On Monday evening whilst down the lane looking for Chrysoesthia drurella mines, I also found a load of microfungi on leaves of what I thought was Spear-leaved Orache. Trouble is the plant was a low-growing thing on a roadside verge with no flowering spikes, but leaf shape looked right. Using Bio Info I found a couple of potential candidates and speculatively suggested one to a local expert - Septoria chenopodii. It soon became clear that this was unlikely, given that it hasn't been recorded in VC55 previously and seems poorly known/recorded in the UK.
Samples were duly sent which confirmed that I was wrong. Shame. But there was an identification and I wasn't that far out. Both were coelomycete with dark/black pycnidium, but my samples were a species that can be found on both Spear-leaved Orache and Fat-hen - Ascochyta chenopodii. In essence, this is not quite so rare but still good that I found it.
Post-script! It actually turns out that this is indeed rare, locally at least - a first for VC55.
Looking for leafmines and galls on different ranges of plants in different habitats is proving quite successful.
