Interesting bracket on birch
A recent photo from a Beds wood. Always worth looking at the underside of brackets. This is the Birch mazegill, similar to the rarer Oak mazegill, but occurs on birch, has a thinner fruitbody and thinner-walled slitlike pores.
Cheery autumn fungus
A welcome sight at Bricket Wood a couple of weeks ago, Amanita muscaria (Fly agaric) with a beautiful frilly ring, only lacking an elf sitting on top. Photo by Darren.
Sandy siltball
The strange fungus Battarrea phalloides was found near Ware in early December. Previously very rare, it is now turning up from time to time, but still a lovely find.
Sandy RSPB reserve meeting - changed arrangements
This year, at the request of the RSPB, this meeting is for HBFG members only, and pre-booking with Alan Outen is required.
A new Beds record
The group found Mycena rhenana on an old alder cone at Flitwick Moor last weekend, which is a new species record for Beds. Photo from Claudi
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A late spring species to look out for

Beautiful Lepiota
This beautiful fungus, Lepiota ochraceofulva (no English name), was found by Margaret and Steve under a cedar in south Herts just before Christmas. Its definition is attributed to the famous mycologist Peter Orton, who gave our Recorder Alan a lot of encouragement in his study of fungi when Alan was a young man.
There are only 41 records of Lepiota ochraceofulva in the new BMS database (FRDBI) but I know that not all historical records have yet been transferred across to it. Marcel Bon says it is “uncommon” and Alan has confirmed that it is a new county record for Herts.
Pat