There are an awful lot of fungi – 2,400 species in the latest field guide and that’s just the larger ones. Fortunately, perhaps, most of them are rarely seen. There are only about a hundred really common ones, and they are the ones you need to know. Two or three fruit bodies of each species should be adequate for identification, and perhaps five or six if the material is to be preserved as part of a permanent collection. It is unlikely that the time available to the average amateur collector will permit the examination and identification of more than about six or, at the most, ten unknown species from each collecting expedition. To take home more than this is wasteful therefore – especially as the main autumn collecting period lasts only a few weeks during which time perhaps ten trips may be made.

Collins Fungi Guide by Stefan Buczacki, Chris Shields

Whether we call them all mushrooms, as the Americans tend to do, or toadstools as we often do in Britain, they form a huge and amazing array of species. The terms mushroom and toadstool are of course very vague with no actual specific scientific meaning, encompassing both edible and poisonous species. With such a large number of species to choose from, identification can be both difficult and frustrating, and if edibility is a factor then obviously getting a correct identification is even more important; a mistake can be, and sadly has often been, fatal.Finally, it should be noted if the gills are deliquescing or self-liquefying and turning inky, a characteristic of many species in the genera Coprinus, Coprinopsis, Coprinellus and Parasola. Mushrooms is my personal take on the world of fungi in Britain, about the pleasures of searching for mushrooms and toadstools, and why they matter. I have written it as a narrative, in current TV parlance as a ‘journey’, beginning with the extraordinary diversity of fungi and the ways in which they exploit the natural world to the history of the fungus foray and the controversy over gathering wild mushrooms for the pot. In the process I zoom in on the nature of names, both Latin and English, at the places which hold the greatest diversity of fungi, and our attempts to conserve rare and vanishing fungi. It is, I hope, a refreshing and amusing look at this ‘third world’ of life, written without jargon and in lively style. I hope it can be read with pleasure by anyone. It is full of lovely colour photographs.

Collins fungi guide : the most complete field guide to the

Firstly, let’s be quite clear: there are an awful lot of fungi! Just including those generally referred to as the larger fungi – those just a few millimetres across all the way up to species that can reach a metre or more – there are around three thousand species recorded in Britain. Fungi may also sometimes be found in houses. Fortunately for the owners, they are usually no more significant than microscopic moulds, but many old houses, especially with cellars, will support some growth of Coniophora puteana, the cause of wet rot or the serious wood-destroying alien Serpula lacrymans, the cause of dry rot. Other Basidiomycetes, including Antrodia vaillantii and even the agaric Agrocybe arvalis, may also be found occasionally in cellars. Heathland, moorland and mountains The Book of Fungi takes 600 of the most remarkable fleshy fungi from around the world and reproduces each at its actual size, in full colour, and accompanied by a scientific explanation of its distribution, habitat, association, abundance, ... The text offers a complete account of more than 1,900 wild flowers of Britain and Ireland, along with a summary of their European distribution.Collins Flower Guideis an indispensable guide for all those with an interest in the countryside, ...

Although the Law and its interpretation is rather complex, and no prosecutions have yet been brought, it is clear that deliberately and knowingly collecting magic mushrooms is illegal unless you intend immediately to destroy them or pass them to someone who is licensed to hold them. Licences are held by such bodies as the two Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and Edinburgh but are unlikely to be issued to individuals. If you collect magic mushrooms without knowing what they are, it appears you will only commit an offence if you retain them once they have been identified. You will not be committing an offence of possession if magic mushrooms are growing uncultivated on your premises. Fungi are also uniquely distinct in relation to their mode of nutrition. Plants photosynthesise, a process in which solar energy is absorbed by green chlorophyll and used to bring about the formation of nutrient substances from the raw materials of atmospheric carbon dioxide and water. No fungus can photosynthesise, and even the few species that sometimes display a green fruit body colouration or green spores do not contain chlorophyll. Fungi also have a mode of nutrition different from animals in that while animals eat, digest and then absorb the digested matter internally, fungi secrete enzymes externally from their hyphae into the environment where organic matter is broken down and then absorb the resulting chemicals from there. Like animals therefore, fungi are dependent for their nutrient source on other organisms, either living or dead. And this dictates where they grow: typically on soil, using humus and plant remains for nutrition; directly on wood or other plant matter; or sometimes parasitically on still living plants. More kinds of macro-fungi are to be found in woodlands than anywhere else and every organised fungal foray will include a visit to at least one. Woodlands offer a rich and continuing nutrient source and a wide range of microhabitats (from the twigs and leaves of tree tops to roots many centimetres below the soil surface), a soil environment reasonably well buffered against extremes of temperature and a fairly moist environment all year. They are conveniently divided into the major categories of coniferous, broadleaved and mixed, with additional habitats provided by the woodland edges and by open, grassy areas or glades within the wood itself. Collins Fungi Guide. The Most Complete Field Guide to the Mushrooms and Toadstools of Britain& Ireland. London: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. ISBN: 978 0 00 724290 0. Jordan M (2004) The Encyclopaedia of Fungi of Britain and Europe... Mycology, or mushrooming, can appeal on many levels, from the simple pleasure of seeing strange and wonderful organisms to the intellectual challenge of trying to identify them and understand their intricate life cycles. But the starting point is, and always will be, a good book! And finally… hand lenses to help with mushroom identification