News

March 2025

Rheubarbariboletus persicolor

Rheubarbariboletus persicolor

Boletales » Boletaceae

Rheubarbariboletus persicolor (= Xerocomus persicolor) is one amongst many species of mushrooms in the Boletaceae family with reddish hues that are indistinctly known in Catalan as mataparents (= relatives’ killer) and that can be found in the district of Bages. Rheubarbariboletus persicolor is a small and slender mushroom when compared to close species. The cap … Read more

Scarlet cup

Sarcoscypha coccinea

Pezizales » Sarcoscyphaceae

The scarlet cup (Sarcoscypha coccinea) is a mushroom that grows mainly in winter and early spring on fallen twigs of broadleaf trees. The scarlet cup is small cup of 0.5 – 3.5 cm in diameter made of thin walls of a scarlet red colour -hence the specific adjective coccinea – more intense on the inner … Read more

The natural shelters of Puig Cardener

Puig Cardener (or written as Puigcardener) is the hill made of stratified sandstone that the Cardener river outlines on the south and the stream of Sant Ignasi on the east, and that is topped by the gothic cathedral of Santa Maria de la Seu de Manresa. Puig Cardener is the outstanding, bright place with large … Read more

February 2025

The stream of Mura in Sant Esteve de Vilarasa

The stream of Mura grows and becomes scenic from the farmhouse of Sant Esteve de Vilarasa onwards because the joining of the stream of Talamanca and the proximity of the Llobregat river at a low level that pushes to deepen the valley. Downstream from Sant Esteve de Vilarasa, the stream of Mura proofs its potential … Read more

January 2025

The fold of La Font del Molí (Artés)

The fold of La font del Molí (the spring of the Mill) is a geological structure on an accessible and comprehensible scale that the Malrubí stream has been kind enough to cut and display. El fold of La font del Molí is located at the southern end of the cliff that the Malrubí stream cut … Read more

Cave of Forat Micó

The Forat Micó cave is known for many years in the mountain of Salt of Cardona. The cave opens on the side of the mountain, is 640 m long and their walls are decorated with delicate white recrystallizations of halite. The Cardona salt caves stand out both for their exceptional beauty and for being unique … Read more

Mountain ranges of Montserrat and L’Obac

The mountains of Sant Llorenç del Munt, Montcau and L’Obac, in the foreground of the photos, and Montserrat, which appears in the background, are two large rocky areas in the south of the Bages region. Both mountain ranges are made of conglomerate rock, that is a large pile of pebbles into a matrix of sand, … Read more

Beard lichen

Usnea sp.

Lecanorales » Parmeliaceae

Usnea is a genus of lichens that are usually called beard lichens or old man’s beards because of their light grey hairy twigs hanging from tree branches as a grey beard. Usnea includes many species that are difficult to distinguish. The thalli of Usnea have an elastic cord inside that is discovered when stretching one … Read more

Mucilago crustacea

Mucilago crustacea

Didymiacea

Mucilago crustacea is an amoeboid fungus or myxomycete, one of the easiest to realize because the noticeable size and white colour of its fruiting body that stands out among the leaf litter. It is common anywhere throughout the year in wet weather. It forms elliptical fruiting bodies in etalium -a mass of compressed sporangia, impossible … Read more

The cliff of Serrat del Xipell

The range known as Serrat del Serrat rises abruptly on the left bank of the Llobregat river, south of Sallent town. Its summit that is topped by a telephone antenna is an excellent viewing point over Sallent, the Plain of Bages and the Llobregat valley. The Serrat del Xipell is not a raised by any … Read more

The former neighbourhood of L’Estació in Sallent

The neighbourhood of L’Estació -for the train station of the line Manresa-Berga-Guardiola de Berguedà that stopped in 1973- was built in Sallent in the 1980s on the plain of the right bank of the Llobregat river between the southern end of the existing city and the conveyor belt of salt mineral coming from the ramp … Read more

December 2024

White saddle, common helvel

Helvella crispa

Pezizales » Helvellaceae

The white saddle or common helvel (Helvella crispa) is a species of Ascomycete mushroom as morels (Morchella sp.) and Peziza sp. to which its brittle flesh resembles. It has a crumpled sheet of ivory or cream colour as a cap, and a fistulous with vertical grooves foot of paler colour than the cap. Its similarity … Read more

November 2024

Dark cep, bronze bolete

Boletus aereus

Boletales » Boletaceae

The dark cep o bronze bolete (Boletus aereus) is one of the species of mushrooms from the genus Boletus that are collectively known as boletes. The bronze bolete grows in cork oak forests on siliceous soil -that’s why its popular names in Catalan “sureny” or “siureny” coming from “suro” or “surera” to name the cork … Read more

Xerocomus rubellus

Xerocomus rubellus

Boletales » Boletaceae

Xerocomus rubellus (= Hortiboletus rubellus) is a beautifully coloured in red, yellow and blue species of mushroom in the Boletaceae family. Xerocomus rubellus is a large, fluffy mushroom with a hemispherical cap that gradually flattens out, often retaining some convexity. The cuticle is more or less deep red, shiny or matte, and more or less … Read more

Blackening russula

Russula albonigra

Russulales » Russulaceae

The blackening russula (Russula albonigra) is a thick mushroom displaying the shape of a milk-white brittlegill (R.delica) but the cap cuticle cap is coloured in a blur of almost black dark grey and white. The cap is robust, up to 12 cm in diameter, depressed in the centre and with involute margins. The white colour … Read more

Yellow drop milk cap

Lactarius chrysorrheus

Russulales » Russulaceae

The yellow drop milk cap (Lactarius chrysorrheus) is a similar to the appreciated delicious milk cap (L.deliciosus) mushroom as seen from above that deceives the mushrooms collectors.  The yellow drop milk cap has up to 8 cm diameter cap, with involute margin, duller and paler brick orangish colour than that of the delicious milk cap … Read more

October 2024

False blewit

Cortinarius eucaeruleus

Cortinariales » Cortinariaceae

The false blewit (Cortinarius eucaeruleus) is one of the violet-coloured species of the Cortinarius genus that may be mistaken because the colour with the various edible species of genus Lepista that are known as blewits (L.nuda, L.sordida, L.glaucocana). The false blewit shows the common characteristics of the very extensive Cortinarius genus: an initially convex cap … Read more

Miller mushroom

Clitopilus prunulus

Agaricales » Entolomataceae

The miller mushroom (Clitopilus prunulus) is a rare mushroom from the Entolomataceae family growing in mixed forests in autumn. The miller mushroom smells like wet flour, that’s why its popular name miller mushroom, parallel to meunier in French and molinera in Spanish. The popular name in Catalan moixernó blanc comes from its rough similarity with … Read more

Hydnellum concrescens

Hydnellum concrescens

Thelephorales » Bankeraceae

Hydnellum concrescens is a mushroom with needles from the Bankeraceae family that grows among fallen leaves and branches on the forest floor. Its consistency is leathery but not as hard as other wood-decay fungi. It is funnel-shaped, about 3-6 cm in diameter, brown in concentric tones, intense in the centre and lighter at the margin … Read more

El Suanya – Valley of Servitge (Rajadell), 19.10.2024

The ICHN-Bages group in the forest on the shady side of the Servitge or Vallformosa valley (Rajadell) beyond El Suanya, next to a stone hut that recalls the agricultural use of this territory, during the botanical excursion of 19.10.2024 to the surroundings of El Suanya (Anella Verda de Manresa) on the the week of activities … Read more

September 2024

Kermes oak

Quercus coccifera subsp. coccifera

Fagales » Fagaceae

The kermes oak (Quercus coccifera subsp. coccifera) is the shrub that closely relates to the holm oak. It distinguishes by its smaller, sharp, brightly coloured leaves on both sides. The male flower catkins (photo 1) reach 5 cm in length. The maturation of the kermes oak acorns lasts 1 or 2 years. These acorns have … Read more

August 2024

Quarry of Talamanca

The quarry of Talamanca or Sant Esteve is in the interfluve between the Talamanca and Mura streams, facing to the stream of Talamanca just before it joins that of Mura in Sant Esteve de Vila-Rasa, in the municipality of Talamanca. The quarry can be reached through a paved path that starts at km. 31.8 of … Read more

Oak hawkmoth

Marumba quercus

Macroheterocera » Sphingidae

The oak hawkmoth (Marumba quercus) is a remarkably large nocturnal moth, with a robust body and a wingspan of 10 cm. Its entire body and wings are covered with brown hair adding pale or whitish areas of variable extent. The wings are long and narrow, the forewings being longer than the hindwings, and their outer … Read more

July 2024

Salt stalactites in the spring of Pitoi

The spring of Pitoi or Sant Antoni in the north slope by the stream of Soldevila, in Sallent, turned very saline in the 1980s because the dumping of saline mining residues in the landfill of Cogulló. The construction in 2016 and 2017 of wells and drainage trenches on the north side of the landfill of … Read more

Salt outcrop at the foot of Cardona Castle mountain

The Cardona geological formation that is well-known in the mountain of Salt of Cardona outcrop, can also be seen on surface at the foot of the Castle of Cardona mountain, in the meander of the Cardener river in La Coromina. This smaller salt outcrop at the bottom of Castle mountain hosts halophytes, the plants thriving … Read more

Great capricorn beetle

Cerambyx cerdo

Cucujiformia » Cerambycidae

The great capricorn beetle (Cerambyx cerdo) belongs to the family Cerambycidae. It is an astonishing beetle of slender body about 5 cm length with extremely long antennae made up of thick and knotty flagellomeres. The antennae of the males – photo 1- are twice the length of the body, while that of females -photos 2nd, … Read more

Puigberenguer (Manresa, Bages), 29.06.2024

The ICHN-Bages group (photos 1st and 2nd) on the hill of Puigberenguer, the oldest fluvial terrace remaining on the left bank of the Cardener river, 87 meters above the current level of the river, during the session devoted to the Quaternary terrains on 29.06.2024. The group listens to the explanations of Josep Biosca Munts (photo … Read more

River terraces of the Cardener river in Callus and in Manresa

Historical diagrams of the arrangement of the terraces in the Cardener river valley: above, from 1929, in Callús; in the center, from 1940, in Manresa and Sant Joan de Vilatorrada; and below, from 1960, in the current Plaça Catalunya neighbourhood of Manresa. The figures, in the 1940 and 1960 diagrams, indicate the level difference in … Read more

June 2024

Stictoleptura cordigera

Stictoleptura cordigera

Cucujiformia » Cerambycidae

Stictoleptura cordigera is a small size, long-horned beetle, thus a beetle of the family Cerambycidae. It measures 16-20 mm in length without the long antennae. Stictoleptura cordigera has head, pronotum, legs and antennae in dull black colour, while the elytra are reddish brick colour with a characteristic black spot shaped as a wide strip at … Read more

Reteporella sp.

Reteporella sp.

Cheilostomatida » Phidoloporidae

Reteporella sp. Bryozoa of order Cheliostomatida from the marine Eocene in the valley of Golarda near La Coma (Monistrol de Calders, Moianès). Bryozoa are a large group of colonial animals living on the seabed that can easily be mixed up with corals or sponges. Bryozoa expanded along Paleozoic era, but at the end of the … Read more

Quercus x auzandrii

Quercus x auzandrii

Fagales » Fagaceae

Quercus x auzandrii (= Q. x auzendi, Q. x ausendi) is the hybrid species from the cross between the holm oak (Q.ilex) and the kermes oak (Q.coccifera). As expected, its morphological features are something between a holm oak and an kermes oak; you can’t decide whether it is an oak or a kermes oak, it … Read more

May 2024

Waterfall of La Baga Cerdana or La Coma

The stream of L’Om or La Baga Cerdana is a tributary going down from the Moianès plateau, from the area of the country houses of La Grossa (Calders) and La Moratona (Moià), to join the stream of La Golarda or Marfà on the gangway of Palanca de La Coma (Monistrol de Calders). The stream of … Read more

Natural shelter of La Coma

The natural shelter of La Coma is on the left bank of the Marfà or Golarda stream, not far from the farmhouse of La Coma and a few hundred meters before the confluence of the stream of La Baga Cerdana or L’Om, in the municipality of Monistrol de Calders. The shelter of La Coma is … Read more

Lepra amara

Lepra amara

Pertusariales » Pertusariaceae

Lepra amara (= Pertusaria amara) is a light grey crustacean lichen that is often well seen on the blackish bark of evergreen oak trunks. The thallus of Lepra amara can reach 20 x 30 cm, although the boundaries between specimens may not be clear. In this thallus, the soralia, made up of granules containing soredia, … Read more

Shelter of Els Burjons fountain

The shelter of the Els Burjons fountain is on the cliff of the left bank of the river Llobregat, upstream from Les Generes bridge towards Navarcles although in the municipality of Talamanca. It spans about 300 meters length between the bridge of Les Generes and the area of rapids of the river Llobregat in front … Read more

The Llobregat river rapids in Sant Benet de Bages

The Llobregat river becomes young again in front of the monastery and the factory of Sant Benet de Bages: the slope increases and the flow speeds up in a stretch of rapids resulting from the outcrop of a reef limestone that is harder than the remaining rocks in the area. The rock is best seen … Read more

April 2024

The surroundings of Sant Benet de Bages, 04/20/2024

On the afternoon of 04/20/2024, within the journey of 125th anniversary of the ICHN celebration, members of the Delegation of Bages guided a naturalistic outing around Sant Benet de Bages. Florenci Vallès managed the interpretation of the vegetation. In the 1st image, Florenci Vallès showing the great Himalayan cedar (Cedrus deodara) in the garden of … Read more

Celebration of the 125th anniversary of the ICHN, 20.04.2024

Saturday 20.04.2024 was devoted to the commemoration of the 125 years of the Institució Catalana d’Història Natural in the facilities of Món Sant Benet (Sant Fruitós de Bages), 125 years of studying and protecting nature. Several previous presidents of ICHN, as well as the current Jordina Belmonte attended. They are present at the table and … Read more

Sabalites sp.

Sabalites sp.

Arecales » Arecaceae

Sabalites sp. is an extinct genus of palm trees that is worldwide known as a fossil from the Upper Cretaceous to the Miocene. Sabalites sp. has large palmate leaves in a radial arrangement like a fan with leaflets with marked ribs and partially welded at the base. The images show the sandstone block with several … Read more

Landslide in the stream of Jaumandreu

From time to time, mostly after heavy rains, landslides occur on cliffs and steep slopes. The risk of falling rocks can be assessed, though the accurate prediction when the rocks will fall is much more uncertain. The rocks of continental origin of the geological formation Artés are heterogeneous after the changing ratio of clay, sand, … Read more

Jaumandreu (Fonollosa, Bages), 13.04.2024

Part of the ICHN-Bages group onto the stairs of an old wall made of dry stone that is located at the beginning of the stream of Jaumandreu, in the walk from Els Manxons to the belvedere of El Garrigar (Callús and Fonollosa, Bages), on 13.04.2024. [photo Jordi Badia]

March 2024

Riverbank of Cardener in Manresa, 02.03.2024

Part of the ICHN-Bages group in the left riverbank of Cardener where the canes have just been removed, below the quarters of Sant Pau and the Red and White factories, during the birdwatching activity led by Ferran Fitó, on 02.03.2024. [photo Jordi Badia]