Bellevue Park Fungi Walk October 03, 2020 By James Watterworth & Ev Simon Evelyn and James led a educational, mushroom walk, not to be confused with a foray which gives the guise of a edible walk. This was in no way a session focused on edible fungi but instead an op- portunity to look for and attempt to identify all fungi that we happened upon including ones that are not palatable and ones that could potentially cause harm. Remember, every mushroom is edible ….once. James gave a briefing on the collection and identifi- cation basics. All senses are used including smell and touch which are often diagnostic in mushroom identification. Many mushrooms require a spore print and potentially some microscope work for a positive ID. As Ev always says “There are old mushroom hunt- ers and there are bold mushroom hunters. But there are no old, bold mushroom hunters. ” Caution is paramount. James & Ev make no claim to be expert mycolo- gists. Instead they consider themselves mushroom enthusiasts and are happy to share their knowledge. They encourage participants to put the effort into learning how to identify edible mushroom species themselves using some of the excellent resources available (see p.3). Bellevue Park was relatively cold hovering between 1 and 10 0 C that day, however there were lots of fungi to see. As there were no experts in attend- ance, many people shared their knowledge. As a group we got down to a Russula or Lactarius family with the help of David Arora's book, All That the Rain Promises and More . Continued …. Elfin Saddle—Helvella crispa James (in yellow) in search mode Pigskin Poison Puall—Scleroderma citrinum
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1
Bellevue Park Fungi Walk
October 03, 2020 By James Watterworth & Ev Simon
Evelyn and James led a educational, mushroom
walk, not to be confused with a foray which gives
the guise of a edible walk. This was in no way a
session focused on edible fungi but instead an op-
portunity to look for and attempt to identify all fungi
that we happened upon including ones that are not
palatable and ones that could potentially cause
harm. Remember, every mushroom is edible
….once.
James gave a briefing on the collection and identifi-
cation basics. All senses are used including smell
and touch which are often diagnostic in mushroom
identification. Many mushrooms require a spore
print and potentially some microscope work for a
positive ID.
As Ev always says “There are old mushroom hunt-
ers and there are bold mushroom hunters. But
there are no old, bold mushroom hunters.” Caution
is paramount.
James & Ev make no claim to be expert mycolo-
gists. Instead they consider themselves mushroom
enthusiasts and are happy to share their
knowledge. They encourage participants to put the
effort into learning how to identify edible mushroom
species themselves using some of the excellent
resources available (see p.3).
Bellevue Park was relatively cold hovering between
1 and 100 C that day, however there were lots of
fungi to see. As there were no experts in attend-
ance, many people shared their knowledge. As a
group we got down to a Russula or Lactarius family
Our group of 18 managed to located an impressive variety of fungal species with the highlights being White saddle or Elfin saddle (Helvella crispa); Ravenel's stinkhorn & egg (Phallus ravenelii) and Dryad’s saddle (Cerioporus squamousus). See species list next page.