ISSN 1465-8054 Newsletter - fungus.org.ukfungus.org.uk/nwfg/news-04-14.pdfcalled Mycelium Running: How mush-rooms can help save the world; a pro-vocative title, and rightly so. However

North West Fungus Group - April 2014 Page No. 1

NORTH WEST

FUNGUS GROUP NewsletterApril 2014

FAIRY-RING CHAMPIGNON

Marasmius oreades

ISSN 1465-8054

ContentsView from the Chair.....................2Stains and reagents.......................3UK Fungus Day 2014...................3Me Ol’ Bam Boo..........................4Moving North?.............................4

The cultivation of edible fungiat Scutchers Acres........................9Editorial......................................11Lake District Foray, 2013...........11

Page No. 2 North West Fungus Group - April 2014

PRESIDENT:Professor Bruce Ing, Clwyd Mycological InstituteCHAIR: Irene Ridge,TREASURER/MEMBERSHIP Liz Moore:SECRETARY: Mike WaltonAUDITOR: Dr Paul Hamlyn:RECORDING CO-ORDINATOR John Taylor:NEWSLETTER EDITOR Dr Paul Hamlyn:(Typesetting & Printing: Mike Walton)RECORDER & FORAY SECRETARY Tony Carter:EMAIL GROUP CO-ORDINATOR Tony Carter:COMMITTEE Norman Bamforth, Rita Cook, Jeanette Maddy, Tim Rogers,

Peter Smith, John Watt.

View from the ChairA brief ‘View’ because the main thingthat has happened since the last News-letter has been the AGM – and youshould all have received the minutes ofthat meeting from Mike Walton[emailed to those with email addresses,included with this newslettewr forthose without]. In case you didn’t havetime to read the minutes, Mike hastaken over as Secretary from CareySaunders who, sadly, had to resign andtwo new people were elected to theCommittee – Jeanette Maddy and JohnWatt. Once again we had to amend theconstitution in yet another attempt toregister for Gift Aid but this really isour last try! In the absence of our belov-ed President, Bruce Ing, one of ourmembers, Mike Valentine gave a talkon Fungi of the North West illustrated

there was a splendid AGM lunch pre-pared this year by Robin Dean. Forti-fied and cheered most of us thenembarked on a brief AGM foray aroundRisley Moss Reserve. There were theusual but always welcome Scarlet Elf-cups and a good number of speciesfound (list posted by Tony Carter).So far this year there have been twoforays, both well-attended. In March,Mike Valentine led a foray to SpringWood near Whalley and the list of 77species found has already been sent tothe email group and posted on the website by Tony Carter. A very good spe-cies total for so early in the year and analtogether excellent foray. The secondforay of the year (on 13 April) was thetraditional visit to the Sefton coast, thistime to the Freshfield end. The totalspecies found isn’t yet known but thesite was very dry (sand drains so quick-


ly) so is likely to be modest. But it wasanother very enjoyable day so those ofyou who rarely come on forays, I hopeyou can manage a few this year.You can see news of National FungusDay from Jeanette Maddy below andthe foray programme (sent to all andalso available on the website) lists allthe other delights in the year ahead.There is our annual residential foray toKeswick (booking form enclosed),which is always a highlight of the yearand there is still space available. Notethat two foray dates have been switchedsince the original programme was sent:the Moor Piece foray is now on Sun-day, 21 September, and the RisleyMoss beginners' foray is on SATUR-DAY 27 September. This last foraywill be followed by a microscope work-shop IF a sufficient number of peopleare interested: unless at least 5 peoplewant to attend, it isn’t worth paying forthe workshop room. So do please let meknow if you are thinking of attendingthe workshop. If you want to brush upyour microscope skills or are eventhinking of starting microscopy, this isa great opportunity.Enjoy the fungal year ahead and I hopeto see you on a foray.Irene Ridge

Stains and ReagentsTo facilitate the procurement of stains,reagents and immersion oil formembers whilst minimising deliverycosts, it has been agreed to try to placebulk orders for members from time totime. I have been tasked withcoordinating this.Congo red powder (1 gm) is alreadyavailable at £3.54 and I have a supplyof 10 ml brown glass dropper bottles at£1.86. Ideally I will pass these topeople during Sunday Forays but Icould occasionally post suppliesonwards. Payment should preferably bemade by cheque, made out toNorthwest Fungus Group.Do let me know of any other chemicalsthat you need, and the urgency withwhich you require them, and I will tryto arrange a co-ordinated order.Finally, thanks to those members whohave already shared their experiencewith me and provided me with tips.John Watt

UK Fungus Day 2014Sunday 12 October 2014 is UK Fungus Day. Many events, lectures, sciencedisplays and outreach activities are being planned to run over and around theweekend of 11/12 October to raise the profile of fungi and fungal researchthroughout the UK and Ireland.Information is available at http://www.ukfungusday.co.uk/.Jeanette Maddy - co-ordinator for NWFG


Me Ol’ Bam-Boo*Tony Carter

I was sowing beetroot seeds in my al-lotment, using small pieces of bamboocane to mark the rows. I noticed thatone piece was covered with small blackflask shaped pycnidia poking throughthe outer surface. (see opposite)I took it home for examination butnothing in my literature quite fitted. SoI consulted Peter Wilberforce who ex-pressed interest as fungi on bamboo, inthe UK, are not common. I sent it tohim for further research.Peter reports - The nearest match I canfind is Astrosphaeriella stellata (Pat.)Sacc. This agrees with my findings oflarge, asymmetric spores, strongly con-stricted and 1-septate, and with somespores showing a slender gelatinouscoating. (see opposite) Known onlyfrom Bamboo recorded (1981) fromIndia and the Far East. The taxon wasfirst published as Amphisphaeria stel-lata Pat. (1913 in Bull. Soc. de la My-cologique de France). There is a fulldescription in Hawsworth’s paper inLin Soc 1981.Peter decided that this was a specimenthat should be looked at further, so hesent it to Kew. It was examined byBrian Spooner, who confirmed Astro-sphaeriella stellata.This is a first for the United Kingdom.I checked the National Database and itis not mentioned there.I cannot believe that it is a rarity but Idoubt that many people foray amongstbamboo canes in their gardens.(*Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)

MOVING NORTH?Tony Carter

On Saturday 28 September, I led afungal foray for the public at AinsdaleSand Dunes Nature Reserve on behalfof Natural England.We found about forty species, mostlythe more common varieties such asAmanita muscaria (Fly Agaric), Paxil-lus involutus (Brown Rollrim), Lactar-ius tabidus (Birch Milkcap) andPholiota squarrosa (Shaggy Scalycap).These are species a foray leader hopesfor when assisting a group of novices.However, one specimen, found by thegate leading into the paddock, was newto me. Pure white and woolly, it wasdensely covered in a powdery sub-stance that came off easily when han-dled. (See page 7) I identified it to thegroup as a probable Cystoderma (Pow-dercap), which seemed logical at thetime.Later microscopic observation and fur-ther research showed that it was a Dap-perling, Cystolepiota pulverulenta. Ihad never seen one before. It is the firstrecord for Ainsdale and VC59. Ains-dale rarely fails to surprise.According to the British Checklist, thisspecies is normally found in southerncounties such as Oxfordshire, Somersetand Devon. Is this another speciesmoving north with a warming climate?


Astrosphaeriella stellata

Photo courtesy of Peter Wilberforce


See page 9

See page 11


Cystolepiota pulverulentaPhotograph courtesy of Peter Ross.

Hand courtesy of Tony Carter(page 4)

Shitake (left) and Oyster Mushrooms (right) - see page 10

See page 9


Keswick Weekend - Pages 11 & 12


The cultivation of edi-ble woodland fungi at

Scutchers AcresJohn Watt

A few years before my retirement, as awoodland owner in Lancashire, I wasinformed by the Council's tree officerabout a workshop on the cultivation ofwoodland fungi which I attended withgreat interest and thereafter acquiredbooks by Paul Stamets, one of which iscalled Mycelium Running: How mush-rooms can help save the world; a pro-vocative title, and rightly so.However it was only after my retire-ment when I had formed a Friends ofScutchers Acres volunteers group andhad built up links with the local youthgroup of the Lancs Wildlife Trust andlocal schoolchildren, that I embarkedupon a serious attempt to grow somemushrooms on logs. I was also given agrant towards this by the West LancsCVS as a Community Food Growingproject.The information given at the initial in-duction had indicated that my chosensite near the Eller Brook River withinan acre of Picea abies should be ideal,sheltered from direct sun and wind.This parcel of 'non-native' coniferouswoodland, within a mosaic of broad-leaved woodland and grassland is, initself, a wonderful place for mycorrhiz-al fungi especially late in the year. Ihave observed the regular appearancethere of Lepista flaccida; Rhodocolly-bia butyracea; Clitocybe nebularis;

Clitocybe rivulosa; Russula queletii;Ramaria abietina; Chlorophyllum rha-codes; and on one occasion a group ofLimacella guttata and also of Agaricussilvicola.From the supplier, AnnforFungi in In-verurie, I selected Pleurotus ostreatus;Pleurotus pulmonaria; Lentinula edo-des (Shiitake), and Hericium erina-ceous (Lion's Mane) as suitable forbroadleaved log cultivation. The fun-gus comes in the form of either dowelsor 'spawn' which one innoculates intothe drilled holes with a 'jaberator' - as ithas been jokingly called. For the logs, Ihad felled a mixture of Grey Alder;Grey Willow; Turkey Oak; Silver Limeand Common Ash in January 2012, andthen cut them into 1 m lengths by 10-20cm diameter. They were labelled care-fully and stacked off the ground onpallets pre-treated with wood-preserva-tive. (See page 6) Eight weeks laterthese were ready for drilling, inoculat-ing and sealing with hot cheese-waxand so several sessions were coordinat-ed between groups of volunteers, thelocal children from the wildlife Trustand the school (see pages 6 & 7). Itproved to be great fun for the children -even though many kids don't like to eatmushrooms - and it was a good oppor-tunity to be the advocate for the placefor fungi in our world. I had to disap-point that the fungal logs would take atleast 18 months to bear fruit. This beingthe case, we undertook a second seriesof inoculations again this spring, usingPedunculate Oak and Turkey Oak,bringing the tally to over 70 logs intotal.


Fairly soon after the first series of in-noculations, we suffered a very dryspring and I became quite concernedabout the drying out of the logs so thatI bought a Protimeter moisture meter,and found indeed that the moisture con-tent was dropping to the 20% levels insome cases, especially in Ash, whichfor this reason, like sycamore, is actual-ly not a suitable species for log cultiva-tion. I then bought a double diaphragmmanual water pump for irrigating logsand filling water butts even though Idon't have time to do this very often.After some months, it was possible tosee signs of the mycelial run from thewhitish appearance at the cut ends ofmost of the logs and a few oyster mush-rooms sprouted in autumn 2012, afteronly 8 months. (See page 7) This au-tumn, following the long dry spell insummer, we shocked logs into fruitingby soaking some and delivering a sharphammer blow to the ends of other logs,as is the traditional Japanese method.However, the 10% of logs which didsprout fungi this autumn appeared tohave done so spontaneously withoutspecific shock treatment. However, thenumber of fruiting bodies per logs wasat most about 5-6 i.e. not the amountthe commercial producer would wish.So far, we have had a mixture of someshiitake (see page 7) and oyster mush-rooms and the Forest School childrenwere able to cut these from the logs andtake some back to school for cookingand I have also dried some. Annoying-ly, many of the oak logs cut this yearhave sprouted extensive growths ofBulgaria inquinans and it will be inter-

esting to see if they out compete theinoculated mushrooms.The logs, if still with viable edible fun-gal mycelia, should continue to pro-duce fruiting bodies for some years,and so I do not for the moment planfurther inoculations this coming spring.Furthermore, because I can only lookafter them on a low maintenance regi-men, i.e. without regular control ofmoisture, I need to evaluate the overallpotential success of such a project andhow easily it could become a communi-ty food project. I am wondering if thelogs would in fact be better stored onthe ground, to ensure better moisturepreservation.The logs are evident to walkers in thewoods, and for the most part have notbeen interfered with, except on the oneoccasion some adventuresome childrenbuilt a log cabin with many of the logs;I left this for some days but in duecourse my volunteers and I reorganisedthem back onto their pallets and put upa polite notice!Mushrooms such as shiitake, quiteapart from their nutritional value mostespecially for vitamin D, are said topossess many health-giving propertieswith dozens of scientific papers on theirantiviral, antibacterial and immunos-timulant properties. Lentinan is an ap-proved anti-cancer drug in Japan.The mushrooms were described in Ja-pan in AD199 and they have been cul-tivated in the Far East for one thousandyears. In the time of the Sung Dynastythere is the first written account ofgrowing them in logs in Longquan


province, and striking the logs to bearfruit. Even today, 95% of farmers inthis region of China practise its cultiva-tion. In comparison, we in the westhave been far behind.Shiitake are generally saprophytic andtheir preferred hosts are Castanopsiscuspidata, Pasania and Quercus andAsian Fagus species. Despite their abil-ity to grow in other broadleaved logsand their widespread cultivation, it isinteresting that the fungus does not ap-pear to have spread in the wild beyondits traditional geographical region. Isthis just a matter of time? Keep a lookout for it may turn up anywhere, espe-cially in Scutchers Acres now!

Lake District Foray2013

Robin CowleyThe Lake District foray always turns upa good collection and this autumn thefungi did themselves proud. But therewere four very special things that madethis year's foray unusual: a profusion ofhoney fungus, some tremendouslygood picture shows, wild mushroomson the menu and massages.Saturday was a gorgeous warm, dryand sunny day and even Sunday wasless wet than predicted, so there wasplenty of encouragement from nature togo and see what we could find.The two best sites, not for the first time,were Blencathra and Great Wood. ToIrene's delight both yielded over a hun-dred different species, with a colourfulrange of waxcaps from the Blencathrafields. This was fortunate because thefields below Latrigg were noticeablylacking in what is usually a diversedisplay; plenty of Hygrocybe virgineaand a few H. conica but little if any-thing else. The eager explorers returnedwith baskets full of treasures, but alsotales of a surprisingly large amount ofhoney fungus on the loose.The National Trust’s Aira Force sitebeside Ullswater again had a splendidring of Amanita muscaria in its car park- at least until late on Saturday, bywhich time it was reported that somechildren had been allowed to do whatchildren like to do with fungi. DoddsWood also turned up an interesting

EditorialWe have one article in reserve so Iwould encourage anyone thinking ofwriting an one to do so in order that wecan bring the next newsletter out ingood time. Many thanks to all thosemembers who have contributed articlesfor this issue and to Mike Walton fortypesetting and organising the printingand posting of the Newsletter.Articles need not be long or technicaland can be submitted to me by email.Alternatively please send hard copy,ideally in a form that can be electronicallyscanned (i.e. black print or type) or, ifthis is not possible, hand-written in clearand legible writing. Pictures of fungito accompany articles are very welcomepreferably sent as separate attachments.Paul F Hamlyn


mas and Lactarius and the usual funnylittle brown things that aren't interest-ing enough to identify (oops, did I saythat?). Oh, and lots more honey fungus.There was also a very handy coffeeshop at the bottom on the way back tothe road, but the intrepid adventurerswere too soggy to chance that.Back at the hostel there was a choice ofthe games room laboratory for the deadkeen with their microscopes, or theluxury of a cup of tea up in the loungefor the fungused-out. We had somedelightful photographic presentationswith unusual birds and fungi and things(I won't say who from as Steve mightfeel embarrassed). Our catering teamdid us proud again, with amazinglywonderful food, the best apples I'veever eaten and a dazzling array of farm-made cheeses. Just to prove how ad-venturous they were the catering teamseized upon the opportunity to cookand sample the text-book cep and adecent handful of chanterelles liberatedfrom Borrowdale. This bravery was soencouraging that it led to them prepar-ing and serving just enough Boletusbadius for everyone to sample with ourlast evening meal. Utterly delicious.Undoubtedly this should become a tra-dition for Lake District forays.As should the intriguing group eventthat followed our last meal - whichinvolved lots of massage (courtesy ofEnid Braddock). It almost got me rath-er excited!And there it was; Keswick 2013, anoth-er memorable event.I'll bet you're sorry you missed it now!

range of Boletes, Amanitas, Lactariusand Russulas to name only the ones Icould recognise on the table. This wasfar better than the previous year whenit was extremely wet and slippery andyielded nothing much. And there wasquite a bit of honey fungus there.Lots of wonderful things turned up,although possibly not so many raritiesas have turned up in previous years. Iwas delighted to see a specimen of thewhite hedgehog fungus (Hydnumrepandum) captured to complement themore usual orange (rufescens) varietythat we know where to find, a parasiticbolete (Pseudoboletus parasiticus),some huge Lactarius and delicate angelwings (Pleurocybella porrigens).There were also exciting exploratoryvisits to Moss Wood, highly recom-mended the previous year by a local,Thornthwaite and Borrowdale.Moss Wood, beside Bassenthwaite,was a dead loss - apart from rather a lotof honey fungus. Thornthwaite, westfrom Keswick, yielded nothing mucheither, although much of the morepromising parts were fenced off so notexplored. Borrowdale, however, was arevelation. A very beautiful site (evenin the Sunday drizzle) with a lovelyclimb up from the Bowder Stone carpark then back down and up andaround and about and down with lots offungus on the way. The highlights weresome frogs, a bank of bright yellowchanterelles, solitary fly agarics, sever-al ceps (including an utterly perfectlyformed specimen straight out of thetextbook that was hiding under somebracken), plenty of Russulas, Entolo-

Documents

ISSN 1465-8054 Newsletter - fungus.org.ukfungus.org.uk/nwfg/news-04-14.pdfcalled Mycelium Running: How mush-rooms can help save the world; a pro-vocative title, and rightly so. However