My love of nature stretches back for many years, instilled in me from an early age from walks with my late father, who was a keen wildlife lover. Birds have always been my main passion, but I also have an interest in animals, butterflies, plants and fungi amongst other things. I first got into studying fungi more in-depth, by being inspired by the lovely pictures in the Living Countryside magazine that came out in the early 90s, and saw pictures of strange species just waiting to be found. My book collection of flora and fauna started to then grow and there were some species of fungi in particular that I really wanted to see - Magpie Ink Cap, Cage Fungus, Earthtongue, Dog Stinkhorn and Birds' Nest fungus to name a few. The search for Cage Fungus, Bird's Nest and even Earthstars still continues. The last few years in particular have seen some great fungi finds for me, with Magpie Ink Caps being in abundance this year, and evoking fond memories of finding my first ever one on a walk with my father many years previously. Last year, in the same mixed woodland, I found a new species for my growing list, Dog Stinkhorns, a group of 27, and to say I was ecstatic would be an understatement. I didn't realise how tiny they were, so different to their taller, familiar (and very smelly) cousin, the Stinkhorn.

Before I tell you about my most exciting find to date, two years ago I found a new species for my list, by chance I must confess, and one that had close to a thousand likes and re-tweets when I placed the pictures on Twitter. Let me paint the scene for you, the area in question is a limestone ridge extending across an area of high ground, with mixed woodlands, ancient woodlands, open fields and damp areas, so there is a great mix of habitats. I am always listening out for and looking at the birds feeding, but also keeping an eye on the ground for plants (I have found some great species in the area including Bird's Nest Orchid, Frog Orchid, Yellow Bird's Nest and Ploughman's Spikenard to name a few). I also look out for fungi, on the ground, along branches, on the trunks of trees and in the grasses. Coming to the end of my walk on this one day, I walked off the beaten track as I tend to do, to explore deeper into the woods, and by chance glanced across at an old Hazel, where something caught my eye. I looked across and at first thought it was a Curtain Crust fungus growing on one of the branches, but something made me walk over to look closer. I was so glad I did as I had just found the very rare Hazel Glove fungus. I was absolutely overjoyed and punching the air would not be an exaggeration. You could really see how it gets its name, it does indeed look like gloves, or as I thought, marigolds. I alerted Gwent Wildlife Trust and SeWBREC to the find for their records. Since that day, I found another specimen in the same woodland but about a hundred yards away, and last year, whilst searching a new section of an ancient Hazel hedgerow, I was delighted to find a further 17 specimens.

Fast forward to 2021 along the same ridge, in the ancient mixed woodland, and I am enjoying an afternoon visit of searching for fungi. There are Chaffinches in good numbers, and Robins, Wrens, Nuthatches and Jays are all active, with a distant Great Spotted Woodpecker calling, and close by, our smallest resident bird, the Goldcrest, feeding actively in the canopy above me. I had a feeling this was going to be a good walk as a male Goshawk gave a quick fly-by view. Wood Sorell leaves carpet small patches on the woodland floor and the leaves of the Beech trees are adding a gold colour to the floor, where the occasional fungi is poking through such as Rooting Shank. Mosses and lichens adjourn many of the trees, and fallen rotting branches are carpeted by Beech Woodwort, Beech Jellydisc, Artist's Fungus, Turkey Tail, Birch Polypore, Birch Mazegill and Sulphur Tuft to name a few. This particular woodland has many large ancient Oaks and Beech, and a scattering of Yews here and there. My late father always taught me to approach the Yews as quietly as possible, as on many an occasion there would be a roosting Tawny Owl in one of them. Even today, I approach the Yews in the same manner.

But today will be a different day for me. I am approaching two Yews growing close together that I have been visiting for many years, on a slight slope, and deep within the woods. There are no owls roosting today but a fungi has caught my eye. It is a ganoderma species, I could tell that straight away. Common Ganoderma (Artist's Fungus) grows on a lot of the Beech in the area, but I had never known it to grow on Yew. Besides, the colour was different, more of a conker colour than the dark underneath of Artist's Fungus. I took some photos but didn't think too much of it. Later at home I thought back to having never seen a ganoderma species growing on Yew, so I googled this and to my surprise, a picture emerged of a conker-coloured bracket fungi called Ganoderma carnosum - and it stated it was a very rare fungus indeed. Indeed, it had been recorded at a site in Scotland and several sites in England, but never in Wales. Can you imagine my excitement, and my worry that it was not carnosum after all. But the more pictures I looked at online and, in the books, all showed carnosum and all confirmed it grows on Yew and apart from the occasional Sulphur Polypore (chicken of the woods), these are the only two species of fungi usually associated with Yew.

One of the on-line sites said to alert Kew Gardens if this species was found which I duly did, and they advised speaking to a local fungi group to see if anyone could confirm the species via spore samples. So, after a bit of searching I emailed Roger Evans of the Gwent Fungus Group and sent him the pictures. He too thought it was carnosum and advised on how to get some spore samples. Several weeks later there was signs of spores being present, so I was able to carefully collect some and placed them into a small envelope, which I duly sent to Roger. There was an excited but anxious wait to hear what Roger had deduced. Roger lectured in Mycology and Microbiology in the University of London, and also spent a lot of time teaching students how to measure objects under the microscope, so I was confident the spores were in safe and knowledgeable hands.

Finally, the wait was over, there was an email waiting for me from Roger. With anticipation I opened the email expecting it to say ‘sorry but on this occasion’, but I was wrong, the spore samples had been analysed and confirmed as Ganoderma carnosum – and the records had been checked as well – it was indeed a first for Wales. Can you just imagine my excitement and elation? It is such a proud moment when you find something rare, and I thought the Hazel Glove fungus find was going to be my top find, but this took centre stage. The next step was to submit the full record to the FRDBI (The Fungal Records Database of Britain and Ireland) - the main National Record Centre for Fungi, which Roger kindly did on my behalf complete with an ST code for the location. My name is associated with the find now which makes me feel very proud.

Found in England and Scotland, it has not been formally recorded in Wales or Ireland as of 2015 according to the FRDBI, so you can appreciate my excitement at finding a first for Wales! The species was described scientifically in 1889 by French mycologist Narcisse Theophile Patouillard (1854 - 1926), who gave it the scientific name Ganoderma carnosum by which this bracket fungus is still generally known today. In Greek, the word Ganos means brightness or polished to a bright sheen, and derma meaning skin, coming from the genus name Ganoderma which reference to the lacquered appearance of the caps of these bracket fungi.  Carnosum comes from the Latin carnem, and means fleshy. This perennial bracket grows up to 20cm across and up to 7cm thick, and is usually attached by a lateral stem 1 - 10cm long, and sometimes with an ascending downward-tapering stem. The upper surface is a bright reddish-brown with the stem being a similar colour. The infertile crust if often 'bumpy' with concentric grooves that are described as poorly delineated. When young, they are shiny, they reminded me of a colour similar to that of conkers, but as they mature they become darker.

I am still visiting this special ancient Yew tree on my walks in that area of woodland, and the original three specimens have now increased to seven. Three smaller, conker-coloured specimens have emerged on the other side of the main trunk with the seventh specimen on a branch just above head height. I often ponder a new name for the species as Carnosum does not really do it justice, so I have thought of a few ‘unofficial’ names such as Yew Bracket and Conker Bracket. But the morel of the story here is, 'Yew' never know what is out there waiting to be found.

All pictures copyright of Neville Davies, GWT member and author.

@ecology_cymru