Back in action

Chris and I have both been hors de combat for about four days, struck down by a heavy cold. Showing the courage for which the British are renowned we made it into Byfield today, keen to visit the coffee club and unselfishly share our virus strain with friends.


I had a stroll around my usual haunts, first dropping a letter in to my old friend, Angela Weller. An old (birch?) stump in her front garden sported an exuberant clump of fungi.

Armillaria species? Church Street, Byfield, 16 October, 2019

My limited knowledge of fungi suggests that it is some form of Honey Fungus, Armillaria species, but this is, I gather,  a complex group of several closely related species, challenging even for the expert.


With liverworts I am only slightly more comfortable. A flourishing colony of Marchantia polymorpha has found a congenial home in damp gravel beside Byfield's tennis courts.






The liverwort, Marchantia polymorpha, showing the female reproductive

 structures. Byfield Tennis Club, 16 October, 2019

The female organs are umbrella-like and, initially green, turn brown as they mature.

 

Marchantia polymorpha again. Here the bud-like structures seem to be

the female organs at an immature stage.

The bud-like structures in the second photograph appear to be the female receptacles in a developing state.

On to the pocket park, where I allowed myself to be distracted by various features formed by organisms on an oak tree.

The first was easy-peasy. The Ram's Horn Gall, Andricus aries, is commonly present (despite being first recorded in the U.K. as recently as 1997) but rather easily overlooked as the structures can be less than impressive.


A number of leaf mines were also present but, as they are decidedly unphotogenic, I decided to spare readers the details.



Ram's Horn Galls can be unobtrusive and frankly dull. Byfield Pocket Park,
16 October, 2019