Cortinarius watch

Cortinarius violaceus   - on the west side of the pond

Yesterday (31st August) I decided to check on the progress of the original colony of Cortinarius v. on the west side of the pond, just up from the fishermen's bridge. The original specimens were now old and faded, but I counted six new fruiting bodies in the same area.

The original group - now faded 

New small purple fruiting bodies emerging

 As this seems to be a good year for this rare mushroom,  I went on a hunt to see if I could find anymore and checked all the places where it had previously been seen.

In 2013, I had previously found a single individual on the fishermen's path. Checking in the same area, I found four - terrific.

One of the four found on the fishermen's path at the edge of the pond

However, there was no sign of them up in the birch near the car park where we found them last year, albeit nearly two months later. I have noticed that they seem to prefer growing right at the edge of the trees where the light levels are comparatively high. It may be that with all the rain this year there has just been too much growth leaf growth in the area and not enough light is reaching the ground. It certainly felt cooler and damper in that spot than in the others where I found them

Finally, and completely unexpectedly, I found a single broken specimen growing on the ride in OC1 - a good 300m from the others.

Cortinarius violaceus found in OC1

Its position - right on the ride and under a birch tree -  helps strengthen my theory that they have an association with birch and require reasonably high light levels. The ones up from the fishermen's bridge are growing in a patch of birch only c 4m from the edge of the wood which gets a lot of light from the open field behind (now a vineyard).  The ones down by the fishermen's path are right at the edge of the pond and get a lot of light across the water. The ride itself is one of the sunniest places.

While it's probably just a good year for fungi, it would be nice to think that our work thinning the wood and increasing light levels is helping this rare mushroom to increase.

New Cortinarius site - on the ride under a birch tree in OC1

Update: 23rd September there were seven specimens of varying ages in the colony by the fishermen's bridge. I also found five growing in the birch near the car park where they were found last year. Plus while there were none on the ride under the birch tree (see above) I found two specimens in the adjoining birch wood 15ft away down the slope, which are presumably part of the same group. And for good measure one sole Cortinarius growing on the side of the ride in OC3. So an excellent year for them!

Update: 29th September - Cortinarius tally:
Fishermen's bridge colony - 4 specimens
Car park colony - 2 x groups, 2 + 4 specimens
Fishermen's path colony - 8 specimens (including two new)
OC1 rideside birch - 2 old specimens
Plus I came across three individuals in the OC1 birch to the east of the quarry - at least 50m from the ones previously spotted