Fantastic day

[alge]

I took a very cheeky "myco day" off and was well rewarded with lots of finds, here are a few i could do with confirms and advise on.


Cortinarius of some kind under beech

Coprinus possibly C. micaceus on a fallen beech branch

Group of beautiful Mycena again under Beech


Suillus grevillei in open woodland under Larch


Slime mould on a fallen trunk of pine i think. I did cut a piece off, it had a whitish base and a shallow root onto the wood (sorry but the mobile's macro is too weak to show the image in focus) the colour was much pinker than the uploaded images show. Could it be Tubifera ferruginosa?

thanks in advance

Alex

[flaxton]

Alex
Your first is the ubiquitous Honey fungus.
2 C micaceus
3 M arcangeliana
4 S gravellei
5 probably T ferruginosa

Mal

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by flaxton

Alex
Your first is the ubiquitous Honey fungus.
Mal

agreed - the simple taking of a spore-print can sort these issues out

I think that there is a temptation to post images on WAB as quickly as possible and see what happens . . . . but to learn it helps to do a bit of work before posting - even if that means posting a day later . . .

this is a general comment, and certainly not aimed at Alex who does do a lot of work before posting . . .

cheers

Chris

[alge]

oops how embarrassing Thats two public bad calls on very commons in under a week. So phillips describes this as A. mellea chunky form. So would that be A.mellea Var. chunky form (lol) i will lock it in and not be hoodwinked by my enthusiasm again (until the next time of course)

Chris dont worry i may be a southern softie shandy drinking..........but i was born just outside Hawes and hardened up over a few winters (in gods own country) before being dragged kicking and screaming to the south, So i take your point on board and will only post after thoroughly exhausting the limits of my library and fully exploring the keys.

Mal thanks i have two references for M. arcangelina and i have to admit that shamefully it was the colour that threw me, the ones i found were much whiter than the examples in text. Cracking little fungi though, one of my books states that it can be found on decaying thatched roofs, i guess if you found it there it was loose some of its charm. The possible T ferruginosa was a treat, if it wasn't on land then i would be expecting to see a certain disney character with one small fin flitting back and forth through the sporangia.

Thanks again fellas

alex (use of four emoticons not bad)

[Geoff23]

Re: Fantastic day.



That was yesterday. It's been a fantastic week for anyone who likes fungi. I might add that if I had been collecting for quantity rather than diversity then I could have filled several carrier bags. There was plenty more where those came from.

[fairplay]

Seems to me you already have several carrier bags worth there or rather, to other people, the contents of an entire wood.

Be honest, you are never going to eat this lot, and although you may possible dry some, the majority are going to be thrown away, thus in reality, you are picking these either to show off, to deprive others of sharing some, or else you know nothing about overpicking and the conservation of fungi.

Just because there were 'plenty more' does not give you the right to plunder a wood for your own selfish needs.

And people wonder why By-Laws are being introduced.

Neil.

[Geoff23]

Originally Posted by fairplay

Seems to me you already have several carrier bags worth there or rather, to other people, the contents of an entire wood.

Be honest, you are never going to eat this lot, and although you may possible dry some, the majority are going to be thrown away, thus in reality, you are picking these either to show off, to deprive others of sharing some, or else you know nothing about overpicking and the conservation of fungi.

Just because there were 'plenty more' does not give you the right to plunder a wood for your own selfish needs.

And people wonder why By-Laws are being introduced.

Neil.

Neil,

I'm not sure where to start to respond to that. I was with two other people, both very new to foraging for mushrooms and interested to learn. We split them three ways and I gave half of my share to my mother this afternoon. What remains will be eaten, by me.

Do you believe I have done something ethically questionable this week? Is it immoral to eat these mushrooms?

ETA: I think this is a really important issue to discuss and would welcome all opinions.

Geoff

[Ken Burgess]

Although I probably should stay out of the debate, I feel there ought to be room in WAB for both the conservationists and those who like to collect in modest amounts for personal consumption.

I'd see indiscriminate commercial collection, loss of habitat, habitat damage, pollution and climate change as much bigger concerns.

Ken

[alge]

Hi Geoff, I'm glad you had a great day too. A few of each of your finds were well past optimum, try picking younger specimens for the best eating and then work on a ratio of around 25% for you 75% for the future unless it's a very public wood, then leave them all for others to enjoy.

I appreciate that i have publicly aired some of my cep finds but i always stick to- One two pick a few, Three Four leave much more.

This is a wild life site afterall, whilst many members enjoy a few perks of knowledge, the joy is in discovery and understanding not how well you hoover.

Alex (a foot in both camps but secondary and light on the foraging)

[TeresaW]

Hmmm difficult one. Should we make use of what nature provides for us or not?

To me it's not black and white. If you know what you're doing, then taking ONLY what you would need, not as much as you can, surely can't do harm as long as there are plenty around.

Even when I'm looking around, although I don't eat them myself, if it's a solitary specimen, I leave it in situ and try not to disturb it too much for the sake of a photo. Even if it is a small group, they stay in place. I will only take a sample for spore print or further investigation IF there are a lot there.

If I took them, how many would be left for others to find, indentify and enjoy? I'm not the only one who has been hunting for fungi in my patch, judging by the single specimens disturbed, cut in half or laid out in a photogenic 'pose'. But whoever it is has made the minimum of disturbance and left them there for me to find too.

However, foraging on a commercial level, is not only risky to the species, but selfish and destructive. That's not the reason we like fungi is it?