Geoglossum?

A google will get you a key to earth tongues.

A quick check of the FRDBI shows that Geoglossum fallax – which I chose at random as a representative earth tongue – is very rarely found in the new year, but I found one record in February. Of coirse there is always the problem that we all know they do not occur in january and february so we do not look for them then.

Hi Jenny

Chris is quite right, though ID is not impossible with a key (Brian Spooner’s one works OK in general for me) and a microscope preparation or two. It’s important to ensure that you use mature (discharged) spores for measurement and counting septa. I was shown a neat trick to achieve this – if you dab the specimen repeatedly into a drop of water on a slide, mature spores on the fruit-body surface become dislodged and mature asci also discharge into the water drop. This seems to work even with oldish specimens.

Your pictures look more like G. cookeanum than G. fallax to me (and the ecology is right) but the microscope is essential.

And PS – well done with your Tubuefia find on the UKLichens site. More pictures will appear on the FGBI website from the specimen Mark Powell sent me, also of Laetisaria lichenicola….

Interesting Jenny – I had a late Geoglossum too on a neighbours lawn only two weeks ago -I knocked at the door and got a sample, haven’t had chance for microscopy yet though………….

PS -whats the UK lichens site?

Cheers

Ken

Thanks Jenny – Lichens approved already – this simple guide to Earthtongues from NWFG may be helpful:

http://fungus.org.uk/nwfg/earth-tongues.htm

Cheers

Ken