Fungi Day, Sydenham Hill Woods

Terana caerulea, Cobalt Crust fungus

The long awaited fungi walk took place in Sydenham Hill Woods today led by a very enthusing expert Dr Mark Spencer. There was a surprisingly wide range of fungi to look at, considering the long dry summer and autumn we've had so far. Apart from a few days of torrential rain this week it has been record-breakingly dry, so I didn't have high hopes for spotting fungi. The walk showed, yet again, how much we miss until we learn how to see.

I tried to keep track of what we saw, but no doubt have spelling errors and mishearings galore here. The image above is of a very dazzling fungi called Terana caerulea,  'cobalt crust fungus' or velvet blue spread,  the common name cobalt crust makes sense to me as the colour looks more like an inky cobalt blue then a cerulean. Dr Spencer said it was probably a first sighting of this fungi type for Sydenham Hill Woods and maybe a first for London. Wooo! We will tell our great grandchildren, grand nieces and nephews etc, 'we were there the day they found Terana caerulea on the fencing post in Sydenham Hill Woods!' They'll think we are exaggerating...strangely it seems to be the national fungus of Macedonia, judging by the postage stamp below:

Above, Fairy Inkcap, Coprinellus disseminatus as far as I can remember

Above, a very large and quite old Ganoderma australe, Southern Bracket fungi on a huge Ash tree.

Striking factoids: there are 10,000 fungi types in the UK and the number is going up. Handling fungi isn't dangerous, you can even nibble tiny amounts and it won't hurt you, the colour of gills isn't a safe way to identify fungi, as young and old ones can have different appearances. Smell is a useful identifier, if a fungi smells of radishes, acids drops, cleaning fluid, don't eat it.  Cabbages absorb heavy metals and other toxins, best not eaten if close to roads etc. Hygrocybe russocoriacea (Cedarwood Waxcap) smells of semen, also many species of Inocybe (Fibrecap) 'thus the smell can be a useful way to help separate this genus from other similar ‘LBJ’s (little brown jobs) such as Cortinarius (Webcap)' (from buckfungusgroup.com). 

Somewhat counter intuitively the smell of marzipan/bitter almonds can indicate an edible fungi like the Wood Mushroom, Agaricus silvicola, the best strategy if you are going to eat them is to get a repertoire of 4-5 that you know really well and stick to those, this makes sense. A more frightening fact is that in some communities there is genetically selected tolerance of fungi which can potentially kill outsiders, such as the Pie Crust fungi we found outside the Crescent Wood Road gate. The doc thinks those without immunity died out in the mycophiliac Eastern European communities that can safely eat them....outsiders should avoid mushroom soup if visiting Poland, the Czech Republic etc?

We also saw:

Auricularia, jelly ear, which someone pointed out has the fifth flavour taste Umami,  we were encouraged to try a tiny nibble of it, I thought it was quite tasty,  you can imagine having it in a noodle soup. On the logs in the wood they looked like a bunch of artificially grown ears, with a silicon=like texture.

Peeling Oysterling, Crepidotus mollis, a fan shaped rubbery, slimy little thing,very pale with a strong mushroomy smell, like a sachet of powdered mushroom soup.

Ascocoryne sarcoides, purple jellydisc, like a tiny alien tree or a rock pool creature, somewhere between purple and dark burgundy.

Daldinia concentrica, King Alfred's Cakes, or 'cramp balls', and 'coal fungus'. most of the ones we saw were still white, a cross section showed why they are concentrica, rings inside like a silvery cross section of an onion, pleasingly tactile when sliced into, with the quality of a conker or a nice stone.

The fungi that I found both intriguing and simultaneously horrifying was the Dog's Vomit slime, a plasmodium, Fuligo septica, this puke of a fungi is the stuff of sci-fi nightmares, it is a fungi that can move and navigate mazes, with the appalling implication that it has a limited capacity for both memory and logic, like computing undergraduates...

We saw the lovely, fragile, Mycena sanguinolenta, Bleeding Bonnets, they left scarlet tears in our hands. 

 

I was very delighted to have my poisonous Sulfur Tuft (above left) Hypholoma fasciculare, sighting in the woods confirmed,  and also surprised to discover that what I thought was grey or crested coral was actually the highly edible, Grifola frondosa, Hen of the Woods (above right) , just goes to show how challenging identification can be, you wont find me eating wild fungi in a hurry. I saw both types a few weeks ago in the Sydenham Hill Woods.

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Not sure specifically which type the above are, the genus name  is Psathyrella,could be multipedata, many feet? The caps are very fragile and easily fall off.

 A bunch of examples including the little Earpick fungus, Auriscalpium vulgare (left hand-side of the lid), I can't remember the names of the other ones, at that point I got distracted by a very sweet Jack Russell in a Diamante Collar and a Dachshund puppy (was the big one on the right a Suede Bolete, Xerocomus subtomentosus?).

Just outside the Crescent Wood Road gate someone found a Paxillus involutus or Pie Crust fungi (poison pax?).Despite its potentially unpleasant impact on human health it's one of those fungi that forms a usefully symbiotic relationship with trees, attenuating diseases and heavy metals (as well as other musical genres?). A great way to end this walk.

After hearing about the mycologist Julius Schäffer's (no doubt excruciating) death from auto-immune catastrophe as a result of eating a pie crust fungi in 1944, I was quite convinced I'd never eat another mushroom again, until I got to Cafe St Germain in Crystal Palace and had scrambled eggs and mushrooms for a late lunch. All in all this was an ideal way to spend a Saturday afternoon, thanks to Dr Mark Spencer, Daniel Greenwood and the London wildlife Trust for this fantastic walk.

Sapro- – prefix meaning rottenSaprobic / saprophytic gaining nutrients from dead material

Short article on edible fungi here:http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/fungi-mushroom-magic-426427.html

Recommended Fungi books: