Moss ear - Chromocyphella muscicola

This fantastic little thing was found on a Salix trunk amongst mosses and liverworts. I did assume it was growing on the liverwort Metzgeria furcata but this isn't listed as a substrate for this species and I think it may actually be on an underlying Hypnum.

Looking like a bathing cap attached by its rim, it has a floccose exterior and a flat hymenium on the interior, which is speckled brown with the spores (listed in family Inocybaceae in Mycobank).

A bit of removed bark

Floccose exterior, speckled interior

Spore "spots" on the hymnenium

Earthstars - long time coming

After what seems like an unreasonable wait to see my first earthstar I finally found some only 2 metres away from the back garden of my new house!

Inocybe not rimosa

Found some nice Inocybe under the scots pines at Cullaloe LNR and thought my luck was in - finding an easily ID'd Inocybe at Cullaloe to add to the fungal list. It's clearly I.rimosa, isn't it?

in situ

Taking a sample for home I began he chopping and keying. But then this happened ...

pleurocystidium

... well, that wasn't supposed to happen. First couplet of the Inocybe key in FN and we're off track already. We're not even going to the "right" subkey. I.rimosa doesn't have pleurocystida like this. Therefore it's something else.

Are the cystidia strongly yellow in KOH? Well, they ARE yellow but "strongly" is a stretch and anyway such things are always variable and the description is a subjective one:

hymenium in 3% KOH

Does it have a pinkish tinge to the stipe apically? Well, I can sort of see that:

stipe

I still don't have a final determination for it, but I will assemble this here for later expansion should one arise.

Additional photographs

Spores (brown, thin-walled, ellipsoid, c.9x5u):

Caulicystidia (upper stipe only)

Phlebia tremellosa, Mossmorran

An unpromising piece of bark beside the fallen water margin turned up a lovely dried out jelly rot, which although still jelly-like was remarkably firm compared to its wet state

Phebiella (Aphanobasidium) pseudotsugae, Devilla Forest

The second time I've had this species on Pinus sylvestris, it's always fun to see the pleural basidia, which in the beginning just look weird until you twig to what's going on.

Resinicium bicolor, Bavelaw 21/08/2016

Many tiny teeth. Inside stars and and halocystidia. Very nice.

Jellybabies

at Mossmorran. Lovely