MYCOLOGIST NEWS 1st Edition March 2018 Newsletter Contents Special issue and 1. UKFD 2017 reports 2017 Introduction 2. Fungi Photo Corner 3. Reports on UKFD Dear Members, 2017 activities It gives me great pleasure to write a few words of Thanks in advance of our celebration of the fantastic efforts by 4. Field Meetings and so many in making UK Fungus Day 2017 and resounding Workshops success. Reading through your reports and feedback 5. Membership renewal forms, we can see that yet again you have encouraged 2018 more public involvement than ever with the bonus of increasing group and society membership. The BMS’s UK 6. Contact details Fungus Day 2017 (UKFD17) kick started this year’s Royal Society of Biology’s ‘Biology week’ activities for the fifth year running with over 65 events nationwide over the th weekend of 7-8 October 2017. Activities included fungus BMS Autumn Open walks, academic talks, school’s competitions, artistic Meeting and Annual workshops and large scale public engagement events. We were able to support academic outreach in schools and a General Meeting social enterprise project run by a school in Manchester, th teaching year 4 children about the recycling capability of 17 November 2018 the oyster mushroom by recycling spent coffee grounds from local coffee shops. The FEO worked alongside our Lady Lisa Sainsbury Lecture BMS recording group network to produce a set of genus Theatre, Jodrell Laboratories information sheets for use at UK Fungus Day outreach Royal Botanic Gardens events and local forays which were made available to Kew download from the UK Fungus Day website and were welcomed by the field mycology community. The Fungal Education and Outreach Committee are continuing to develop our social media platforms raising awareness of fungi and initiatives. BMS UK Fungus Day currently has over 3,800 followers on Twitter. Our UK Fungus Day celebratory weekend marks the start of a new year of outreach programmes, raising awareness of Page | 1 in the public arena and we were delighted to team up with Fun Palaces this year, who also celebrated a weekend of activities on 7-8th October. The UK Fungus Day outreach arm provides support year-round to all who wish to promote fungi in the public arena and we are beginning to reach a very wide audience. Engagement with our academic members was enhanced this year by the support of Elsevier who marked UK Fungus Day with an article describing the aims of UK Fungus Day along with articles cherry picked from Elsevier Journals last year and representing the breadth and quality of fungal science research, which were all posted online on the JHPs of Fungal Biology and Fungal Biology Reviews. Our secondary school’s competition was well supported, and our finalists will be listed on the BMS and UK Fungus Day websites. Next year we will sponsor the MiSAC secondary school’s competition entitled ‘Commercial uses of Fungi’. Please do feel free to share details with those that you know in education (http://www.misac.org.uk/competition.html ) We have also launched a Blog space ‘UKFD BLOG’ which provides a platform for communicating fungal articles that can be shared with fungus enthusiasts; whether academic or amateur, scientist or artist, teacher or lecturer. We hope to develop this platform fully in 2018. Please remember that you can never start planning your event too early which will give us time to ensure that you have all the resources that you will need on 6th October 2018. Please e-mail: [email protected] with any queries for this year’s event. We will be on standby to help in any way that we can. Keep up to date with events on the website www.ukfungusday.co.uk , on facebook https://www.facebook.com/ukfd17 , on twitter @ukfungusday and on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/ukfungusday/ Dr Eleanor Landy (Chair BMS Fungal Education and Outreach committee) Photo Corner Have you taken a stunning image of fungi that you want to share? Big or small, laboratory or field you could be the next to appear in ‘Fungi Photo Corner’. Send your high-resolution images to [email protected] not forgetting to include as much information as possible about what, where and when it was taken. Please note, that in sending your photographs to us you are allowing the British Mycological Society to include the image on our UK Fungus Day photo gallery (Images on the gallery are covered under a license for Creative Commons Attribution (Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0.) and to reproduce the image to appear in its printed and online versions of Mycologist News’. Page | 2 Ackworth School Natural History Society On UKFD, Francis Hickenbottom organised a foray for a few members of the Ackworth School Natural History Society and members of Wakefield Naturalists' Society at Newmiller Dam, West Yorkshire. Clyde and Argyll Fungus Group Jamboree Roy Watling In order to celebrate the British Mycological; Society’s Fungus weekend the Clyde and Argyll Group did not hold it’s meeting in the usual format but instead was moulded around a fungus demonstration in the South Wing of the internationally known Kibble Palace at the Botanic Garden, Glasgow, thanks to the Garden Director, Ewen Donaldson; the foray led by ‘El Presidente’ took place later centred on the grounds of the Botanic Garden. We were very fortunate to have several hand-outs made available to us by the British Mycological Society and Plantlife Scotland. These were all eagerly sought by those attracted to the exhibits and, so we were able to spread the message, especially as it was also National Biology Week. Smaller sorties whilst the public were examining the exhibits were made to the banks of the River Kelvin. Although rather dry in 2 hours the public and members of the group were able to see a wide range of larger fungi and as many parasites on trees and shrubs. The public were amazed at the fungi which could be founds so close to the centre of Glasgow! The visitors were told by a team of volunteers from the Clyde and Argyll group how important fungi are to the well-being of our planet and how we are dependent on them for food & drink and pharmaceuticals and much more. The forays were left to explain the importance of symbiotic fungi and the effects of plant parasites. Upwards of 300 people attended during some part of the day with many young people who were particularly grateful for the BMS handouts, so they could read further. welcome. In the distant past the Glasgow Botanic Garden was situated at a site only a short walk away from the present Garden, at Sandiford and it produced some fungi which turned out to be new to science, so Glasgow is scientifically a well-documented city. Unfortunately, we were not lucky not even finding something rare but on the foray to the Pineapple and Dunmore Estate on the actual National Fungus Day some collections were found to be of interest and have been taken away for further examination. The demonstration showed materials dyed using fungus dyes, some ornaments and utensils made from fungi, some paper made from fungi and various exotic fungal items. Fresh specimens were brought in from around Glasgow to swell the interest. These were on show from 11.00 until 16.15 on what turned out weather-wise to be a beautiful day which all added up to an equally successful day. Thanks to Glasgow Botanic Garden, British Mycological Society and Plantlife. Page | 3 Buckinghamshire Fungus Group: Mushroom Magic Penny Cullington This annual event was held at the County Museum, Aylesbury on October 7th 2017 for the third time and was our most successful if judged by the numbers of the public who attended. Collecting fresh specimens to make a good showing proved hard work this year: though the fungal fruiting season got off to an amazing start early in August in our area things seem to be slowing down quite rapidly now, particularly the showier mycorrhizal mushroom genera – the ones which tend to be especially admired in such displays. However, everyone had rallied round and once we started setting things out it soon became clear that there was going to be plenty to cover the large central table for people to admire. Once the A4 genus sheet information stands (newly designed by the BMS) were in place and all of the 100 or so species set out and labelled, we could focus on the finishing touches: information posters, leaflets and mushroom-growing kits ready for people to help themselves, a table set aside for identifying specimens brought in by the public, a good selection of books, the children’s’ corner with play-do for modelling and colouring sheets to add to the huge mushroom collage covering the end wall, also badge-making. Finally, Derek’s microscope and spore print corner, always a popular attraction, was ready with scopes linked up to a monitor and a large TV screen showing an ever-changing loop of fungi found in the county – photos all supplied by BFG members. We just managed to find time for a photo of all our helpers before the doors opened at 11.00. It appeared from the constant stream of interested people that our efforts over advertising the event had been worthwhile. There was a lull at lunchtime (for which we were all very grateful) but things soon picked up again and the flow of questions, admiring oohs and aahs, specimens to add to the display, etc continued until 4.00 when it was time to pack up.