Report Sep 09

Notes from September 09 meeting

Peter Norman’s presentation on fungi was a revelation to us all. His opening picture was of beer and bread, which, without fungi, would not exist - in fact without fungi none of us would exist!

There are 12½ thousand species of fungus and more are being discovered every year. The 4-5 thousand mushrooms and toadstools, which appear above ground are the fruiting bodies of mycelium which live all year buried in plant or animal matter. These are parasites and can either help or harm their hosts. (Eg fungus is responsible for Dutch Elm Disease.) 90% of all British plants need the chemical in fungi to survive.

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Fungi spores are everywhere and we all momentarily held our breath after learning we breathe in 40 thousand spores a minute!

Throughout the talk we looked at wonderful pictures of the different types of fungi. The common ones have gills, pores, ribs or spikes. Many are edible but some could cause illness or even death. Peter’s message was never to eat any fungus unless an expert has identified it. Many interesting points were raised during the question and answer session and Peter’s closing picture was, again, of the beer and bread but the glass was almost empty and the bread half gone! A very enjoyable talk.

On 12th October Paul Tarling will be our speaker and he asks if possible could you bring plastic gloves and tweezers. He has entitled his talk "POO HOO!" Can you guess what it is yet?? Yes, owls and owl pellets. Don't worry if you haven't got gloves. I've enough but would welcome any spare tweezers.

Our first practical! How exciting.

The agenda is as follows.

1) Chairman's welcome, updates and reports.

2) Future events.

3) Names for members' meeting

4) Paul Tarling's presentation

5) Members' finds.

6) Date of next meeting.

Have you noticed the unseasonable blooming of several plants? Let us know. Hope to see you all on Monday.

Happy foraging,

Rena

Scarlet elf cap fungus Sarcoscypha coccinea