In early December, the insects and plants that entertain my curiosity through the year appear to have all but disappeared. Even the flush of autumn fungi is now succumbing to the first proper frosts of winter. As the wild world outside starts winding down for the long winter ahead, I am generally spending more time indoors. Some of this time is spent sitting at a computer entering records of what I have seen throughout the year; hopefully enabling researchers to get a better understanding of how the changing climate patterns are impacting the biodiversity and abundance of our native wildlife.

Winter does, of course, normally bring some exciting avian visitors to our countryside and I have been delighted to see exceptional numbers of winter thrushes visiting our garden to gorge on the super abundance of berries. I can’t remember ever having seen so many hawthorn and holly berries as there are at the moment. The weather this year has been unusual to say the least, and it seems, to my casual observance, to have significantly impacted the timing of appearance and abundance of many species and also encouraged some things that I have not seen before to unexpectedly appear.

Strange hair-like icy growths

When I first saw these growths on the woodland floor during a frosty morning walk in the grounds of Gregynog Hall, near Tregynon, it looked as if someone had dropped a tissue. On looking more closely I found that white, hair-like threads, were bursting out from under the bark of a small rotten branch. My first thought was that it was some sort of mould growing from the branch, but as I took the photograph, I could see that the tips of the ‘hairs’ were melting into water droplets in my breath and, if I breathed more heavily on them, they would melt away completely. I surmised that the combination of saturated branch and low temperatures was somehow extruding the fine hairs of ice out of pores in the wood. I looked around and could see that there were several more fallen branches with the same phenomena occurring and felt that an organism, possibly some sort of mould, could be involved, as I couldn’t see how the wood alone could be responsible for creating such an amazing structure.

It turned out that my hunch was right and a quick search on Google when I got to the café revealed that a few years ago a scientist had identified that a mould, Exidiopsis effusa, was responsible for creating the conditions for this phenomenon to occur. Apparently, the ‘hair ice’ can only occur at very specific temperatures and in very damp conditions and has only been observed from sites within a specific range of latitudes (fortunately most of the UK falls within this range).  Unexpectedly, there is a good explanation on the Met Office web site (https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/types-of-weather/frost-and-ice/hair-ice) and a link to a time-lapse video of the hair ice forming.

Odd clusters of bright orange globules on the trunk of a tree

Further on the same walk I spotted bright orange-coloured patches on the trunk of a tree. Again, I wasn’t sure what they were. On closer observation, they were tiny orange beads about 1mm in diameter attached to the wood substrate by a short stalk. It looked a bit like something had laid some strange eggs on the bark, but they turned out to be the fruiting bodies of a species of slime mould. 

I’ve seen slime moulds before, but usually the types that tend to look more like some animal has vomited on a piece of wood!

These are very strange organisms, sometimes referred to as Myxomycetes; despite appearances, they are more closely related to single-celled animals than fungi, and can actually move around!

Carnivorous fungi

I made my final unusual encounter when I got home on our regular afternoon dog walk around the meadow. There were still a surprising number of waxcaps around despite the low temperatures overnight, but in the path were some unfamiliar orange club fungi.

At only about 5 cm tall, the Scarlet Caterpillarclub is a strange fungus, and very easy to overlook. Its speciality is to attack the pupae and pre-pupae of moths. If a moth larva is unfortunate enough to select a patch of soil to pupate, where the fungus is present, the fungus mycelium is able to penetrate into the tissues of the insect, digest them and then, when conditions are appropriate, produces an orange fruiting body that emerges from the parasitized pupa and pushes up amongst the grass and mosses. The nodules on the club, which contain microscopic complex features, ensure good distribution by air currents.

In Chinese medicine these tiny clubs are prized for their supposed medicinal properties, but this is not attributed to the species found in the UK. As a result of over-harvesting and environmental degradation, Cordyceps sinensis (the Chinese species) is rare and declining in its native habitats which seems a shame for an interesting organism with such an unorthodox lifestyle.

The diversity of nature is fascinating and needs our protection

For many, it is often the more spectacular creatures and landscapes that stimulate an interest in the natural world, but by starting to explore and understand the detail, it is the complexity and interrelationships between living creatures that for me has created a fascination in the subject. Many of these relationships have developed over millennia and are very fragile and easily destroyed by human activity, and in many cases, it is this diversity that creates resilience in the natural world, essential for the survival of all the creatures on our planet.

So, why not get out there, explore nature’s little surprises and be fascinated by what you can see.

Disclaimer 

Any views or opinions represented in this blog are personal and belong solely to the author and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that the author may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity, unless explicitly stated