns, one on an L-bracket, two others freestanding and moved around to suit the individual shots. All shots were hand-held, with support from the kitchen work top or greenhouse bench.

Some of the images have been cropped to make more varied viewing but none to increase magnification. Various images are of these fungi have detritus on them. In most cases these were firmly attached and could not be removed.

I am starting with wider views, then moving in and then the and stereos. The remainder will be posted tomorrow.

Harold

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This one matched the species in Bioimages


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