Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player.

Get Adobe Flash player

 

Search in the Encyclopedia

Dieren en planten

Mens en Milieu

  • Dut: Duinstinkzwam
  • Lat: Phallus hadriani
  • Eng: Stinkhorn
  • Ger: Dünenstinkmorchel

 

  • Dut: Duinfranjehoed
  • Lat: Psathyrella ammophila
  • Eng: Dune Brittlestem
  • Ger: Dünenfaserling

 

  • Dut: Duinveldridder
  • Lat: Melanoleuca cinereifolia
  • Eng: Melanoleuca cinereifolia
  • Ger: Graublättriger Weichritterling

 

  • Dut: Zandtulpje
  • Lat: Peziza ammophila
  • Eng: Dune cup
  • Ger: Dünen-Becherling, Sand-Becherling

 

  • Dut: Helmharpoenzwam
  • Lat: Hohenbuehelia culmicola
  • Eng: Hohenbuehelia culmicol
  • Dui: Hohenbuehelia culmicola

 

  • Dut: Zeeduinchampignon
  • Lat: Agaricus devoniensis
  • Eng: Agaricus devoniensis
  • Dui: Agaricus devoniensis

     

  • Dut: Zandputje
  • Lat: Geopora arenicola
  • Eng: Geopora arenicola
  • Dui: Kleinsporiger Sandborstling
Toadstool growing in bare dunes, Foto Fitis, www.fotofitis.nl

Mushrooms on beach ridges

Life is not easy for mushrooms growing on the row of dunes adjacent to the beach, the beach ridge. Most mushrooms like warmth and dampness and not dry, scouring sand. However, there are species that actually specialize in beach ridge life. They often only appear late in autumn. Several characteristic species are Hohenbuhelia culmicola, dune brittlestem, Melanoleuca cinereifolia, dune cup, Agaricus devoniensis (sea-dune mushroom), dune stinkhorn, Poronia erici and Geopora arenicola .

  • Dune stinkhorn

    The dune stinkhorn is probably best known for its strange phallus-shaped appearance and its strange odor. It grows on old marram grass roots. Even though it is found just about along the entire Dutch coast, it is a rare species and listed as vulnerable on the Red List. The odor may be very unpleasant for people, it attracts loads of flies which spread the spores. This mushroom has a thick, spongy hood and a fragile, hollow stem. The slimy substance excreted at the tip contains the spores... and the odor!

    When very young, the stinkhorn has a kind of egg-like stage. It literally has an egg shape and is considered a delicacy in many countries.

  • Dune brittlestem

    Dune brittlestems are commonly found on dead marram grass roots on the beach ridge. The mushroom can be found up to the border with the beach. The hood is around five centimeters in radius.

    Brittlestem in Latin is Psathyrella, which means straw-like or fragile, which explains its name in English. It is a rare mushroom in the Netherlands and listed on the Red LIst as vulnerable.

  • Melanoleuca cinereifolia
    Melanoleuca cinereifolia, Ecomare

    Just like the dune brittlestem, Melanoleuca cinereifolia is more or less exclusively found along the coast, specifically on the beach ridge or on calcium-rich dune sand. It grows on dead marram grass roots. This rare mushroom can be found up to the border with the beach. The cap is between 8-12 centimeters wide and has a broad umbo (knob in the center of the cap).

  • Dune cup
    Peziza ammophila, Foto Fitis, www.fotofitis.nl

    The dune cup, a member of the cup fungi family, is characteristic for wind-blown beach ridges, growing on dead remnants of marram grass in calcium-rich sand. The fruit body begins under the sand as a small globe. As the dune cup develops, the ball-like body breaks through the surface and splits open like petals of a flower.

    Cup fungi can be difficult to identify. However because dune cups grow in a very specific habitat and a very specific way, they are hard to mistake. The only mushroom you may confuse it with is an earthstar, but then one that has been damaged and no longer contains its central sac with spores.

  • Hohenbuehelia culmicola

    Hohenbuehelia culmicola grows in the most outer dunes close to the sea, at the base of upright marram grass stems. This spoon- to shell-shaped gilled mushroom has a very short stem. Its hood can be anywhere between light gray to dark brown in color. The Hohenbuehelia culmicola mushroom is extremely rare in the Netherlands, found only in several specific spots on the Wadden Islands and the coast of South-Holland.

  • Agaricus devoniensis

    Agaricus devoniensis is a true coastal mushroom. Just looking at a distribution map in the Netherlands, then you see that practically all finds lie along the coast. It grows on sea and coastal dunes in dry humus-poor sand. Although there are many places along the Dutch coast where this mushroom can be found, it is a rare species for this country.

  • Geopora arenicola
    Geopora arenicola, Sytske Dijksen, www.fotofitis.nl

    Very young Geopora arenicola mushrooms look like a burrowing worm as it breaks out of the ground. But once the fruit body opens up, they look more like a miniature well, especially after a rain shower! When a Geopora arenicola opens up even more, the rounded wall tears and then looks more like a flower calyx. It is a short mushroom, no more than several centimeters in diameter and height. Geopora arenicola grows in humus-poor sandy loam and is found mostly in the summer and autumn. In the Netherlands, it is a vulnerable species on the Red List and fairly rare.