Clare Blencowe
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clareblencowe.bsky.social
Clare Blencowe
@clareblencowe.bsky.social
1K followers 620 following 750 posts
Field mycologist with a passion for grassland fungi. Interested in the history of mycology. Bang into biological recording. Located in West Sussex, UK.
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clareblencowe.bsky.social
Clare Blencowe @clareblencowe.bsky.social · 28d
Field Mycology issue 26(3) is up on the internets 😎

▶️ doi.org/10.63482/cjr...

I think it's a good one -- you should read it. It's free!

cc. @britmycolsoc.org.uk
Vol. 26 No. 3 (2025): Field Mycology - October 2025 | Field Mycology
doi.org
clareblencowe.bsky.social
Man sculptures of Kent.

Left: by Anthony Gormley in Canterbury Cathedral Crypt

Right: by Jason Decaires Taylor at St Mary of Charity Church in Faversham.
Against the honey-coloured stone backdrop of a vaulted cathedral crypt background, a human figure hangs horizontally in thin air, wrought from black iron nails. Against the background of a chrichyard, with its green grass, stone path and wrought iron railings, a human figure stands tallk, made from concrete and flint.
November 25, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
fungifirst.bsky.social
Everyone loves to talk about Mothman, but almost no one including those in the cryptozoology community is willing to talk about the biggest threat to its survival, Akanthomyces, the unapologetic moth-destroying fungus! #Mushrooms #FungiFriends
November 24, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
drrjwarren.bsky.social
#ArtDD2025
Woodland fungi

Quick little sketch from a lovely 📷 by @sophiecarr.bsky.social with thanks.

@saocousins.bsky.social @stevecobbin.bsky.social @holnicotenh.bsky.social @andykaitken.bsky.social @indikon.bsky.social @mayfieldbirder.bsky.social
6 small umbrella-shaped toadstools on long slender stalks, all in pale brown shades, with green fern at their feet.
November 23, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
funganaught.bsky.social
@nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social raising a great question of government
nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social Natalie Bennett @nataliegreenpeer.bsky.social · 4d
We need a clear plan to meet the International Fungal Conservation Pledge.
Fungi are essential to healthy soils and ecosystems — they cannot remain invisible in policy.

#Biodiversity #NatureRecovery | @spun.earth
Graphic showing a dark woodland floor with soft-focus mushrooms. Headline reads “Protecting Fungi: Government Action Needed Now.” Beneath is a quote asking what steps the Government is taking to deliver the International Fungal Conservation Pledge and to assess actions to better protect fungi. A small circular photo of Natalie Bennett is shown, labelled “Green Party Peer,” with the Green Party logo and imprint at the bottom.
November 21, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
sarahwhild.bsky.social
Am I allowed a bit more shameless self-publicity? Available for pre-order! 💚
@pelagic.bsky.social

pelagicpublishing.com/products/the...
The Biological Recording Handbook
Biological recording is the discipline of writing down natural history observations of a correctly identified species, in a specific location, on a specific date, by a named individual. Simple enough,...
pelagicpublishing.com
November 20, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
chiffchat.bsky.social
Curious about lichens?

Lichens of Britain & Ireland is a beautifully illustrated beginner’s guide to 200 species you can identify with just a magnifying lens.

Available to pre-order now!
November 19, 2025 at 9:23 PM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
rxnature.bsky.social
2 seeds of Sea Purslane and 2 bio-beads.
Ducks filter out the saltmarsh seeds, so let's hope they can recognise the Southern Water bio-beads as not being food!
#biobeads
November 18, 2025 at 7:42 AM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
rxnature.bsky.social
Great Hairy Willowherb seeds being released from the seedpod.
#seeds
@bsbibotany.bsky.social
November 12, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
tomorrowx3.bsky.social
The workplace exclamation point is too powerful. It can have so many meanings. Enthusiasm. Mild rage. Friendship. War.
November 11, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
swordfernstudios.bsky.social
Are there mycologists or publishers out there who need a Mycological illustration artist?

This is the only place I’d even ask this question. 😁

Putting it out in the world that I’d love to take on a detailed project & illustrate a fungi book!

Willing to build a portfolio if this is a possibility ⬇️
November 9, 2025 at 1:25 AM
clareblencowe.bsky.social
This is about as big as news gets in my neighbourhood.

The toilets at Woods Mill are closed from tomorrow (10 November) for a few days.
sussexwildlife.bsky.social Sussex Wildlife Trust @sussexwildlife.bsky.social · 16d
Reminder - TOILETS AT WOODS MILL - TEMPORARY CLOSURE! Due to essential drain repair work, we need to close the public toilets at Woods Mill from tomorrow, Monday 11 November, for a few days. They should be re-opened by the end of the week, if the work goes according to plan. Thanks everyone
November 9, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
norwichbirder.bsky.social
Whilst at Whitlingham C.P. today I walked past this thistle rosette and twigged that it looked slightly unusual. I stopped and had a closer look, noticing that one of the leaves has edged by the slime mould Diachea leucopodia.
The basal rosette of a thistle, showing lots of spiky leaves radiating from the centre. On the left one of them has a noticeable white and dark brown edge. A close-up of the left-hand thistle leaf, showing a slime mould growing all around the edges. A close-up of some of the slime mould fruiting bodies, dark brown ovals with a slight 'peacock' purple sheen, on short white stalks.
November 8, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
lbflyawayhome.bsky.social
I bought these old RSPB magazines for their CF Tunnicliffe cover pictures. They look so good together (with that delicious typeface!)
12 different RSPB magazines called ‘bird notes’ laid out in a grid to show the bird illustrations on the front
November 7, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
paul-nash.bsky.social
November Moon https://www.wikiart.org/en/paul-nash/november-moon-1942
November Moon
June 20, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
fundive-fungi.bsky.social
📄A new paper by Louis Mielke and colleagues, published in Field Mycology, explains FunDive's goals and sums up its first results.
🔗Read more about connecting citizen science, eDNA and type specimens of fungi: doi.org/10.63482/php...
open access
November 2, 2025 at 8:44 AM
clareblencowe.bsky.social
Hey, mushroom fans. How come we never talk about the video for Tom Petty's Don't Come Around Here No More? #FungiFriends

youtu.be/h0JvF9vpqx8?...
A blurry still from a 1985 music video in which an Alice character in a blue pinafore dress walks tentatively through a scene of giant mushrooms that look like somebody sewed them out of velvet. Blurry screenshot from a 1885 music video. We see Alice's head and shoulders, pictured from behind with her long strawberry blonde hair wearing a blue pinafore dress. She is staring up at a figure perched on a mushroom clouded in hookah smoke, playing a mandolin.
November 1, 2025 at 11:29 PM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
richardfallon.bsky.social
Does anyone know where the Iguanodon footprints found in the Greensand near Arthur Conan Doyle's house in May 1909, and which ended up on display in his billard room, are today? I suspect they remained with the family, but there are a lot of potential museums they could have ended up in.
P. L. Forbes illustration of the protagonists entering the glade of Iguanodons in The Lost World (book edition, 1912).
October 31, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
ahistoryinart.bsky.social
Eugène Delacroix's 'Liberty Leading the People' (1830) is the great revolutionary icon and this is the only known sketch he made in oil - it depicts the moment when public protests forced the abdication of the unpopular King Charles X.
October 30, 2025 at 7:22 PM
clareblencowe.bsky.social
Well looky look what's arrived! In the same month that it's got written on the cover! I think that's a first for this editor.

Field Mycology magazine ▶️ fieldmycology.org/index.php/jo...
A magazine with the title Field Mycology and a picture of a couple of pale olive-brown Mycena mushrooms on the front is pictured on a jeans-wearing person's lap in a matching green and brown living room setting. A magazine is held open on a person's lap. The title of the article on this page is "Fun with aquatic hyphomycetes" and various spores are illustrated, stained with aniline blue. On the facing page a woman is pictured having fun netting foam out of a river.
October 30, 2025 at 6:50 PM
clareblencowe.bsky.social
Ooh, it's like a teaser for the Danish dream-team's next book. Worth checking out!
fundive-fungi.bsky.social FunDive: Monitoring and mapping fungal diversity for nature cons @fundive-fungi.bsky.social · 28d
🔍🔑Keys on the website!
You can find expert-level identification keys for several FunDive targets on our website. Prepared by Jens Petersen, the keys come from the book "Fungi of Temperate Europe: Keys to the Basidiomycotes" (Læssøe T., Petersen J., Frøslev T., Heilmann-Clausen J., expected in 2026)
October 29, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
jassydrak.bsky.social
My first book RHS Fungi for Gardeners is out now!
Such an amazing opportunity to write for RHS and with such fantastic publishers as DK.
Better yet is that doing it enabled me to get my own compound microscope 🤩🍄
Check how the hyphae bend out at 90° on Mycena leptocephala stems
#fungifriends
Dark blue hardback cover of RHS Fungi for Gardeners on a set of shelves of gardening books in a book shop Jassy Drakulic standing next to the bookshelves featuring her new book, smiling Red stained hyphae of nitrous bonnet with pointed ends that bend away from the stem at right angles
October 13, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
wikidatacommunity.bsky.social
What a perfect birthday present! 🎁 Read the blog post: w.wiki/FrK9 

Curious what a #DPG is? Find #Wikidata and others on the #DPGRegistry: digitalpublicgoods.net/registry

#OpenSourceForGood
October 29, 2025 at 6:21 PM
clareblencowe.bsky.social
I was not previously familiar with the concept of #DigitalPublicGood but it sounds very cool and much needed in these times we are living in.

Bravo Wikidata community.
wikidatacommunity.bsky.social Wikidata @wikidatacommunity.bsky.social · 26d
Every day, thousands of editors on #Wikidata provide open, reliable and trustworthy data to the world helping make technology more open and inclusive.

Today, we are thrilled to announce that Wikidata has been recognized by the @DPGAlliance as a #DigitalPublicGood.
Wikidataians celebrate Wikidata being recognised as a Digital Public Good
October 29, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Reposted by Clare Blencowe
lunruj.bsky.social
I decided to make a list of my #fungi finds from IUCN Red List together with short info about their habitat and threats, describing my localities, sharing info about local status in Czechia, perhaps adding (preliminary) assessed species as found at redlist.info
#mycology #fungifriends
October 29, 2025 at 5:59 PM
clareblencowe.bsky.social
Big comms day in the UK team at the Millennium Seed Bank!

My boss, Ted, is in episode 2 of the Unearthed podcast, collecting Yellow Rattle seeds ▶️ www.kew.org/about-us/vir...

My colleague Isabel has written about seed-based landscape restoration w/ Changing Chalk ▶️ www.kew.org/read-and-wat...

👏
Unearthed: The need for seeds
A special series of Kew’s award-winning podcast with Kew’s Ambassador for Wakehurst, Cate Blanchett celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Millennium Seed Bank at Wakehurst.
www.kew.org
October 29, 2025 at 5:24 PM