BBC warning of Wild Mushroom Foraging October 2013

Ashdown Forest, Sussex

The BBC reported on the 8th October that professional foragers are cashing in on the market value of mushrooms.  Some prized mushrooms have been taken.

It is not actually illegal to pick wild mushrooms but to do so for commercial gain IS.

Today 3rd November 2013 it is reported in the Mail on-line that mushroom pickers have stripped the New Forest of wild fungi to sell to hotels and restaurants.  One Common at a national park (Bramshaw Common), in Hants has no edible mushrooms left.  The same thing happened last year.

Unfortunately media chefs are encouraging foraging during the recession and this is not only endangering  the future of many mushrooms but causing consequences such as trampled ground and other environmental impacts.

I wonder if these commercial chefs know that fungi need protecting and conserving, are vital to the eco-system and are natures recyclers.

Experts have been giving warnings for the past 15 years that the only solution might be heavy fines.

So,  Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall et al, please, please, use your high profile status to encourage the population to appreciate and protect mushrooms and not to pick too many of them.

UK Fungus Day, October 13th 2013 - celebrating the wonderful fungal kingdom

UK Fungus Day, October 13th 2013

The aim of National Fungus Day is to celebrate the wonderful fungal kingdom.  There will be a series of events, lectures and forays held across the UK on the above date and also over the weekend of the 12-13th October.

Coinciding with the National Fungus Day there will be an International Mushroom Festival 12-13th October held at Killegar, Ireland.

Events are to be held in various locations around the UK including National Trust Sites, Wildlife Trusts, Natures Reserves etc.  For further information please visit The British Mycological Society Website, or  check to see if any events are to be held in your own local area.

Gymnosporangium confusum up-date

Gymnosporangium confusum update

In a previous blog dated 26th May 2013 I wrote about a rust that I photographed on a friends Juniper tree and was subsequently confirmed to be G. confusum which was a first recording for Nottinghamshire.

The spores travel over a number of weeks either to hawthorne or pear trees.  Observations followed over some weeks and I couldn't locate a hawthorne tree, nor see a pear tree infected in adjacent gardens.  On a practical level though, it is impossible to knock on the doors of all local strangers and ask to snoop around their gardens!

During the period when the spores travel,  I was invited around to see a different friend who has a large orchard garden.  Knowing my interest in fungi, he mentioned that one of his pear trees was becoming infected with rust.  As the crow flies his pear tree is probably 500 m from the Juniper tree.  It is probable, but I can't prove it, that his pear tree became infected from that very Juniper tree.  The photograph here shows the rust.  All photographs relating to
G. confusum can be seen on Browse 4
at fungiworld.co.uk.

Arrhenia retiruga

Arrhenia retiruga 

From my experience, Arrhenia retiruga is very tiny, difficult to come across, and hard to find in fungi encylopedic books!  It is classed as a member of the Tricholomataceae, according to Roger Phillips.

My first sighting of Arrhenia retiruga was over a year ago at University Park.   The Nottingham University Park consists of 300 acres of grounds and has been part of the University of Nottingham since 1929.  There is a huge swathe of meadow land which is allowed to grow wild and it is there I first spotted  Arrhenia.  Conditions were damp and moist and amongst a heavily mossy patch in the grass was a small group.  I was a little baffled as there was no stem, no gills and the cap just seemed to rest somehow amongst the grass and moss, but somehow seemed firmly attached.  I took photographs but archived them until I spotted the same again this year in exactly the same area.  I took more photographs (and they are incredibly difficult to photograph) as the cap is very pale in colour being whitish, grey and pallid and being tiny 0.5 cm or so, and seemingly buried in the moss.  While researching some other fungi I did come across a photograph and was able to identify.

This fungus is uncommon.  The characteristics are as follows:

0.5-1.5cm.  Disc, cupped shaped or fan shaped. Lobed margin.  White/greyish, delicate.
No stem or gills.  Habitat usually moss, but can be seen on dead grass and twigs.  Winter to Spring.

It reminded me of a tiny mother of pearl in moss!

This can now be seen on Browse 4 on fungiworld.co.uk



 

Egghead Mottlegill, Panaeolus semiovatus, Letham, Scotland

Egghead Mottlegill, Panaeolus semiovatus

Mottlegill,  it seems originates from mottled gills due to uneven maturity of black gills, thus giving a mottled appearance.

My first ever trip to Scotland during the month of May.  I normally spend 5 days there during either August or October to take advantage of the new fungi season but this year my friends had moved to a new dwelling, and a new location, 10 miles inland from Arbroath, and so were keen to have me visit.  So I kept my expectations in realistic proportions, erring on the view that I probably wouldn't find anything much.

How wrong I was.  Within 2 hours of arriving at their new abode, and whilst out on a brief dog walk around grass footpaths around the village, I spotted something in dried up manure in someone's garden.  Thought at first it was a Coprinus but on closer inspection realised it was an Egghead Mottlegill.  Its structure and beauty captivated me; in particular its clay coloured shiny cap, and its unusual creased and wrinkled appearance.   Firstly, I saw a mature group, and then a single fresh specimen.  Can see why it is called Egghead.  The shape is like a hard-boiled egg with the bottom chopped off.  The clay and light buff-coloured cap had a light dusting of black gill spores smeared in the wrinkled structure.  Also on the stem there were sprinkles of black spores. 

Taking a photograph of the fresh single Egghead was challenging.  The sun was in the wrong position, kneeling in dung is not my favourite past time, and also the house owners Jack Russell dog was yapping at me a bit too close for comfort - still all worth it to capture this lovely fungus.

This can now be viewed on Browse 4 on fungiworld.co.uk

The Fungi, Exhibition at Whitby Museum, Pannett Park, Whitby, North Yorkshire, UK June-November 2013

The Fungi,
Exhibition at Whitby Museum,
Whitby,
North Yorkshire, UK

June- November 2013

I am happy to report that in celebration of Whitby Naturalists' Club Centenary, it is hosting an exhibition entitled The Fungi - a Celebration of Nature's Recyclers.  The theme was chosen because Fungi "form an incredibly important and key part of the natural world.  Without them we could not live on this planet".

Some other important facts extracted from the exhibition information sheet are:

- Fungi are endangered.  They are just as vulnerable as animals and plants to the threats of habitat destruction, pollution, climate change and persecution.

- The UK has no permanent exhibition about fungi.  None of Britain's great natural history museums has a gallery devoted to fungi.

- It is thought that at least 1.4 million more species may still be undiscovered and about 100,000 have been described.

- Fungi are beautiful.

I am very pleased and proud to have been asked to contribute 28 photographs to this exhibition, along side other photographers from the UK and around the world.  I visited the Whitby Museum last week to see for myself.  It is a very impressive exhibition, being educational and entertaining at the same time. I sincerely hope and believe that fungi will, with time, get the appreciation and protection that they deserve.

Red-belted bracket (Fomitopsis pinicola) and Willow bracket (Phellinus igniarius)

Fomitopsis pinicola

Other names for F.pinicola is Red-belted bracket or Red-banded polypore.  Quite appropriate really as this hoof-shaped bracket has a reddish/rust extended rim around the margin.  This bracket does resemble in shape and texture Fomes fomentarius but grows more steeply. It can reach a size of 30 cm.   It is grooved and wrinkled. The  Fungi of Britain and Europe book states that "it has a resinous covering which melts in heat" and this can be tested using a match!  It smells strongly acidic and grows either in small groups or can be solitary.  Usually found on broad-leaved trees or conifers.  May be seen all year but this is a rare bracket.

If I have interpreted the FRDBI records correctly then it has only been recorded 40 times in the UK.
I was very kindly sent a photograph by DC taken in Gloucestershire and was the second recording in that county.  This photograph can now be viewed on Browse 4 of  fungiworld.co.uk

Phellinus igniarius

During May I came across my first ever sighting of a Willow bracket.  Having never seen one before I was blessed with seeing on the same day, a young example and then later a mature example. 
The young Willow bracket is very different in appearance to how it matures.  Being hoof-like, and bracket-like, rusty brown, but when mature being grey with a cracked appearance.  Mostly seen on willow but also sometimes on broad-leaved trees.  This can also be seen on Browse 4.