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    Green Guide to Mushrooms And Toadstools Of Britain And Europe
    Green Guide to Mushrooms And Toadstools Of Britain And Europe
    Green Guide to Mushrooms And Toadstools Of Britain And Europe
    Ebook303 pages53 minutes

    Green Guide to Mushrooms And Toadstools Of Britain And Europe

    By Gordon Dickson and Catherine Slade

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    About this ebook

    Bloomsbury Green Guides are portable handbooks to the most commonly found species in Britain and Europe.

    A huge array of mushrooms and toadstools grow in our woodlands and fields, from the deadly poisonous to the delicious delicacy, and correct identification is crucial. The Green Guide to Mushrooms and Toadstools makes identifying them easy for beginners and amateur naturalists alike.

    Concise descriptions include information on appearance, habitat and distribution and advice on whether or not the species is edible.
    Beautiful colour illustrations of all 150 species are included.
    A detailed introduction includes colour photographs and information on classes of fungi, poisonous fungi and how to go about identifying species.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateSep 8, 2016
    ISBN9781472927156
    Green Guide to Mushrooms And Toadstools Of Britain And Europe

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      Book preview

      Green Guide to Mushrooms And Toadstools Of Britain And Europe - Gordon Dickson

      Contents

      INTRODUCTION

      WHAT ARE FUNGI?

      HOW TO IDENTIFY FUNGI

      POISONOUS FUNGI

      CONSERVATION OF FUNGI

      NOMENCLATURE

      CLASSES OF FUNGI

      GLOSSARY

      THE FUNGI

      IMAGE GALLERY

      BIBLIOGRAPHY

      USEFUL WEBSITES

      Introduction

      There are several thousand species of fungi to be found throughout Europe, including the British Isles. Many are microscopic and, though they are important to the agriculturalist because of the damage they cause to crops, they are not considered in this guide. Of the larger fungi there are at least 2,000 species, of which nearly 1,000 are common somewhere, but most of those common in the north are rare in the south and vice versa.

      The species included in this book are mainly those that are recognised readily in the field without the need for a microscope (though a simple hand lens is always a help) as they have some distinguishing character of appearance, smell or taste.

      They are arranged in groups, starting with the fungi that have tubes, followed by those with gills. Next come the stomach-fungi, most of which look like round balls, then the jelly-fungi and the brackets that grow on trees (though if a bracket has gills it is shown with the other gill-fungi). Last are the disc-fungi and the black Pyrenomycetes.

      Size varies considerably within species and individuals will almost always be found that are outside the dimensions given. The thickness of the flesh depends on the species and also on the size of the cap. The cultivated mushroom, for example, is referred to as ‘thick-fleshed’, while the little Mycenas, so common on the woodland floor, have very little material between the cap surface and the gills and are referred to as ‘thin-fleshed’.

      Although some fungi are described as associating with specific trees there are exceptions when the host tree may be of a different species from that stated. However, there are very few species of fungi that will grow on both deciduous and coniferous trees.

      Macrolepiota procera

      A far greater number of fungi fruit in the autumn than in the spring. Unless otherwise stated, the species described may be found between May and October in northern areas of Europe and a month later in southern areas – in most years the peak months are August to September and September to October respectively. Drought followed by rain usually produces extensive fruiting of Agarics and sharp frost puts an end to it, though a mild winter may allow fruiting to continue right through into spring.

      What are fungi?

      For centuries it has been customary to classify the living world into two main kingdoms – animal and vegetable – and, until comparatively recent times, it seemed obvious to include fungi in the latter category. However, lacking the pigment known as chlorophyll, which is contained in green plants, fungi are unable to make use of the sun’s energy to build up the carbohydrates from which a plant is formed. Instead, like animals, they obtain their energy through the breakdown of organic matter. Further, the hard parts of fungi are chemically closer to the chitin that forms the casing of insects than to lignin, which forms the hard parts of plants. A third category – the fungal kingdom – has had to be created to house these extraordinary organisms.

      A mushroom or toadstool is only the fruitbody, or reproductive part, of an extensive network of very fine threads that branch, join and weave below the surface of the ground, breaking down decaying material for sustenance. In the same way, the bracket fungus that grows on a tree is the fruit of a body of fine threads that penetrate the substance of the wood. This network is known as the mycelium and is common to all fungi. The individual threads (hyphae) are too small to be seen with the naked eye, but often a number of hyphae will cluster together to form visible threads about the thickness of sewing cotton. Certain fungi form even thicker black threads like bootlaces, which are known as rhizomorphs, and these may be seen under the loose bark of dead trees.

      Boletus chrysenteron

      The mycelium is perennial and certainly persists in the soil for decades, probably for centuries and possibly for millennia. It plays a major part in the rotting down of the leaves that fall in autumn – which would be metres deep in a very short time without this process of decomposition.

      Not all fungi limit themselves to the breakdown of leaves, however; there are many that send their hyphae down to the roots of trees and form a network within the outer layers of the finer roots. There, a mutual interchange of material, known as mycorrhizal symbiosis, takes place to the benefit

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