Funga Nordica

Funga Nordica

A few weeks back, after I'd spent much of an afternoon struggling to identify a mushroom I found at Park Corner Heath (which I eventually concluded *might* be a Psathyrella species), I asked Martin Allison, the Sussex County Recorder for Fungi, how one goes about putting a name to a species such as this:

"You're going to need a bigger book," Martin replied. And the book he recommended was Funga Nordica. (Actually, Martin's advice was more along the lines of: You're going to need a lot of bigger books, and most of them are very expensive, but the place to start, if you want to get into serious mycology, would be Funga Nordica.)

Imagine then my disappointment upon discovering that Funga Nordica is out of print, sold out everywhere, and IMPOSSIBLE to get hold of.

Some weeks later, I received an email from another Sussex mycologist, Howard Matcham, who said he's been enjoying reading this fungi blog and, as he is focussed on studying other, even-more-obscure, forms of life these days, asked if I would like to have his copy of Funga Nordica – to give me "a nice start in my mycological career".

WHAT LUCK!

Of course I replied, "YES PLEASE!".

And that wasn't it: Howard also had a copy of Collins Fungi Guide he was offering to give me – the illustrated one. This too had been on my wishlist ever since it was recommended to me by Graeme Lyons, as I gather it includes more comprehensive coverage of all the UK species than my other field guides.

My cup runneth over! And my bookshelves are runneth-ing over too, so I've had a bit of a re-organise. Here is my new "Mycology" section: