Hohenbuehelia petaloides Shoehorn Oyster

A striking fungus with a funnel shaped fruiting body, somewhat like a shoehorn, with pale, crowded gills that are deeply decurrent. The specific name, petaloides, derives from the fanciful resemblence of the fruiting bodies to flower petals. Below the cap cuticle there is a thin gelatinous layer which gives the cap an elastic feel. Like other species in the genus the gill surface has lots of pointed, thick-walled, metulloid  pleurocystidia (see photo) and the bluntly elliptical basidiospores are 6-8 microns long (see photo). It usually grows in densely clustered groups in deep leaf litter in deciduous woodland, or on wood mulch or wood debris. It is able to enrich and supplement its nutrition by trapping and digesting nematodes.  There are few records of it from Wales and it is rare in Glamorgan where it has been recorded growing on wood fragments at the side of a forest road in Nant y Moel, Bridgend. As yet it has not been recorded in West Glamorgan, but should be expected to occur in similar habitats. Hohenbuehelia tremula (Schaeff.:Fr.) Thorn & G.L. Barron is very similar and very difficult to separate from it on field observations alone.. It has larger spores but there is some overalap in spore size between both. They can be separated reliably only after DNA analysis.