One of Britain’s rarest fungi has been found on an estate in Hertfordshire.
The Vaulted Earthstar, scientifically known as Geastrum britannicum, was spotted on The Box Moor Trust Estate in Hemel Hempstead.
The charity posted on its social media that the “unusual fungi typically grow beneath yew trees, and we’re lucky enough to have two fruiting bodies at the base of one of our large yews”.
It added that it was recognised as a brand new species in 2015 and originally thought to be unique to Britain but is now recorded in a few parts of Europe.
Jonathan Revett, 60, from the Norfolk Fungus Study Group, first came across the rare fungus in Cockley Cley in west Norfolk in 2000.
The fungi expert said he “knew it was something different but could not place it”.
He sent it to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, London, who told him it was a variation on a more regular species.
However, he said the fungi had “kept turning up”. In 2015, the team at Kew loaned it to Spanish researchers and “incredibly this was a brand new species”.
“Unfortunately it is not named after me”, Revett said, but the species he discovered at Cockley Cley is now the original reference point or “source of truth” for the Vaulted Earthstar.
He said it was great that it had appeared in Hertfordshire because “it does like the south of the UK”, but it had not been discovered north of the Wash.
He added it was hard to tell if it was spreading, “but it is a lot easier these days to spot it with social media as people can just post it”.
