Saturday 21 August 2010

Something that I've never seen before

Saturday Aug. 21st 2010
             We just walked up one of our local moorland valleys on Thursday to see if the Grass of Parnassus was in bloom, but we only found one flower that had opened. It's going to be 2 weeks later than last year before the colony of several hundred plants are at their best, this is probably because of the cool coditions and the lack of sunshine over the last few weeks.


 

             I think the Grass of Parnassas is one of the most beautiful
             wild flowers we have in the British Isles 

        

                 Eye Bright growing amongst the Grass of Parnassus

 Now for the "never seen before bit".... growing on the stems of some rushes a strange type of fungus encasing the stems near the base of the rushes., it was quite hard to the touch not slimy as I would have expected. As anybody out there got the answer to my query?


                              What is this strange growth?


5 comments:

  1. Hi David, Lovely photo of the Grass of Parnassus - one of my favourite flowers too. We have a few sites for it in Weardale and I know of one substantial population up at Alston, but it's pretty uncommon around here. I think your fungus is the slime mould Mucilago crustacea - it goes through creeping, slimey phase then forms a hard 'crust' when it produces spores.

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  2. Hi David. Thank you for sharing these photos.... I love the Grass of Parnassus, it is indeed beautiful. I once tried growing it from seed with no success.

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  3. Hello David...the Grass of Parnassus looks beautiful.

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  4. Thanks for sharing your photos. I also think the third photo down is a beautiful flower. Do you know its name?

    Orchid Information

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  5. Thanks Phil for the imformation I'm sure your correct.

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