Candelabra Coral found in Addington Kent, after being spotted for first in over a century in Suffolk decade ago

A rare fungus that was thought to be extinct in the UK, before being found in Suffolk in 2012, has been located once again by experts.

Candelabra Coral - also known as Crown-tipped Coral fungus due to the crown-like shape of the tips of its ‘branches’ - was spotted in Addington in Kent – its latin name is Artomyces pyxidatus.

It is only the twelfth time the fungus has been recorded in Britain since 1886, and there has been no records of its presence for the entire 20th century before being discovered in Suffolk 11 years ago.

Rhianna and Mike Green, from London Fungus Network, were looking for fungi whilst walking in Addington when they came across the spectacular fungus.

Mike said: “On stumbling across the specimen I didn’t recognise it at first and posted the photo of this fabulous fungus on the British Mycological Society's Facebook page.

"A week later I had two replies telling me it was the rare species Artomyces pyxidatus.

"This species is rare to the UK and it is thought that the Addington find is only the twelfth record in Britain since 1886.

“It was actually Rhianna who first spotted it, which is remarkable as she is new to fungi, so she has got off to an incredible start.”

More recently in 2021 a Kent Wildlife Trust volunteer recorded a specimen at Hothfield Heathlands in Ashford.

Natasha Aidinyantz, of Kent Wildlife Trust, says how the fungus ended up in Kent is "a bit of a mystery".

She explained: “It's always exciting to find a rare and unusual plant, animal or fungus in your home county but what makes this particularly interesting is that we seem to have a pattern of distribution building in the East of England, starting in East Anglia and then making it's way down to Kent and Sussex.

"This fungus is common in North America and in the boreal/semi-boreal regions of Europe so how it wound up on the flat side of Southern UK is a bit of a mystery.

"But it just goes to show nature doesn't play by our rules and that's very much what is so beautiful about it."

The record of the most recent find has been submitted to iRecord, with a sample sent to the Fungarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.