- Email: [email protected]
Spring foray 1987 Fishguard, Dyfed 24–31 May 1987
44
SPRING FORAY 1987 FISHGUARD, DYFED 24-31 MAY 1987 Foray Records are no w stored on th e BMS database (see Bull. Br. myeo!. Soc. 20: 34-38 & 101-105. 1986 for details). Sen d new records to th e So ciety 's Reco rder - W T Moodie, 141 Woo d Lane, Hand sworth , Birmingham B20 2AQ. Fora y participants and lan dow ne rs of for ay sites w ill autom atica lly receive individu al foray list s. Others ca n receive copies on request to th e For ay Societ y. Datab ase sea rc he s can be pr ovided. For furth er in form ati on contact the Foray Secr etar y.
Set among the magnificent sc enery of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, with a fine array of nature res erves and delightfully boggy places lin ed up for us to visit, th is foray promised and, in th e end, delivered a lot. From the first morning's foray to Goodwick Moor (within w alking distance of our bas e at Fish gu ard School), when it seemed that every fallen twig and stem was covered with di scornycetes, to Cwm Gwaun on the fin al day, collecting was excellent. The laboratory space was mor e than sufficient (even for those of us who can spread in proportion to th e spa ce available) although the 'kicking-out' time of 22.30 left night owl s far from gruntled, On the plus side, however, the pr esen ce of several mycologists from abro ad, as so often happens, enlive n ed th e p ro ceedings considerably. Every now and then the laboratory would ring out with popular son gs from Ital y, Arg enti n a, the Basque cou ntry and even Hubei province in China. The Foray Records Database provoked m uch interest. This was the fir st of the Society'S major forays to which the new computer had been taken and many for ayers tried inputting records directly for the first time. Their misgivings w ere quickly allayed - it was all very successful. Participants liked to peruse daily print-outs of the fungi found and the corrections which flowed in each day following such perusals could lea ve one in no doubt that the standard of recording is being rapidly upgraded by th is new system. The pr int-outs also provide d a sa lu to ry lesson to thos e for w ho m only fungi with gills (or oc ca si o n ally pores) exist - and who
sometimes suggest that the foray library be run accordingly - that the ascomycetes and fu ngi imperfecti can form a large majority of the sp ecies found. The visit to Dowrog Common turned up a rare ascomycete on the willows . This fungus, Cryp tomyces maximus, was originally described from Scotland by Greville in the last century, and the last of the infrequent collections in the British Isles had been made in the early 1930s. It is only known from willow, and can hardl y be described as inconspicuous. Its fruitbodies form extensive blackened canker-like incrustations on liv ing branches, bu t because their structure is so difficult to interpret, the fungus tends to be overlooked. The collector did not re alise what he had found and, in attempting to understand the structures in the evening back at the laboratory, sought more ex p er ien ced assistance. Many people ask the present Foray Secretary for advice about an identification, and almost all are disappointed. This case was an excepti o n, as Cryptomyces happens to be a genus of the tar-spot fungi - th e Foray Secretary's pet group . There was a real flurr y of excitement when it was realized what had been found , and the fungus was identified, correctly, at a distance of 30 m from its description alone! A full account of this interesting fungus will be published elsewhere later. The Foray Dinner was held at Ann Fitzgerald's Farmhouse Kitchen, near Mathry on the Tuesday evening. Two buzzards over the lane to the farm portended of the later apparition of ranks of fora yers in a convivial and Trimalchian state of mind tucking into
45
their meals. Thanks are due to Gordon Dickson for organising the wine. Afterdinner liqueurs were considered an excellent innovation and the proprietors may well now have changed their 'unlimited coffee' offer, as the writer took full and even excessive advantage of it. Replete, we were given a lively account of the biology and physiology of dry rot by past president, David Jennings, in his talk entitled 'Th e Result of an Urban Foray' . The local press, radio and television showed considerable interest in our foray , and this was most satisfying, since it showed that the setting up by Council of a Society Publicity Officer was having an impact. During the week forayers gradually became accustomed to doing photo-calls. We had our picture taken in bogs, by the sea, in woodland and on islands. There were radio interviews, and we even made a few minutes of local television, with pictures of forayers looking for microfungi amongst the bracken while waiting for the boat to go to Skomer Island.
at Castell Hennlys. One of the more unusual species found there was Entotorno niphoides under Prunus. Roy Watling's drawing of it is reproduced here. The large fibreglass mammoth by the approach road served to warn that a strange experience lay ahead, and our rich collecting - Ionomidotis ful votingens, new to Britain, was found there on Corylus by Andrea Romero - was punctuated by an Iron Age picnic followed by the amusing sight of the Foray, Systematics & Structure Committee meeting around an Iron Age bonfire. Fortunately this meeting engendered no serious differences of opinion, as spears for use in minor Iron Age tiffs were close at hand. Prehistoric phanerogam systematics clearly had shortcomings as the 'wild strawberries' in the museum garden (and also on sale as bedding plants) were well infected with Phrogmidium fragariae (rust buffs will note the error). Bruce Ing also gave his wife a night of doubt and sorrow by suggesting that Genanthe Crocata (of which we saw large amounts all week) might have been an ingredient in her Iron Age salad. The evening of the 29th saw another lecture, this time by current president, Roy Watling, entitled 'W(h)ales, Seals, Mermaids and Fungi'. Through an analytical comparison of the developmental patterns of fruitbodies of selected basidiomycetes, Roy was able to sh ow how previous classifications of these fungi were simplistic. The result of these simplistic approaches had been that convergent evolution had not been recognised, so that the 'whales', 'seals' , and 'mermaid s' of the fungal world 12 ·5um fundamentally dissimilar organisms with a superficial similarity - had all been lumped together. The talk was most thought-provoking and taxonomists pre25um [ sent who worked with other groups of fungi felt a strong challenge to apply some of his findings to their own groups. Friday 29th also saw the Society's first ever organised marine foray. Intrepid Fig 1. forayers set off in two 4 m boats to colAmong the various interesting sites lect on the numerous secluded beaches visited (though interesting in a rather dif- and coves around Dinas Head, led by ferent way) was the Iron Age Museum Renos Mouzouras, one of the team of
o
~~
~ \l
46 marine mycologists from Portsmouth. Damp pieces of driftwood were collected for later incubation and examination. Unfortunately, a big beach clean-up along this coast not long before meant suitable wood was at a premium - an interesting point for conservationists to reflect on. Steve Potter even went diving for specimens: his report of having just seen a large dogfish was met by the response, 'fine! But did it have any fungi growing on it?' Several species were recorded and, as marine ascomycetes are very beautiful, with elegantly appendaged ascospores, they were well worth the effort.
.'6
DYFED
Sites visited Monday 25: Goodwick Moor - wetland with reed beds (1), Dowrog Common a wet and dry moorland site with a large range of flowering plants (2), Western Cleddau - a small wetland reserve with some interesting and rare plants (3); Tuesday 26: Tycanol Wood - ancient
oak woodland famous for its lichen populations (4), Poppit Sands - an eroded sand dune system with marram and other grasses (5), Cemaes Head - closecropped cliff top scenery (6), Foray Dinner - Mathry (7); Wednesday 27: Skomer Island - famous for its bird populations (8 - all day) or Marloes Mere - wet acidic pasture vegetation (9), Crabhall Saitings - saltmarsh (10), West Williamston Woods - an unusual ash wood on an old quarry site (11); Thursday 28: Castell Hennlys Woodlands - ancient woodland with an Iron Age fort (12) , Pengelli Forest - ancient mixed woodland but predominantly oak (13); Friday 29: Dinas Head - closecropped cliff top scenery and marine foraying (14), Mynydd Dinas & Bedd Morris - rather acid heathland (15), Mynydd Prescelli - conifer plantations (16); Saturday 30: Llanerch Alder Carr - wet mixed woodland (17). Hanging Oakwoods of Cwm Gwaun - ancient oak forest (18). Thanks for assistance with this meeting are extended by the Society to Dyfed County Council & Mr E Parry of Fishguard School (for permission to use the laboratories), Dr L Boddy & the Microbiology Department, Cardiff and Prof D L Hawksworth & the CMI (for the loan of microscopes and other equipment), and the West Wales Trust for Nature Conservation, the Nature Conservancy Council, the National Trust, Mr & Mrs H Foster, and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Department for permission to visit and collect on their land. Helen Minter, Steve Potter and Andrea Romero are also thanked for their work in putting together the Sunday night buffet.
---WANTED--Terence Ingold (11 Buckner's Close, Benson, Oxford OX9 6LR) particularly requests material of certain smuts, namely: Ustilago kuehniana (on Rumex spp), Urocystis violae and Anthracoidea spp (on Carex spp).
47
Rogues Gallery - some of the faces seen at the Fishguard Foray: Argentine visitor, Andrea Romero (top left), President Roy Watling (top centre), Helen Hodgson (top right), Chinese visitor, Zhang Bincheng (centre left), Elizabeth Mordur (centre), Chris Yeates (centre right), Margorie Clark (bottom left), frogman, Steve Potter (bottom centre), Richard Jennings (bottom right).
SPRING FORAY 1987 FISHGUARD, DYFED 24-31 MAY 1987 Foray Records are no w stored on th e BMS database (see Bull. Br. myeo!. Soc. 20: 34-38 & 101-105. 1986 for details). Sen d new records to th e So ciety 's Reco rder - W T Moodie, 141 Woo d Lane, Hand sworth , Birmingham B20 2AQ. Fora y participants and lan dow ne rs of for ay sites w ill autom atica lly receive individu al foray list s. Others ca n receive copies on request to th e For ay Societ y. Datab ase sea rc he s can be pr ovided. For furth er in form ati on contact the Foray Secr etar y.
Set among the magnificent sc enery of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, with a fine array of nature res erves and delightfully boggy places lin ed up for us to visit, th is foray promised and, in th e end, delivered a lot. From the first morning's foray to Goodwick Moor (within w alking distance of our bas e at Fish gu ard School), when it seemed that every fallen twig and stem was covered with di scornycetes, to Cwm Gwaun on the fin al day, collecting was excellent. The laboratory space was mor e than sufficient (even for those of us who can spread in proportion to th e spa ce available) although the 'kicking-out' time of 22.30 left night owl s far from gruntled, On the plus side, however, the pr esen ce of several mycologists from abro ad, as so often happens, enlive n ed th e p ro ceedings considerably. Every now and then the laboratory would ring out with popular son gs from Ital y, Arg enti n a, the Basque cou ntry and even Hubei province in China. The Foray Records Database provoked m uch interest. This was the fir st of the Society'S major forays to which the new computer had been taken and many for ayers tried inputting records directly for the first time. Their misgivings w ere quickly allayed - it was all very successful. Participants liked to peruse daily print-outs of the fungi found and the corrections which flowed in each day following such perusals could lea ve one in no doubt that the standard of recording is being rapidly upgraded by th is new system. The pr int-outs also provide d a sa lu to ry lesson to thos e for w ho m only fungi with gills (or oc ca si o n ally pores) exist - and who
sometimes suggest that the foray library be run accordingly - that the ascomycetes and fu ngi imperfecti can form a large majority of the sp ecies found. The visit to Dowrog Common turned up a rare ascomycete on the willows . This fungus, Cryp tomyces maximus, was originally described from Scotland by Greville in the last century, and the last of the infrequent collections in the British Isles had been made in the early 1930s. It is only known from willow, and can hardl y be described as inconspicuous. Its fruitbodies form extensive blackened canker-like incrustations on liv ing branches, bu t because their structure is so difficult to interpret, the fungus tends to be overlooked. The collector did not re alise what he had found and, in attempting to understand the structures in the evening back at the laboratory, sought more ex p er ien ced assistance. Many people ask the present Foray Secretary for advice about an identification, and almost all are disappointed. This case was an excepti o n, as Cryptomyces happens to be a genus of the tar-spot fungi - th e Foray Secretary's pet group . There was a real flurr y of excitement when it was realized what had been found , and the fungus was identified, correctly, at a distance of 30 m from its description alone! A full account of this interesting fungus will be published elsewhere later. The Foray Dinner was held at Ann Fitzgerald's Farmhouse Kitchen, near Mathry on the Tuesday evening. Two buzzards over the lane to the farm portended of the later apparition of ranks of fora yers in a convivial and Trimalchian state of mind tucking into
45
their meals. Thanks are due to Gordon Dickson for organising the wine. Afterdinner liqueurs were considered an excellent innovation and the proprietors may well now have changed their 'unlimited coffee' offer, as the writer took full and even excessive advantage of it. Replete, we were given a lively account of the biology and physiology of dry rot by past president, David Jennings, in his talk entitled 'Th e Result of an Urban Foray' . The local press, radio and television showed considerable interest in our foray , and this was most satisfying, since it showed that the setting up by Council of a Society Publicity Officer was having an impact. During the week forayers gradually became accustomed to doing photo-calls. We had our picture taken in bogs, by the sea, in woodland and on islands. There were radio interviews, and we even made a few minutes of local television, with pictures of forayers looking for microfungi amongst the bracken while waiting for the boat to go to Skomer Island.
at Castell Hennlys. One of the more unusual species found there was Entotorno niphoides under Prunus. Roy Watling's drawing of it is reproduced here. The large fibreglass mammoth by the approach road served to warn that a strange experience lay ahead, and our rich collecting - Ionomidotis ful votingens, new to Britain, was found there on Corylus by Andrea Romero - was punctuated by an Iron Age picnic followed by the amusing sight of the Foray, Systematics & Structure Committee meeting around an Iron Age bonfire. Fortunately this meeting engendered no serious differences of opinion, as spears for use in minor Iron Age tiffs were close at hand. Prehistoric phanerogam systematics clearly had shortcomings as the 'wild strawberries' in the museum garden (and also on sale as bedding plants) were well infected with Phrogmidium fragariae (rust buffs will note the error). Bruce Ing also gave his wife a night of doubt and sorrow by suggesting that Genanthe Crocata (of which we saw large amounts all week) might have been an ingredient in her Iron Age salad. The evening of the 29th saw another lecture, this time by current president, Roy Watling, entitled 'W(h)ales, Seals, Mermaids and Fungi'. Through an analytical comparison of the developmental patterns of fruitbodies of selected basidiomycetes, Roy was able to sh ow how previous classifications of these fungi were simplistic. The result of these simplistic approaches had been that convergent evolution had not been recognised, so that the 'whales', 'seals' , and 'mermaid s' of the fungal world 12 ·5um fundamentally dissimilar organisms with a superficial similarity - had all been lumped together. The talk was most thought-provoking and taxonomists pre25um [ sent who worked with other groups of fungi felt a strong challenge to apply some of his findings to their own groups. Friday 29th also saw the Society's first ever organised marine foray. Intrepid Fig 1. forayers set off in two 4 m boats to colAmong the various interesting sites lect on the numerous secluded beaches visited (though interesting in a rather dif- and coves around Dinas Head, led by ferent way) was the Iron Age Museum Renos Mouzouras, one of the team of
o
~~
~ \l
46 marine mycologists from Portsmouth. Damp pieces of driftwood were collected for later incubation and examination. Unfortunately, a big beach clean-up along this coast not long before meant suitable wood was at a premium - an interesting point for conservationists to reflect on. Steve Potter even went diving for specimens: his report of having just seen a large dogfish was met by the response, 'fine! But did it have any fungi growing on it?' Several species were recorded and, as marine ascomycetes are very beautiful, with elegantly appendaged ascospores, they were well worth the effort.
.'6
DYFED
Sites visited Monday 25: Goodwick Moor - wetland with reed beds (1), Dowrog Common a wet and dry moorland site with a large range of flowering plants (2), Western Cleddau - a small wetland reserve with some interesting and rare plants (3); Tuesday 26: Tycanol Wood - ancient
oak woodland famous for its lichen populations (4), Poppit Sands - an eroded sand dune system with marram and other grasses (5), Cemaes Head - closecropped cliff top scenery (6), Foray Dinner - Mathry (7); Wednesday 27: Skomer Island - famous for its bird populations (8 - all day) or Marloes Mere - wet acidic pasture vegetation (9), Crabhall Saitings - saltmarsh (10), West Williamston Woods - an unusual ash wood on an old quarry site (11); Thursday 28: Castell Hennlys Woodlands - ancient woodland with an Iron Age fort (12) , Pengelli Forest - ancient mixed woodland but predominantly oak (13); Friday 29: Dinas Head - closecropped cliff top scenery and marine foraying (14), Mynydd Dinas & Bedd Morris - rather acid heathland (15), Mynydd Prescelli - conifer plantations (16); Saturday 30: Llanerch Alder Carr - wet mixed woodland (17). Hanging Oakwoods of Cwm Gwaun - ancient oak forest (18). Thanks for assistance with this meeting are extended by the Society to Dyfed County Council & Mr E Parry of Fishguard School (for permission to use the laboratories), Dr L Boddy & the Microbiology Department, Cardiff and Prof D L Hawksworth & the CMI (for the loan of microscopes and other equipment), and the West Wales Trust for Nature Conservation, the Nature Conservancy Council, the National Trust, Mr & Mrs H Foster, and the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Department for permission to visit and collect on their land. Helen Minter, Steve Potter and Andrea Romero are also thanked for their work in putting together the Sunday night buffet.
---WANTED--Terence Ingold (11 Buckner's Close, Benson, Oxford OX9 6LR) particularly requests material of certain smuts, namely: Ustilago kuehniana (on Rumex spp), Urocystis violae and Anthracoidea spp (on Carex spp).
47
Rogues Gallery - some of the faces seen at the Fishguard Foray: Argentine visitor, Andrea Romero (top left), President Roy Watling (top centre), Helen Hodgson (top right), Chinese visitor, Zhang Bincheng (centre left), Elizabeth Mordur (centre), Chris Yeates (centre right), Margorie Clark (bottom left), frogman, Steve Potter (bottom centre), Richard Jennings (bottom right).