UK Fungus Day

Sunday (13th October) was the first UK Fungus Day.  An idea by British Mycological Society and other groups,  the idea being to raise the profile of fungal related research in the UK and to highlight the importance of fungi within the UK environment.

Unfortunately, Sunday was too wet to get out and investigate the local fungus, however the excellent (so far) autumn has given the opportunity to explore two of UK's most important and interesting fungal sites:

Previously mentioned in this blog, Burnham Beeches is a 500 acre beech woodland just north of Slough and the quantity and rarity of it's fungus has made it an Special Area of Conservation and a National Nature Reserve.

There are over 250 different species of fungus found at the beeches including:

The pale oyster mushroom - Pleurotus ostreatus:

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The Bitter Beech Bolete – Boletus calopus:

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The elegant Porcelain Fungus - Oudemansiella mucida
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And the very impressive Giant Polypore – Merupilus giganteus  

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The New Forest has a staggering 2,500 different species of fungi and within a few square metres there is an impressive variety, including what is probably the most easy to identify UK fungus, the Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria):

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However, the less distinctively coloured fungus are a lot harder to identify - this could be a Grey Spotted Amanita (Aminita excelasa):
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Whilst this one might also be another Grey Spotted Amanita, a Blusher (Amanita rubescens) or perhaps a faded Fly Algaric.

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Now foraging has become evermore popular, large scale harvesting fungus has become a real problem, the Corporation of London (the authority who manage Burnham Beeches) has a complete non-fungus picking policy:
http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/green-spaces/burnham-beeches-and-stoke-common/Documents/Burnham-beeches-fungi-policy.pdf

Whilst the Forestry Commission (who manage the New Forest) permit collecting of up to 1.5Kg of fungus, commercial harvesting is not permitted and in several locations it is banned altogether:
http://www.forestry.gov.uk/forestry/infd-6e3gaz

In order to comply with the by-laws and not wishing to disturb the fruiting bodies, none has been picked  and all identification has been done via photography and  using the field guides: Roger Phillips Mushrooms & Collins Complete Guide to British Mushrooms and Toadstools 
As identifying fungus is hard, these identifications maybe incorrect - so comments and corrections are always welcome.