Monthly Archives: October 2013

FOAW note:  If you want to eat fungi, buy them from the supermarket or learn from an expert.  The information on this website will not enable you to identify any edible fungi.

Foray Leader: Steve Joul

Foray Attendance: estimated 40 (30 adults and 10 children).

Number of species recorded: 29.

Recording of Fungi: Mary Page and Steve Joul.

Foray Report: This fungal foray event was run for the Friends of Adel Woods and was open to the public, in the hope of attracting new members to the group. It was a dull and breezy afternoon but nevertheless a large crowd of around 40 people gathered. A small charge was made for adults but not children. 

Following an introduction in the rugby club car park we walked back along Cragg Lane towards King Lane to see a large Artist’s Bracket on a mature Beech tree. We then explored Alwoodley Craggs Plantation to see what other fungi we could find.

The presence of enthusiastic families with children ensured a continuous supply of fungi to be identified with Ochre Brittlegill and Butter Cap being particularly abundant. The Deceiver lived up to its name particularly well, with a large and frilly-edged pale tan example contrasting with a smaller, rounder, reddish brown specimen.

A Dead Man’s Finger had people recoiling in horror whilst the white milk from a Birch Milkcap turned yellow on a white handkerchief as it was supposed to. An apparently munchable-mushroom proved to be the toxic-toadstool Poisonpie whilst the alarmingly-coloured Amethyst Deceiver was in fact an example of an edible species.

The Brown Rollrim was one with an accumulative toxin that can take many years to take effect whilst the Matt Bolete had pores under the cap instead of the usual gills. There were superb examples of Wood Woolyfoot which lived up to its name and the Common Yellow Earthball included well-coloured specimens.

On returning to the car park the heavens opened and so we said our goodbyes quickly as we ran to the cover of the cars.

On Thursday 24 October, your correspondent was panicking!  The weather forecast was for hurricane force winds and torrential rain on Sunday afternoon.  Would anyone turn up  for our fungal foray with Steve Joul?

In the event, the winds never reached Leeds, and Sunday afternoon was a beautiful afternoon, and the rain arrived only at five to four – though admittedly it was torrential.  There was an excellent turn out of adults and children.

Steve Joul began the afternoon in Old Leo’s carpark with a brief talk about mushrooms and fungi, handing round photographs and specimens to examine.  We then set off along Crag Lane and climbed up into Alwoodley Plantation, wondering along to the field adjacent to the Hospice Woodland, and then returning to Old Leo’s carpark.

Once in the plantation, search parties set off  enthusiastically to hunt for fungi, showing Steve specimens of all kinds of fungi or bringing them to him for identification.  Steve showed us interesting features of the specimens and impressed us with his knowledge not only of their common English names but also with their latin names!  Modestly, he told us that if you can learn to recognise the 24 most common fungi, you will be able to identify most of the fungi you find on a walk in the woods:  it is the other 12,500 species which are the difficult ones!  Your correspondent managed to learn to identify three more species of fungi – candlesnuff,  turkeytails and the deceiver.  Only 12,520 more to learn!

At the bottom of this page you will find a list of the fungi we found.  Thank you to Mary for this.  I have also put in a link to a website with a beginner guide to the common types of fungi.  I have put Steve’s report in the next entry on this blog.  Unfortunately, I cannot include Steve’s table with all the latin names.

It was a great afternoon and it was really pleasing to see the many children really enjoying running around in the woods.  Who knows, a future expert might have been inspired this afternoon!

We managed to raise £92 towards FOAW funds.

A very big thank you to Steve for a very interesting and enjoyable talk.  And thanks to everyone who joined in.

LIST OF FUNGI WE FOUND (to find out more, see http://amanita-photolibrary.co.uk/HTML_BG_Fungi/x/x/ )

Tar Spot

Artist’s Bracket

Candle Snuff (aka Stag’s Horn)

Hairy Curtain Crust

Common Bonnet (Mycelium)

Ocre Brittlestem

The Deceiver

Beech Woodwort

Milkcap

Buttercap

Turkey Tails

Blackening Brittlestem

Wood Woollyfoot

Brown Roll Rim

Ugly Milkcap

Purple Jelly Disc

Boletus

Birch Polypore

Dead Man’s Fingers

Sulphur Tuft

Earthball

Yellow Earthball

Amethyst Deceiver

Fibre Cap

Oyster Fungus

Spangle Gall

Silk Button

Shaggy Scaly Cap (to be confirmed!)

Mottle Gill

White Hellvella

Poison Pie

A great morning of litter picking, path clearing and tidying up the Hospice Woodland.

About a dozen of us met up and split into three teams:  the litter pickers, the path clearers and the Hospice Woodland tidiers.

The path clearers concentrated on removing branches intruding into Crag Lane –particularly at the height which would be a nuisance to horse riders.  This was particularly enjoyable as it gave us the chance to use our extendable loppers – seen here in Brian’s expert hands!

The Hospice Wood team did a great job clearing brambles and other plants which were growing over the trees.