MYCOLOGIST NEWS The newsletter of the British Mycological Society 2013 (2) Edited by Prof. Pieter van West and Dr Anpu Varghese 2013 BMS Council BMS Council and Committee Members 2013 President Prof. Geoffrey D. Robson Vice-President Prof. Bruce Ing President Elect Prof Nick Read Treasurer Prof. Geoff M Gadd Secretary Position vacant Publications Officer Prof. Pieter van West International Initiatives Adviser Prof. AJ Whalley Fungal Biology Research Committee representatives: Dr. Elaine Bignell; Prof Nick Read Fungal Education and Outreach Committee: Dr. Paul S. Dyer; Dr Ali Ashby Field Mycology and Conservation: Dr. Stuart Skeates, Mrs Dinah Griffin Fungal Biology Research Committee Prof. Nick Read (Chair) retiring 31.12. 2013 Dr. Elaine Bignell retiring 31.12. 2013 Dr. Mark Ramsdale retiring 31.12. 2013 Prof. Pieter van West retiring 31.12. 2013 Dr. Sue Crosthwaite retiring 31.12. 2014 Prof. Mick Tuite retiring 31.12. 2014 Dr Alex Brand retiring 31.12. 2015 Fungal Education and Outreach Committee Dr. Paul S. Dyer (Chair and FBR link) retiring 31.12. 2013 Dr. Ali Ashby retiring 31.12. 2013 Dr. Sue Assinder retiring 31.12. 2013 Dr. Kay Yeoman retiring 31.12. 2013 Alan Williams retiring 31.12. 2014 Prof Lynne Boddy (Media Liaison) retiring 31.12. 2014 Dr. Elaine Bignell retiring 31.12. 2015 Field Mycology and Conservation Committee Dr. Stuart Skeates (Chair, website & FBR link) retiring 31.12. 2014 Prof Richard Fortey retiring 31.12. 2013 Mrs. Sheila Spence retiring 31.12. 2013 Mrs Dinah Griffin retiring 31.12. 2014 Dr. Martyn Ainsworth retiring 31.12. 2013 Mr Justin Smith retiring 31.12. 2015 Mr David Harries (Recording Network Co-ordinator) retiring 31.12. 2015 Contacts BMS Administrator President: [email protected] British Mycological Society Treasurer: [email protected] City View House Mycologist News: [email protected] Union Street BMS Administrator: [email protected] Manchester M12 4JD BMS Membership: [email protected] Tel: +44(0) 161 277 7638 / 7639 Fax: +44(0) 161 277 7634 2 From the Office Hello All, Contents Well it looks like Sprautumn has arrived, somewhere between Spring and Autumn, with 2012 Autumn Field Meeting 4 no real sign of summer. The office has received lots of emails and telephone calls announcing Obituary: Dr Juliet Camilla Frankland 6 sudden spurts of fungus specimens popping up on lawns across the Country, so it’s not all bad Corticoid Workshop 8 news. Small Grant Reports The autumn foray held in Ireland towards the end of 2012 was a very enjoyable event and a - Becky Spake 9 report on this can be found on page 4. The recent Corticioid workshop in the Forest of - Steve Edgington 10 Dean was also well attended and hopefully will be held again next year. A report on this can be found on page 8. - Dr A. Martyn Ainsworth 11 The BMS main Meeting in Cardiff in September Eunice Jones Bequest Fund 12 is still taking bookings until the start of August and details can be found on the BMS website Bursary Reports under the Research section/Future Meetings sub-section. - James Foster 12 http://www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/science/ scientific-meetings/bms-main-meeting-2013- - Krzysztof Gajda 13 fungi-and-environmental-change/ SAPRO Final Conference 14 The BMS AGM for 2013 will take place towards BMS 2013 Annual Scientific Meeting In- the end of this meeting, on the Thursday at 15 5pm in the University Hall Conference Centre formation within Cardiff University, and it would be great to see as many BMS members there as UK Fungus Day 20 possible. Here’s hoping we get a last minute burst of sunshine before the nights draw in, and that as many of you as possible manage to attend one of the many events being held across the Country during the October UK Fungus Day 2013 event. http://ukfungusday.co.uk/ sponsored by the BMS and others. Bye For Now, The BMS Office Team Norman Porrett Sophie Embleton Administrator BMS Office Field Mycology Assistant Copy deadline for next issue: 1st September 2013 3 BMS Autumn Meeting 20 to 27 October 2012 Share Centre, Lisnaskea, Fermanagh, Northern Ireland Photo © Mark Wright Fermanagh – Northern Ireland’s lakeland – is staff were cheerful and welcoming, but changing described as ‘always wet, and even wetter shifts and personnel meant that messages passed underfoot’. Maps show the lowland area as a in Chinese whisper fashion, keeping us on our toes mosaic of land and water, inlets and islands – an at times when our minds were on matters other than often waterlogged landscape impossible to manage fungi. intensively for agriculture. The resulting semi- natural habitat types, together with dramatic The bible for the foray was a fat spiral-bound folder limestone ridges to the west, promise ‘a botanical compiled by Mark and Debbie. It listed some 40 and mycological hotspot’. sites, some of them overlapping, with summary descriptions, grid references, notes on access and a Local organizers Mark Wright and Debbie Nelson recommended timetable. Detailed maps and aerial had done a thorough recce of the terrain and photographs could be torn out for use in the field, or offered a wide range of foray sites. These made the marked up with the specific location of interesting most of some of the vast landed estates round finds. about, with varied habitats including extensive parklands studded with venerable trees and The foray booklet’s cover showed a cameo photo of woodlands of many different complexions. Areas of the winsome Marasmius hudsonii fruiting on a dead limestone grassland and dune were also holly leaf. Peter Smith, who remembered it from the signposted. Roscrea Foray of 1989, had called (in his camper van) at St John’s Wood, Co. Roscommon, en route Forayers, and guest tutors Jens Petersen and to Fermanagh and displayed his specimens on Andreas Gminder, arrived by car (via plane or ferry) arrival. After that no holly debris was left unturned, at our accommodation in the Share village on Upper and the species was found at several of the sites we Lough Erne – ‘Ireland’s largest residential outdoor visited. activity and adventure centre’. We shared chalets and used the spacious theatre as a lab. The On the first day, Sunday 21st, everyone headed for ‘outdoor activities’ of our group were preordained, the large National Trust estate of Crom, where the but the ‘adventure’ element of our stay involved abundance of fungi fruiting in the damp lakeside dealing with eccentric shower facilities and woodlands augured well for the week ahead. serendipitous mealtime arrangements. The Share ► 4 Ascocoryne solitaria, Clavaria falcata, Coccomyces eloquent English – as they deconstructed some of our coronatus, Coccomyces tumidus, Coprinus attempts at identification. It was equally disconcerting krieglsteineri, Lactarius luridus and Tricholoma to hear how many familiar genera are being bresadolanum were a few of the 358 records, these reclassified. new to Northern Ireland. A few forayers travelled by boat to explore the wooded isle of Inishfendra. Other Polyporus tubaeformis was recorded a possible first islands visited later in the week yielded capacious for UK. This species is restricted to Salix and has Craterellus cornucopiae fruitbodies and other edibles. generative hyphae with clamps. It does not appear on On one island Debbie found an antlered deer skull the UK list but following both tutors’ identification we encrusted with Onygena equina: a splendid, if believe we have in the UK regularly mistaken it, and stinking, trophy admired (and smelt) by all back at the recorded it as P. badia. Carol certainly believes she lab. saw it in Bute in August 2012. After that first day, people forayed in separate carfuls, Records of particular note included Lactarius mairei with different groups often visiting the same site on Conservation Status: Vulnerable (Red Data List, Ing successive days. Is it useful for different people to go 1992); Near Threatened (Red Data List, Evans et al. over the same ground? There is inevitably some 2006); Encoelia glauca Conservation Status: repetition. But even when following a trail of upturned Vulnerable (Red Data List, Ing 1992); Vulnerable / D2 logs and discarded fruitbodies, new pairs of eyes often (Red Data List, Evans et al. 2006); Rimbachia spot stuff others have missed. bryophila Conservation Status: Vulnerable (Red Data List, Ing 1992); Near Threatened (Red Data List, Because the foraying parties were fragmented during Evans et al. 2006); Chlorencoelia versiformis the day, the evenings involved catching up not only on Conservation Status: Rare (Red Data List, Ing 1992); what people had found but where they had been. The Endangered / B (Red Data List, Evans et al. 2006); customary ‘show and tell’ session at 9pm was a BAP species Phellodon niger Conservation Status: double-act, with Jens and Andreas taking turns on Rare (Red Data List, Ing 1992); removed from list either side of the long table to discuss the day’s (Red Data List, Evans et al. 2006); BAP species. In harvest. After a day or two Jens suggested a simple all 34 other species that were recorded were believed refinement to the layout; all present approved the idea to be new to Northern Ireland. (and future forayers will be able to test this out for themselves). Both tutors told us about Internet sites whose usefulness extends far beyond the scope of the foray. Each day’s collection resulted in tables crammed with Jens showed a presentation of the new MycoKey 4.0, specimens, but both Jens and Andreas expressed and Andreas told us about his website which offers surprise at the small number of ectomycorrhizal fungi ‘Everything for Mushroom-Hunting!’ (myko-shop.de). on display, especially corts, compared to yields from Germany’s vast native forests of Acer, Fagus and Foraying in unfamiliar territory is always an adventure.