Fungi. What a wonderful little kingdom in the grand taxonomy of life, with their fantastic colours and funky shapes. Although originally categorised in the family Plantae by the Swedish botanist Carolus Linneaus in the 1700s, fungi are actually more closely to us mammals than plants – neither of us get energy directly from the sun.
Modern classification currently lists fungi as one of the four kingdoms under the domain of Eukarya (although with so many advances in science this may not be true in twenty years time!). Fungi are considered to be detritivores – they get their nutrition from dead wood and leaves, amongst other things. Fungi are believed to be one of the first colonisers of land in the evolutionary process, creating nutrient-rich soil that allowed plants to flourish. Without fungi, we would not be here today.
“ Fungi are the only organism with the biological aptitude to link death with life.” – Star Trek Discovery
The study of fungi is known as mycology, and recently this has become a great interest of mine. When I was a teenager I remember dismissing fungus as not being very interesting, or particularly nice to look at. But a stunning portfolio in BBC Wildlife magazine completely changed my appreciation for fungi, and I'm now eager to discover all that I can. And my mission for this semester, whilst it's prime fungi season, is to gain as much knowledge and experience with them as I can.
On my first day back in Carlisle after the holidays I had to pop up to the Brampton Road campus to attend to some affairs. As I walked across the grounds to the buildings I was amazed at the number of different species of fungi that I came across. I took a couple of images of the more spectacular specimens before heading off.
Over lunch I found that I was kicking myself for not taking more pictures, and for not having a proper look at more of the species on campus. As I had a camera (for once) and oodles of spare time I decided it was worth my while making the trek back up to Brampton to satisfy my curiosity. It was definitely worth the walk! I catalogued at least 20 unique species of fungi within a 200m radius, and I managed to get decent pictures of all of them.
Then came the harder task – identification. This is the one area of fungi I still lack in. I know how and where to find, but working out what they are? Tricky. I take comfort in the fact that of the estimated 1.5 million species of fungi out there only 100,000 have been described. I managed to identify about a fifth of them and I as far as I'm concerned, that's an achievement! One lesson I learnt was that I need to bring some kind of ruler or scale with me to measure my fungus – it really helps when identifying photos to determine the approximate size of the mushrooms!
Fungi are a fantastic little group to get involved with. The sheer diversity of species means you'll never get bored, and their presence can really brighten up a dreary autumnal day. I'm definitely going to be writing more about fungi in the coming weeks, so prepare yourselves for further mushroom madness.
Species List:
Blusher Amanita rubescens
Lactarius acerrimus
Coprinellus angulatus
Tricholoma inocybeoides
Comments