BMS Asco Workshop & Spring Foray

[Chris Yeates]

The posting of yesterday's figures has prompted someone (who shall remain nameless) to send me their records - the totals now stand at:

Total number of records: 1015
Total number of taxa: 446
Species new to Yorkshire: 51
Species new to Britain: 5

I have changed the total to taxa rather than species, because in one or two cases two recognised varieties within a single species were found

Over 50 new species for Yorkshire is quite beyond my wildest expectations, I'm sure the fact that this foray took place at the time of year it did (not to mention the presence of so many genuine experts) had their part to play; in May many people would be happy to see 50 species never mind 50 new to a county which is as well-studied as any in Britain.

Cheers

Chris

[Chris Yeates]

Having chased up several people for their records I think we can safely say we have now got the totals for this foray.

Bear in mind this was in mid-May last year when it had been unseasonably dry and WAB had quite a few comments along the lines of "there's nothing about".

There were 1125 individual records, and the total number of species recorded was 502 (this includes a number of species not yet formally described as new to science, currently with provisional names). That number is not far shy of 10% of all the non-lichenised fungi ever recorded in Yorkshire, and there were almost 50 additions to the county list ( a slight adjustment down from the above post - I have been able to dig out some older records of some species in the interim).

Although this was intended to be chiefly a foray looking at ascomycetes, virtually all the major groups had records - including 2 boletes and 40 species of "toadstools". Interestingly - and in line with what people like Melanie have been saying - of the four species of Parasola recorded P. plicatilis was not one of them . . .


A gratifyingly high proportion of the unusual finds has been deposited in herbaria (both public and private); and all the downy mildews have, in addition, been sequenced as well!

Not bad for five days in the field . . . .

Chris