Floods, Fans and Stagshorns

 Over a week ago, we had several days of continuous rain (while the South of England had a heat wave!) which resulted in the Spey flooding the adjoining land.  Flooding is a regular occurrence here as Badenoch (the name of our local area) is Baideanach in Gaidhlig which means the drowned land.  Usually it happens in the spring when rain coincides with melting snow. Newtonmore escaped with just the lower Golf Curse being flooded but it was more dramatic in Kingussie where the Shinty pitch was covered in at least a couple of metres of water, and we couldn't resist going to have a look.

We also went to look at the Spey from the Bridge to the South of Newtonmore and the mosses on the parapet looked particularly good with drops of water on their fruiting spikes.

Mosses on Spey Bridge parapet

Although I was aware that different lichens have a preference for either acid or alkaline substrates (the surfaces they grow on), I had never really thought about mosses doing a similar thing.  Mortar and concrete are alkaline and when I looked at a stone wall in the village, it was obvious that the mosses were preferring the mortared areas, and the lichens favoured the stone.

Mosses preferring to grow on the mortar

A few more fungi have appeared in the garden.  Some were the traditional toadstool type like these brightly coloured waxcaps. 

Butter Waxcap (Hygrocybe ceracea) and Scarlet Waxcap (Hygrocybe coccinea)

There were also some more unusual forms.  There was one that was a completely new form for me.

Looking in the books I thought it might be Violet Coral which sounded quite exciting as it is uncommon. I was wrong - it is an earthfan and has the less alluring name of Stinking Earthfan (Thelephora palmata).   To quote the Collins Complete Guide to Mushrooms and Toadstools, it is a "Coral-like fungus with a repulsive smell of putrid garlic." I don't think it was that bad but it did smell like drains or a dog-poo bin! It is widespread but also uncommon so I should be grateful that it decided to come up in my "meadow" aka lawn.  Thanks go to Liz Holden for the IDs.

There are some common fungi with finger like growths.  This one was growing on a slice of wood:

Candlesnuff Fungus (Xylaria hypoxylon)

It looks like the snuffed out wick of a candle and grows on deciduous dead wood.

Another fingerlike fungus is growing out of a dead tree by Loch Imrich.

This is Yellow Stagshorn (Calocera viscosa) which is really common on dead wood, but on conifers this time.