Even stranger are the bracket fungus and the perhaps the jelly like fungi you might see. But that’s not even half the story, the ‘mushrooms’ we see are only a very small part of the entire fungus and to top it all off there are around three thousand species of the larger fungi to be found in Great Britain.
First, back to basics, what are fungi? You may be surprised to find out fungi are not plants, they are classified as their own type of lifeform as separate from plants and animals. Yet fungi are very important to our daily lives in different ways. Yeast is a fungus and without it we wouldn’t have bread, or beer! Many fungi are used in the fight against disease but in many ways the most important role that fungi play is in breaking down dead plants and animals. Fungi are unable to make their own food so they extract nutrients from other organic matter, breaking it down and the nutrients become available to other plants and animals. In this way new plants and animals can grow and thrive and the cycle of life continues.
So the mushrooms then, what are they? Mushrooms, or toadstools and the other weird and wonderful shaped fungi that you see are only the fruiting body of the fungi. The ‘body’ of the fungus is called a mycelium and would look like a huge cobweb or fine net if you could see it. The individual strands in this net are called hyphae and they are so small you can only usually see them with a microscope. This mycelium can be in the soil or found in rotting organisms and can sometimes cover huge areas- up to 15hectares (37 acres) for some of our species.
But there is more, fungi also help plants to survive. Over 80% of trees, shrubs and wild flowers depend on the fungi attached to their roots to get the nutrients they need. These root fungi gather nutrients which are passed on to the plant and in return the fungus extracts sugars from the plant. This relationship benefits both the plant and the fungus to such an extent that the fungus may also act as a defence mechanism against other fungi trying to invade or attack the plant.
The fact that certain fungi are associated with certain plants helps explain where we find them. One of our most charismatic fungi the Fly agaric is often found in woodlands and this is explained through it’s association with Birch trees. Other interesting fungi you might spot include the sulphur polypore a large yellow bracket fungus commonly found in tiers on oak trees. The porcelain fungus is a very delicate white fungus that looks very much like thin white china- although covered in a good dose of slime. This fungus which is associated with Beech trees produces small mushrooms in groups.
If you have more keen eyes you may find some of the strange Stags horn fungus which has small fruiting bodies looking like white stags horns and can be found on dead wood. Another and more colourful dead wood fungus is the Scarlet elf cup. This is cup or bowl shaped as the name suggests and bright red on the inside, you may see several of these growing together but they only grow up to 5cm across so you will need to look closely.
As a note of caution, many fungi are poisonous and you should never touch or eat them unless you are absolutely sure you have identified them correctly. Please leave fungi where you find them as they are important to our ecosystems and many species are rare or in decline.
