Oh dear! No, sorry, I forgot to check that 
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i had dry rot in my maisonette which grew up and through walls. is this related?
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I don’t think so, the fungi that grow on moss are minute and white (very pretty like lace).
I have seen that once and it had lifted tarmac in B and Qs car park.
Pippa gets a gold star for asking about the under side which would give a big clue.
Distant relative, no stem or gills.
Mae’n diddorol iawn diolch i bawb.
Cheers J.P.
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Ddoe - Yesterday
I heard some fairly persistent chattering in the vegetation by the side of the river so pointed my camera towards the noise more in hope than expectation. I found I’d got some indistinct pictures of young wrens -dryw ifanc, but I liked the Rowan berries - Aeron Cerdinen.
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Most of the multitudinous rowan (criafol) trees around here have lovely berries like that, but one between us and next door at the front of the house, rather penned in with vegetation from drws nesa never seems to get its berries properly developed. It is very gangly and sickly looking. I wonder if pruning would help it? The reason for the numbers is superstition. Janet’s Mam told her that a rowan must be planted at each entrance to the garden to keep the bad fairies away! She (Janet’s Mam) made very sure by planting about six at the borders and many of the neighbours did the same!
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I went to take another look this morning but it had gone with no visible remains - unsurprising really with the number of people who would have passed it over the last 24 hrs. I did manage though to get these photos of the clusters of smaller ffwng lower down the wall which I didn’t manage to do yesterday before my camera phone died.
And, for a bit of context, here’s the wall with the clusters just visible low down:
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That happens here too. I have a healthy respect for y Tylwyth Teg - the Fairies, and have planted a Rowan at the entrance to my garden. I haven’t seen any so it must be effective. Which is the most common Welsh name for the Rowan? I used Cerdinen, but I noticed you @henddraig used Criafol. I’m always grateful for any help with my Welsh. Incidentally we have some Elder - Ysgawen in the hedge which I understand has to be treated carefully so as not to annoy the Fairies - Tylwyth Teg. All this may sound daft, but I am interested in the folklore associated with plants and animals.
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mae’n ddrwg gen i, Doug! i couldn’t remember and used the easy option of the little Geiriadur on my IPad. My big Geiriadur agrees with you! As to y Tylwyth Teg , i always found it hard to imagine the fair folk who lived here first as doing any real wrong - just a little mischief, nothing serious, so i didn’t really want to drive them away!
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My dictionary (Y Geiriadur Mawr) gives this:
rowan (mountain ash), - cerdinen, cerddinen, pren criafol
So I think you’re both right. In other parts of the dictionary, it also has “criafolen” as an option, but includes criafol, criafon, criawol - all plural nouns - as the berries, which may be why the last of the original ones was “pren criafol” = rowan tree.
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I’ve never heard this before but am very glad, having heard it, to have one at the bottom of the garden.
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Heddiw - today.
yn gyntaf, mae’n edrych fel on i dod o hyd rhywbeth anaferol - first, it looks like today i found something unusual (Erogt, the cause of many deaths and cases of madness)
Ergot - Claviceps purpurea.
Ffwng cwrel - Coral fungus.
Seren ddaear gyffredin - common earth star.
Ysgallen siarl - carline thistle.
Hedgehog gall , ar derwen - on oak.
Caused by the asexual generation of Andricus lucidus, a first for me (felly, oedd y dydd dda iawn - thus it was a very good day).
Cheers J.P.
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It looks like there has been a lot of ffwng activity going on there!
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Certainly does, the lowest fungi look like fairies bonnets (as species of coprinus), those above and the original fungus i’m not at all sure about, but this all makes me think there is old timber behind the wall that the fungi are using as a food source.
Cheers J.P.
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I think the fairies are treating us kindly @ramblingjohn
What do you think? I saw a Twitter pic of pluteus aurantiorugosus & it looks very like it.
First saw it at the beginning of August, then it disappeared & now it is back again!
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and, if my memory serves, which it may not, purposeful induction of abortion. Of course, it getting into bread had dire consequences!
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Well spotted! My ffwng book gives mallryg as the Welsh name.
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That’s the beauty of this thread, things i have not seen diolch am eich llun - thanks for your photo.
henno yr lleuad - tonight the moon.
Lleuad - moon.
Cheers J.P.
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Great photo of the moon, John! I didn’t get any photos, but we had a great time watching the TOTAL eclipse of the sun (by the moon) in our front yard last Monday. Very cool!
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We had one on Gower when I was there! I made a pin hole to look at the sun on a card and when it came to the point, there was so much haze off the sea that it was actually safe to look with naked eyes! The darkness and silence when the sun went was something I do not think I could have imagined or will ever forget. I had my honorary little brother and his wife staying, but we, as I remember, did our own thing when watching, certainly we did not chat through totality! Technically, it was only total over Cornwall, just south of us, but it was pretty close to total with us!
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I had seen a couple of partial eclipses of the sun before, but was surprised that totality is another whole level of amazing. We were lucky to be very close to the center of totality, so the sun was dark for 2-1/2 minutes and it really did look as if there was “a hole in the sky.” And being able to see the corona was pretty amazing too.
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