Friday night at Flatford Mill

I'm at Flatford Mill in Suffolk this weekend for a course on 'Identifying Fungi' with Geoffrey Kibby – author of many fungus identification guides, including the new 'Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain & Europe'. So I'm hoping for 48 hours of fascinating fungus facts, from here on in.

After some basic introductions, Geoffrey began with a talk this evening on non-native and invasive fungi. Not a subject I've ever given much thought; but it was REALLY INTERESTING..

The basic premise of Geoffrey's talk was that the modern horticultural practice of mulching flowerbeds and shrubberies with woodchip, combined with a generally warming climate, is creating ideal conditions for non-native and potentially invasive fungus species to grow and spread.

It seems that very little is known about how the process of creating, transporting and spreading woodchip around is affecting species and habitats. And the risks, e.g. in enabling the spread of pathogens and aggressive non-native fungi, have not really been examined.

This struck a chord with me as I've been guilty of dumping a load of woodchip mulch on our garden at home, to keep down the weeds. Even when I noticed masses of not-previously-seen fruit bodies popping up in all the flowerbeds (here), I never really gave a second thought to what broader impact this might be having. It's easy to get fixated on looking for mushrooms and other fruiting bodies, and forget that fungi are ever-present, doing their thing, under the ground. (As an aside, I was listening to Lynne Boddy on The Life Scientific on the way here, talking about fungal communities, and she made this point very well: fungi live complicated lives which, to a very great extent, we don't yet really understand.)

Geoffrey proceeded to profile a number of woodchip-loving mushrooms which are spreading through Britain. These include:

• Mulch Fieldcap Agrocybe putaminum
• Redlead Roundhead Leratiomyces (=Stropharia) aurantiaca 
• Blueleg Brownie Psilocybe cyanescens
• Cucumber Cap Macrocystidia cucumis
• Wrinkled Fieldcap Agrocybe rivulosa
• Warty Cavalier Melanoleuca verrucipes

Classically alien-looking species like Devil's Fingers Clathrus archeri, Starfish Fungus Aseroe rubra and Red Cage Clathrus ruber also got a mention.

And it's not just the distribution of species which is changing. Geoffrey referenced a unique longditudinal study of fungal fruiting periods, based on data collected by fungus recorder E.G. Gange, which showed the UK fungus fruiting season is now around double the length of what it was in the 1950s; and numerous species are fruiting twice over the course of one year. There's a neat summary of this study on nature.com, here.

But it's not just us humans spreading fungi around. Species which were thought to be extinct in Britain, like the Pepperpot Myriostoma coliforme, and continental species like the Bearded Amanita Amanita ovoidea are present in a few sites in Britain and could spread, if climatic conditions become more favourable for them. Perhaps Caesar's Mushroom Amanita caesarea may make it to these shores. That's one mushroom it's worth keeping an eye out for! (You can find a description here).

Environmental change brings consequences, and Geoffrey finished by highlighting a few such consequences, from increases in pathogens and allergens, through to broader ecological impacts. It's clear there is much research that needs doing. And we'll need more mycologists in order to do it. 



I did warn Geoffrey I might be writing a blog, so I hope he will forgive me for stealing / sharing his content. Time to get some kip.