Apriil’s Fungi of the Month: Bog Beacon
I’ve mad it back to fungi of the month (one one month missed, apologies I was moving house and things got hectic).
I wasn’t actually sure I’d be able to do a fungi of the month this month either. But I was up in North Wales for a Sphagnum moss ID course and there these fungi were in a little ditch and I remembered “I know somewhere near me they fruit!”. So I made my way up into Bannau Brycheiniog to find a sphagnum filled puddle in the hope of finding some orange blobs on sticks out of the water and there they were!
This is a fungi many may not have heard of, it’s uncommon, has a very niche environment, and I’ve only actually found it three or four times before.
I introduce you to the Bog Beacon aka Mitrula Paludosa
Common English Names: Bog Beacon, Swamp Beacon
Scientific name:
Mitrula Paludosa
Welsh name: Penfelyn y ffosydd (yellow head of the ditch/ blonde of the ditch)
Season: April-September
Where found: Grows in boggy conditions like heathland, ditches and small streams in puddles (usually where there is also sphagnum growing). Grows directly on decaying leaves, twigs and pine needles.
Size: up to 5cm tall, with a stem 2-3mm in diameter
Edibility: unknown, considered inedible, probably too small for anyone to bother trying to eat.
Lookalikes: there are other Mitrula species that look quite similar but I haven’t found much information about ID of similar species
Key ID features:
These fungi are quite distinctive both from where they live and what they look like. From afar they actually look like small organge orbs floating above the water in a boggy puddle.
But once you get up close you’ll see a somewhat round, bright orange/yellow head sitting atop a white to translucent body. Like flimsy matchsticks, little beacons of light (or as someone on reddit slightly grossly described them) waxy q-tips.
They also often grow in clusters in one spot with other scattered amongst the puddle they’re growing in.
What’s in a name?
The name bog beacon is very appropriate for this fungi as they do look like little growing beacons growing in… boggy conditions.
The Latin name mitrula paludosa has a prefix mitr- which is a reference to a mitre hat or headdress (like the one the pope wears) in reference to its bright cap and paludosa which means swamp, marsh or bog [1]. So a little hat living in a bog.
The welsh name is actually fimilar! Penfelyn y ffosydd with Penfelyn literally translating to yellow headed by also meaning blonde and ffosydd ditch (or trench if you’re google translate) we’ve got yellow heads of the ditch… I like to think of it as blondes of the ditch and they’re tiny blonde haired creatured dancing around in a swampy puddle.
Every time I’ve seen them they’ve been in a wet sphagnum filled ditch, next to a footpath in a conifer/mixed woodland. I’ve only seen them in two locations but still, the same habitat.
But from a search in the BMS Facebook group people are funding them in ponds, on heathland, coal spoils, anywhere you might find a boggy, wet area full of dead plant matter really.
I even found a book from Scotland from 1823 talking about these fungi growing in open drains! And saying they were “not unfrequent” but perhaps they thrived back when there were many more open drains in the UK [2]
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Bog Beacons, like many fungi, are Saprotrophs which means they live on dead organic matter. In the case of these fungi this consists of the leaves, pine needles, twigs, and dead shagnum also inhabiting the boggy puddle they’re living in. The bog beacons will much away at this dead matter and turn it into new nutrients that goes back into the bog/forest ecosystem they’re living in.
Which makes these tiny little mushrooms a really important part of their ecosystem.
These fungi are also part of a group called the ascomycetes or spore shooters (like Febuary’s Elf Cups) which means they shoot spored directly out of their yellow caps in order to reproduce. Their spore print is white.
Mystery solved
I’ll admit when I first saw these fungi (and for a long time after) I had no idea what they were. I remember going on a hike with my Dad and seeing these strange little orange orbs sticking out of a puddle full of moss. They looked like they were floating above the water. Strange, delightfully strange.
I thought maybe they were tiny plants, or the spore sacks of some plant I’d never encountered before. Despite my love of fungi I did not click that maybe, these were in fact mushrooms.
Until a few weeks ago and I was on a sphagnum moss ID course and we stopped at a muddy puddle full moss and was delighted to find out they’re a fungi. Also a little embarrassed. But off I went in search of more information on them… which there is very little I’ll be honest.
Hence no “history and folklore” section of this post. I am determined to find some though, somewhere there must be some folklore about this fungi. I mean c’mon, with a name like bog beacon and a fruit body that looks like tiny lights in a fairy city. I don’t believe there’s nothing out there.
References:
[1] First nature, Mitrula Paludosa (https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/mitrula-paludosa.php)
[2] Scottish Cryptogamic Flora, Or, Coloured Figures and Descriptions of Cryptogamic Plants, Belonging Chiefly to the Order Fungi: And Intended to Serve as a Continuation of English Botany, Part 2, Volume 6 - Part 6, Volume 6 , Robert Kaye Greville, 1823