Expectations for conifer plantations?

[jaybie]

I have been wandering through some local conifer plantations when out over the past couple of weekends chasing butterflies etc. in the vain hope of spotting some fungi but to no avail. All I have managed to come away with are bloody horse-fly bites and nettle rash.

I wondered what my expectations should be considering the time of year etc. Because these are plantations with a thick carpet of needles does very little grow in them? I admit that I haven’t really concentrated on finding small stuff amongst twigs etc. so could this be the answer.

Some things I have considered are laser treatment as the eyes are going, invest in a pig to root them out, give up and try some of the mixed woodland nearby instead.

Any other ideas?

JohnB

[Nick_in_Scotland]

You can get plenty of interesting fungi amongst conifers, it's probably just the weather at the moment. Having said that there are some conifer plantations where nothing ever seems to grow but most evergreen forests in Autumn will reward you with a fine collection of Boletes, Russulas, Lactarius, Cortinarius, Amanitas and many others. Should be starting to look good in about a month. It helps if there's a few deciduous trees mixed in there.

In summer I would expect to be seeing Mycena sanguinolenta and Amanitas like Blushers and Tawny Grisettes but it very much depends on how much rain there's been in the past few weeks. Chanterelles may make an appearance soon if you're lucky.

Originally Posted by jaybie

Some things I have considered are laser treatment as the eyes are going, invest in a pig to root them out, give up and try some of the mixed woodland nearby instead.

I don't see how getting a pig to root your eyeballs out is going to help.

[jaybie]

Thanks Nick, the ground within the plantations is dry and sandy under the deep layer of needles so this must be contributing.

Yeah I can see (pun intended) the basic flaw in the pig idea now.

JohnB

[SheffieldLass]

I've usually found the coniferous plantations good, though often best along the ride edges. I've scarcely ventured into the really dense dark depths of the Picea stands though .... poked my nose in, even gone a few yards, but it is so dark that I can't see whats there anyway, and it is a bit creepy and claustrophobic .....

I'm doing pretty well at the moment in the coniferous, given that it is, or was, very dry (some solid rain has just set in ) with a good few Amanitas, the occasional Boletale, a number of different Russulas, various myxomcetes, but rather too many stinkhorns though. If there are any patches/edges with birch or other hardwoods then you can get a really good mix of things. Also if they do any thinning or ride maintenance and leave piles of wood chips around, they are worth investigating. I've found Pluteus, Coprinopsis, Peziza plus others on the wood chip, Inocybe, Psathyrella, Mycena, Gymnopus (Collybia) in the more mixed bits of the woodland in the last 2-3 weeks.

It may be that the areas that are just carpeted with needles are particularly dry right now so not producing much, as they will have a quite dense tree layer which may be preventing the rain getting through, but also being fairly densely planted, the trees may be sucking out much of any residual moisture that is in the ground. So another reason to be looking at the rides as more rain will have got through there, and less taken up by the trees. Plus you can get some of the grassland/disturbed land fungi there too. But fungi does grow in those spots if the conditions are right.

So keep perservering with it, but a detour into the mixed woodland from time to time certainly can't harm ...

Melanie

[Chris Yeates]

this probably isn't the answer you are wanting, but fallen conifer trunks and branches, when sufficiently damp and turned over for examination very often have resupinate fungi on them; the chance of new county / vice-county (even British) records is quite high, but they can be very difficult to identify, and you do need access to a microscope and the literature . . . (I have the last two, but given the spread of groups I'm already interested in, I look at these very interesting fungi all too infrequently)

perhaps, when I retire (which the current administration is probably working on even as I write )

cheers

Chris

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by jaybie

I wondered what my expectations should be considering the time of year etc. Because these are plantations with a thick carpet of needles does very little grow in them? I admit that I haven’t really concentrated on finding small stuff amongst twigs etc. so could this be the answer. JohnB

In terms of sheer volume my experince is that conifer stands are extremly rewarding, although those are stands over limestone. In any event it is way too early even for an average year, and the extreme dry weather must also be an inhibiting factor. My personal bit of 'fungi lore' is that an early summer drought will yield a high fruiting body count in September, so long as there is enough rain July - September, so this could be very good Autumn. In the meantime mixed woods are probably the more rewarding for fungi - certainly that is where I would be looking in those areas that have had some of the recent heavy downpours.

CM

[jaybie]

Thanks everybody for the responses.

Melanie - I think that is sound advice as I am probably too deep into the trees, the recent rain we have had may also improve the finds at the edges. There is one place I have in mind that does have birch interspersed, not many but probably enough.

Chris - being new to the game I struggle to identify most anything but am learning all the time. The reason I have avoided scrabbling around in the rotten wood etc. is that I wouldn't know where to start. Macro photography of the small stuff may produce the occasional reasonable image but I don't have access to microscope/literature. It doesn't mean not being fascinated by what I sometimes discover however.

CM - fingers crossed on the 'fungi lore' being right.

JohnB