Fungus Day 2013 A Great Success!

This is the first open fungus day event that we’ve held at Coed Hills, and it was a great success. We’ve been hosting courses in fungi cultivation here, in association with the National Botanic Gardens of Wales, which have always had a good turn out, but I was delighted to see so many new faces. We had 35 people join us for the afternoons event. The event was aimed at raising general awareness of fungi, but also to bring together anyone who had a more keen interest, with the idea of setting up a local recording group. The turn out brought together people from many different backgrounds, some with professional interest, others eager to find out what they could forage. Some of the most keen, and surprisingly most knowledgeable participants, were a group of 4 children under 10 who were very excited and able to name quite a few common fungi.

The event began with exploring an exhibition space that I’d set up with the help from some excellent volunteers. We had a Mushroom Movie space, where there were short clips of fungi related videos playing, that gave some basic and interesting facts in an easy to digest format. There was a good selection of field guides, monographs and books on fungal ecology and medicinal uses, from my collection, that people could look through at their leisure. People found it useful to be able to see a number of different field guides in one place, so that they could get a feel for what each one offered.

There was a great selection of fungi that people bought along to have identified, from a range of local habitats. This was particularly useful as the weather had been very dry and so there wasn’t a great deal around on our foray. Being able to see specimens directly really helped people to get used some of the odd morphologies of fungi, and gave visitors the chance to smell and taste some too.

We are lucky to have a fantastic sculptor who works with us, Nancy Evans, who worked with the kids (and some of the adults!) to create some brilliant mushroom lanterns, from willow grown on our site and tissue paper. They were so good when they were finished that most people could accurately identify which fungus they were supposed to be!

I gave a short talk on microscopy, showing some simple techniques, and also what some of the spores and features look like on different fungi. I used this session to highlight the differences between basidiomycetes and ascomycetes. The visual aids helped people understand it better, and I think added to the wonder, as there were many people who had not seen fungi down a microscope before.

After everyone had had a chance to ask questions, we ventured out for a foray. The weather was a little unkind, but everyone had come well prepared. I showed everyone the fungi cultivation area in our forest garden, revealing the mycelium growing through the substrate and still attached to the bases of the fruiting bodies. We found a good range of EM species in the woodland, along with a number of common woodland saprotrophs. Our walk in the grassland was more productive, with 8 waxcap species and some great clubs and spindles out on display. The rain beat us in the end, so we retreated to the barn for mushroom cookies and tea.

I feel that the day was really worth while. It certainly got some people excited about looking out for fungi, and gave more of an insight into how important they our in our lives and ecosystems. For me it’s done a great job of raising the profile of my work with the fungi lab and forest garden, here at Coed Hills, and also bought the beginnings of a new fungus group together. I’m looking forward to next year already!