Forest ranger Frans Kapteijns shares his knowledge of nature every week. Anyone can submit questions via [email protected]. This time Frans pays attention to, among other things, blackening wax plates, gold fleece bundle fungi and doll cradles. Part one of this Stuifmail was already published on Saturday.
There is also a new episode of the Stuifmail podcast every weekend. Listen to the podcast here:
There was an unknown mushroom near a dried out fen in the Herperduinen, what is its name?
Chantal Tijbosch found an unknown mushroom near a dried out fen in the Herperduinen on October 31 and wanted to know what it was. I think the beautiful mushroom in Chantal’s photo is a blackening wax plate. Blackening wax plates live as saprotrophic fungi in precisely such a location, as Chantal found. The group of mushrooms called wax plates are called the orchids among mushrooms by several people. This is mainly because of the special colors and shapes. Your found wax plate is first yellow-orange to red, but later this small mushroom turns gray and later black. The cap of this mushroom is only a maximum of 5 cm and the stem is a maximum of 6 cm with a thickness of 5 mm. In our country it is a fairly common mushroom, but due to its small size, the blackening wax plate is not easily noticeable. They are certainly not edible because they are mildly poisonous and can cause intestinal disorders.
Special mushrooms seen in the Loonse and Drunense Dunes, what are they?
Erik Kock found special mushrooms in the Loonse and Drunense Duinen on November 8 and wanted to know what type of mushrooms they were. I think he has seen the caps/fruiting bodies of the goldfinch bundle fungus. The gold fleece bundle fungus, also called slime stem bundle fungus, grows on both deciduous trees and coniferous trees. From August to October you can encounter the fruiting bodies of this fungus on both living and dead wood, as in Erik’s photo. The fungus does prefer beech trees, but can also be found on maples, spruces, chestnut trees and willows.
Usually the caps/fruiting bodies grow in bundles near the hollow of dead branches and often at great heights. The diameter of the caps varies from 5 to 13 cm and the shape in young caps is bell-shaped. Later with age, the caps become flat, as with many mushrooms. What is immediately noticeable on the hats is that they are covered with fibrous and large scales, which have a darker to rusty brown color. This is a very nice feature, but it is annoying that the scales are washed away when there is a lot of rainfall.
Found something very special on tiles in Zuilichem, what is it?
Liza Ardonne sent me something very special on October 27. She had found it on the tiles in Zuilichem and she wanted to know what it was. I tested the photo that contained that special image with various image recognition apps, but nothing came of it. I also looked into my books, but I couldn’t find a solution there either. So the photo with text was eventually sent to Naturalis and they came up with a solution. What Liza found on the tiles in her backyard in Zuilichem is probably the stomach of a small mammal. It might be a rabbit. In the attached drawing, see photo, you can see such a stomach at the top. In addition, Alice from Naturalis pointed out something interesting, because she discovered that the new Field Guide to Animal Tracks Europe (2019) by my good friend Annemarie van Diepenbeek contained something about such a stomach. She read there that diurnal birds of prey (including kestrel, tree falcon, buzzard) sometimes leave the stomach and bits of the intestine of prey animals behind as food residue. These are located near rest areas or lookout posts.
There are all kinds of circles on the trunk of a tree, what are they?
On November 19, Erna Eskes saw all kinds of circles, see photo, on the trunk of a dead tree and she wanted to know what they were. We call the circles she saw doll’s cradles. These are chambers / pupae chambers, which are made by beetles. Such a pupal cradle produces a beetle larva in which the animal can pupate into an adult beetle. Various species, such as the rhinoceros beetle, the vine beetle and the common pine longhorn beetle, make such a pupal cradle. Good examples of beetles and their pupal cradles are the following.
Rhinoceros Beetle: The pupal cradle is made in decaying, scalding plant material, such as cuttings and bark, and can reach the size of a chicken egg.
Taxus beetle: The larva digs a hole in the ground to pupate.
Common pine longhorn beetle: The larvae move to the bark of dead trees in winter to pupate under the bark.
Great pupae robber: This is a predatory beetle that eats the pupae of other insects, such as the oak processionary caterpillar. The term ‘pupal cradle’ here can also refer to the pupae of the caterpillars that the beetle eats.
So Liza most likely came across the pupae cradles of the common pine longhorn beetle.
Beautiful photos section
Spotted beaver in the heart of Eindhoven, in the Genneper parks. How beautiful is that, nature close to people in this case the city, photo Annette Born.
Nature tip: Breakfast walk with guide
Sunday, December 14 from 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM
A delicious breakfast before the walk
During the walk the guide talks about the history of Griendtsveen and the Peel. The walk starts at around 11 a.m. and the route is approximately 5 kilometers.
History of Peel
The history of De Peel began with an extensive raised peat bog, where peat has been cut for fuel since the Middle Ages. Large-scale exploitation took place from the 19th century onwards, with the digging of canals and ditches for drainage. The area was also the scene of the Peel-Raam Defense Line during the Second World War, and heavy fighting took place in 1944 after Operation Market Garden.
More information: