Fungi are intriguing and many people who delve into their world become quite passionate about this mysterious group. Flick through a book on fungi and names such as tawny grisette, amethyst deceiver, skullcap dapperling and slippery jack will jump off the pages. In Britain there may be as many as 10,000 different fungi, of which approximately 3,000 can be found in Norfolk. The key to fungi identification is not to become overwhelmed and to start with the basics.
Have you got a real passion fungi?
Reg and Lil Evans were mycologists who retired to Norfolk in 1978. Their passion for fungi inspired many people and their recording keeping was particularly impressive.
Reg Evans collected over 35,000 fungi records. He recorded each species he found in the county on a separate card – 1,700 of them in total. Sadly Reg died in 2002, but his passion and enthusiasm for fungi lives on through the
Fungus Study Group which hed helped establish.
Food for thought…
Death cap,
fly agaric and destroying angel are just three poisonous fungi. There are more out there and for this reason it cannot be stressed enough how important it is not to eat fungi unless you are 100% certain you have identified it correctly as an edible species.
Have you got a fungus-rich grassland in your back garden?
‘Good’ fungus grassland is likely to be:
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Unfertilised so that plants other than grasses are abundant, and it does not look ‘lush’
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Regularly mown (for example domestic lawns, churchyards) or rabbit-grazed
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Well-established (but some fungus-rich grasslands are surprisingly young)
Please flag-up potentially interesting sites if you record two or more of the following species:
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Any waxcap species (count one for each species)
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Any yellow or white spindle fungi not on wood (count one for each species)
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Any earthtongue species
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Either of the pinkgill fungi – big blue pinkgill or blue edge pinkgill (count one for each species)
Email Norfolk Wildlife Trust at
[email protected] or telephone us on 01603 598333.
Why not start a simple survey today?