Mollisia sp. cf. ventosa

e6filmuser

I found this fungus on a piece of moist bark on a fallen branch at Decoy Heath reserve.

When I saw it I knew two thing, that it was new to the official list of species and that is was probably in one of the genera most difficult to identify to species. I also new that I was unlikely to get specialist help.

After must searching, but no microscopic examination, I found that is most resembled Mollisia ventosa. There may be a difference in the shapes of the edges of the fruiting bodies.

However, that, according to my comprehensive book, was found on barkless dead oak. I have seen images, supposedly of this species, on bark.

I cannot identify the bark of fallen branches but I saw no oak trees. I include a photo of the bark, a piece about 60mm x 30mm.

This was the only sample I took home. After I had my meal, I was about to photograph it. when I found that, still in the closed, airtight plastic box, the fungi had shrunk and were scarcely visible on the bark. Clearly, they needed very moist conditions so I added some water and closed the lid.

When they had expanded, I took a series of photos with the widest FOV, where I show 3 fruiting bodies, 7mm wide.

One of the higher magnification images has been cropped.

Olympus EM-1 (manual mode), Laowa 25mm f2.8 2.5x-5x ultra-macro at x 2.5 and x4 and at f8 & f11, twin TTL flash hand-held.

For the bark:

Olympus EM-1 (aperture priority), Olympus 4/3 x2 TC, Olympus 4/3 50mm f2 macro, hand-held.

Harold