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!
Steve identifying a toadstool
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.
Birch Poly Pore and red wellington boot.
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
Friends of Adel Woods 