Wimpole Fungi


FUNGI
Autumn is a very good time to see many of the fungi that occur in Great Britain. However, because of modern farming and forestry practices many of the once common fungi have undergone a decline mainly due to nitrogen fertilisers on grassland and change in woodlands and forest practices. Therefore there are only relatively few places in lowland England were a good variety of fungi can be found.
The Huntingdon fungi group did an initial survey on the Wimpole Estate and found Mycenella cooliana a very small fungi. The rest of the grassland had other species, some very attractive fungi such as the Field mushrooms and a number of Waxcap species Hygrocbe virgineus, H. persistens and H. nigrescens Another good find was the spiny coral fungus Hericium coralloides that grows on dead ash trees here. This is a rare fungus that belongs to the toothed fungi group and requires plenty of dead wood standing or fallen. Another rarity was a very large and impressive fungi called Volvaiella bombycina which grows on dead elm or in rot holes of dead elm, therefore a species likely to become rarer unfortunately. The National Trust's estate properties are actually some of the best places to see both common and rare fungi and Wimpole is no exception. The gardens can in some years have many different species and there are some quite spectacular fungi like the Parrot wax cap, the Blusher which belongs to the deadly poisonous Amanita family, White Helvella and Boletus species.
	In the parkland, the best are seen on the old dead wood and veteran trees. These are magnificent, Chicken of the Woods, Beef Steak fungus, Dryads Saddle, Oyster mushrooms, Inonotus species and on very rare occasions the bracket tooth fungi. In the grassland the Giant Puffball can occasionally be seen as can the Wax caps and Inkcaps. In places, especially in front of the house where the grassland has not been improved, many others can grow, one unusual species is the White Spindle, which looks like fat white grass growing out of the soil. Even the very white Miller will grow here with its odour of ground wheat.
Probably the most important fungi habitat at Wimpole are the deadwood and veteran trees as these support of the rare and declining saproxylic insect group. Recent survey work by Peter Kirby has raised the awareness of Wimpole as a very important site both in Cambridgeshire and Nationally. Many of the rare beetles and flies require fungi hyphae and fruiting bodies to complete their life cycle, so it is very important to look after this ecological environment and be able to enjoy the autumn spectacle of these fungi fruiting bodies.

Leaflets on fungi and codes of practice for picking can be obtained from the English Nature web site.

FUNGI