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Oh gosh, what sad news for Christmas Day. I met Nigel, just the once, at a joint BSBI/BPGS meeting at Aberbargoed Fields, long before I was aware of the depth of his knowledge.
He was generous enough to give me a lift towards my destination near Carmarthen, and found our conversation interesting enough to take a slightly longer route home to Kidwelly. Circumstances (my sister had to rent out her home in South Wales) meant I never was able to renew our contact. Much to my disappointment.
We touched on many topics on that drive: Japanese Knotweed in the Vale of Neath, the Phase 1 habitat survey of Wales & how it was updated, the National Botanical Gardens of Wales (IIRC Nigel volunteered there), and one rust topic: whether the rust on Alder leaves was a distinct species from
Melampsoridium betulinum. There is a paper reporting this on his profile on Research Gate (Hantula, Stringer et Al. (2012). Forest Pathology 42(4)). Thereafter, I only followed from afar as the impressive series of publications on groups of Welsh microfungi appeared. A superb legacy he leaves for us all.
Carol Hobart has written an obituary of Chris on the BMS site https://www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/society/obituaries/chris-yeates There is also an article about Chris in the February issue of Field Mycology.
Unlike others I did meet Chris once on a WAB excursion to Anston Stones Wood in 2010 (IIRC). Les Coe had picked me up from Worksop station and we then picked up Chris at Kiveton Park. (AFAIK Chris never drove, notwithstanding the impression given when he appeared on CountryFile to talk about Knurr and Spell, and demonstrate equipment from the Huddersfield Museum collection).
Chris and I spent most of the morning together.
I lead him up a steep bank under the railway where he not only showed me a couple of Milesina species, but also a gall on Yellow Archangel.
We retreated to the stream at the lowest level of the wood, where Chris produced his piece de resistance. I’d been intriqued by the plastic spoon attached to his walking pole by several elastic bands. He now produced tubes of fixative from his rucksac, reversed the spoon to extend beyond the ferule and lengthed his pole. So prepared, he sampled foam from a small waterfall with the spoon, fixing the sample immediately. He was looking for Ingoldian fungi, and I think found 2-3 new species for Yorkshire from these samples. (I looked these fungi up that evening in Spooner & Roberts New Naturalist; years later I discovered a fomer colleague, Ursula Mittwoch, had Ingold as her external PhD examiner).
When we rejoined the party, Chris pointed out a rare Liverwort on a railway bridge. On leaving the wood we also simultaneously noticed Poplar suckers at the top of the wood, followed by the amused realisation that there was a mature tree a little further from the path.
IRL Chris in the field was exactly the same kind, informative person as he always was here and on WAB. I count myself lucky to have met him and spent time in the field with him.
Thanks Mike. I’ve sent her a link to this thread, but dont expect to hear back how she gets on until next week.
Posch
Delighted to find this on Lesser Pond Sedge today: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/165894814Thanks Chris, very helpful. I see Julia Kruse is on Research Gate so may just message her directly. It looks as though the German-speaking (DACH) world may have changed the name, but not when or why.
She has a couple of blog posts, with photomicrographs, on the two species:
*
M. hypericorum sensuauct. DACH *
M. hypericorum sensu auct. brit.Jerry
Not been on here for a while, although I occasionally lurk. I very recently bought a book which actually came out in 2019: Faszinierende Pflanzenpilze by Julia Krause, available on
AmazonTo answer my own question, it would appear that this paper at least synonymises the 2 spp: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11557-010-0687-0 ” class=”bbcode_url”> https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11557-010-0687-0 Checking the Rust Red List for Wales shows that they are synonymised there.
I overlooked the RHS Pear Rust survey so now have a lot more records across the country. Chris you may be interested there are several which I don’t think you have in Yorkshire (available on NBN Atlas) or from Andy Salisbury at RHS. Cheers,
Posch
Hi Jenny, Chris wrote a really informative piece of this a few years ago on WAB: IIRC in response to a query of mine very similar in tenor to yours. One of the biggest losses are many of these in-depth answers from Chris.
There was rust on more or less every plant of Burnet Rose in Northern Ireland in June (White Sands Bay, The Umbra, Binevenagh). I’ve assumed this was Phragmidium rosa-pimpinellifolia, but not sure that my records have been accepted by the NI Fungus recorder. (That being said I managed a few new VC records for rusts). Therefore I’d be interested to hear Chris’s thoughts. These days it’s most likely to be Puccinia distincta, see the sections written by Brian Spooner in the FSC Plant Gall book. There was an epidemic of this rust in the 1990s (see http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0953756208610138 ” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0953756208610138 It’s a gall causer. Had it at Burroughs Wood (VC55) https://www.flickr.com/photos/mausboam/14991477619 and (in your neck of the woods) Tandle Hill Country Park (VC59) last September.I note my records in SK53 aren’t on NBN. I’ve found it several times at Attenborough Nature Reserve, and on one occasion measured the spores after and NFG Foray. I hope people reading this thread might already be aware of the Powdery Mildew project run by the University of Reading. If not, here’s the link http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/crg/powdery-mildew-survey-2015/ Posch
It’s actually quite rare for the wizened ‘pocket plums’ to stay until the Autumn: diligent searching will usually reveal one or two. Taphrina pruniin my experience is much commoner on Prunus cerasiferaCherry Plum appearing almost immediately after flowering (mid-April onwards). The fungus causes the fruit to grow faster and without a stone (hence the ‘pocket’ bit in the name). I expect to find it on pretty much every Cherry Plum in urban areas (including the popular var. ‘pissardi’). I don’t know why the literature on Taphrinales is so sparse. Certainly the FoS account is very dated given that it was written nigh-on 35 years ago.
