Kew is running a project which aims to target some little recorded species in an effort to reveal whether they are truly rare or just under recorded (links to info below).
If you would like to help, we are trying to identify boggy sites with birches with the following suggestions already made
– Hanzard Planation from the Wynyard new Manor Development for about 1 km brings you to a birch copse in bog (1 x visited).
– Blackpots plantation up from Stanhope to Hamsterley is Birch on badly drained high moor peat (1 x visited)
– Holystone Burn / Holystone Common area
– Bolam Lake environs
If people are passing birches then Xenotypa aterrima is what we are trying to find initially, so it can be observed throughout the year. Any help appreciated.
Images of X.atterima can be found here http://fungi.myspecies.info/taxonomy/term/6840/media
(Xenotypa aterrima) on branches of living
or dead Betula (birch) trees, from which the bark is visibly being
peeled off. X. aterrima appears especially to infect lower branches
of younger trees, in some cases extensively.
http://www.kew.org/discover/blogs/kew-science/rare-british-fungi-genuinely-uncommon-or-simply-ignored
http://fungi.myspecies.info/content/lost-found-fungi-project
http://fungi.myspecies.info/sites/fungi.myspecies.info/files/Dencoeliopsis%20johnstonii.pdf