Friday, 26 March 2010

Elf caps with Newt










Darren Boxer visited the garden recently to photograph the Scarlet Elf Cap fungi that are growing in the copses by the Aqualab. While setting up his cameras he had a surprise visitor - a newt ambled across the scene!

2 comments:

  1. As far as I can make out the use of CUPS is interchangeable with CAPS in the fungus name; it seems to often depend on where you are!
    The Scientific name is Sarcoscypha coccinea , but there is a near identical species called Sarcoscypha austriaca which can sometimes only be identified by spore shape. However, from the bright colour I am reasonably sure that our Scarlet Elf Cups /Caps are Sarcoscypha coccinea.
    (I had spoken to an amateur fungi expert a few years ago on this)
    However, I await any comments from any of our regular fungi people.

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  2. Some of our Fungi experts are discussing which species this is, I am sure that we will find out positively in the next few days.

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