Change of September Meeting Date

Once again, the Quakers have decided to schedule an annual meeting on the same night as Wakefield naturalists’ Society meeting despite our having booked the room in January and used the venue on the second Tuesday of the month for the past 20yrs. This means that we have had to postpone our September meeting by one week and it will now take place on September18th 2018 at the usual time of 7.30pm.

I apologise for the inconvenience and hope that as many of you as possible can still make it to the meeting

 

Barbara Murray

It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of Barbara Murray who lost a very short battle with cancer and died recently. Barbara was well known in the RSPB local members’ group where she had helped run the group for many years including serving as group leader. In more recent times Barbara, along with husband Len, joined the WNS and became firm friends with all of us and was regarded as being a very good botanist. Barbara entertained us with her images of flowers at members’ night and gave us a super lecture on the alpine flowers of Austria last year. Barbara will be sadly missed and our thoughts are with Len at this sad time.

Barbara’s funeral will take place at Wakefield Crematorium on 28th August 2018 at 11:40 followed by refreshments at Sandal Rugby Club. Afterwards, close friends and WNS members Karen and Sarah will be walking around either Anglers or Pugneys to remember Barbara and they have asked that anyone wishing to join them is welcome to do so and should bring a change of footwear for the walk,

 

Black Nightshade

In the centre of Hemsworth, I spotted some black berries on a plant growing in a car-park. I then noticed the small white flowers, which were obviously those of a Solanum – the group of plants that includes potatoes and tomatoes.

Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum)

The commonest Solanum is woody nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) and I am very familiar with the purple flowers and red berries of that plant but this plant was obviously something new to me. Checking a field guide later, I found that this plant was black nightshade (Solanum nigrum). This particular Solanum occurs in many countries throughout the world and the chemicals that it contains lead to the plant having many medicinal uses.

Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum)

I can’t recall seeing black nightshade previously. By looking at a distribution map, I found that our part of Yorkshire is at the top end of its main English range, so I wouldn’t expect it to be as uniformly distributed and common here as it is in some parts of the south and east. Also, one article that I found suggested that the berries ripen only if there is suffcient sunshine, as there has been this year. Perhaps our usual weather does not allow this plant to fruit well in our area in normal years.

Black nightshade (Solanum nigrum)

I like finding new things in this way: in a built-up area, close to home. This shows that you don’t need to travel to nature reserves to make discoveries.

 

Silky Rosegill

In these continuing dry conditions, there are still relatively few fungi around but it is still worth spending some time searching.

Volvariella bombycina

A week ago, I spotted a large and conspicuous white fungus on a tree-stump at Nostell Priory. On closer examination, I found it to be Volvariella bombycina, which goes by the common name of silky rosegill. This is an uncommon species, so it was pleasing to find it growing in our area.

Volvariella bpmbycina

The scientific name of this species refers to the bag-like volva from which the fungus emerges. The remnats of this can be seen at the base of the stem. The common name refers to the texture of the cap.

An Interesting Start to the Fungus Season

The very dry conditions created by this summer’s hot weather don’t give much promise for a strong start to the fungus season. However, two of us went out to search several local sites last week in the hope of finding one or two species on trees, for which moisture would not be the problem that it is for those species that grow on the gound.

Pluteus aurantiorugosus

We were searching a pile of rotting timber, on which there is usually something to be found, when we spotted some bright orange caps beneath a covering of dried grass. The mushrooms were growing on a well rotted sycamore stump.

Pluteus aurantiorugosus

There aren’t many mushrooms that are such a bright orange colour and this one took a little while to identify. The splitting of the cap, caused by the dry conditions, almost led us in the wrong direction but the mushroom was found to be Pluteus aurantiorugosus.

Pluteus aurantiorugosus

This species is not common and the CATE databse, operated by the Fungus Conservation Trust, contains no previous records for Yorkshire.