Sue Huggett
As nature slowly transitions from the gaiety of summer into the relative tranquillity of winter, you might think that there is nothing happening in The Bumpy at present. But there is one group of organisms that come into their own at this time of year; the fungi.
Originally classified as plants, we now know that fungi are more closely related to animals. What we see at this time of year, in the form of a variety of fascinating shapes and colours, are only the fruiting bodies of these little known and less understood organisms. For most of the year, we are oblivious to their existence, but their tiny, filamentous “hyphae” abound within the soil, in decaying wood, and even in some living plant tissues, forming a network, a superhighway, of connectivity between living organisms that has coined the term “the wood-wide web”.
Visitors to The Bumpy at any time of year will soon notice an abundance of dead and decaying wood – a legacy of all the fallen Ash and Elm trees that gave way to the space that we enjoy today. Fungi thrive on rotting stumps, roots and branches, and a multitude of insect larvae feed on them. So, the fungi are slowly eating up all this dead wood, recycling it into food for other organisms further up the food chain.
Turkey Tails (Trametes versicolor) are the easiest fungi to spot in The Bumpy, at any time of year. These are “bracket” fungi, forming tiers of concentric rings in mauves, browns, greens and greys with a neat, white border, on the many rotting tree stumps. These are so beautiful that they were once used to decorate ladies’ hats!
The Southern Bracket (Ganoderma australe) lacks the artistic flair of its cousin, but makes up for this in its chunkiness. You can find a 30cm-long example growing at the base of one of the really tall Ash trees near the bottom of the reserve. The bracket is shiny brown on top, with a white underside that wraps over the top edge to form a contrasting edge. Like the Turkey Tails, it is perennial and can be seen all year round. The unseen, filamentous hyphae penetrate the heartwood of the tree, gradually digesting it and hollowing it out.
The Stubble Rosegill (Volvopluteus gloiocephallus) is much more recognisably a “toadstool”, and is fruiting in The Bumpy as I write.
Unlike the brackets, this is a seasonal species, which will pop up, shed its spores and then wither and disappear again. We’ve seen it in The Bumpy for three consecutive years now, so it seems to enjoy this habitat of previously disturbed ground (The Bumpy was once a worked gravel pit). Its fruiting bodies can appear any time between July and November, depending on soil moisture and temperature. When it first appears, it has a conical cap, like the one in the picture, which is pale grey and slightly sticky. As it ages, this flattens out and gets darker in colour. Some people think it smells like radishes!
Other fungi we expect to see during the winter months include Jelly Ears, which grow on the dead Elderberry branches, Candle Snuff, which sprouts from dead tree stumps and underground roots and can actually glow in the dark, and Yellow Brain, sometimes called Witches’ Butter, which feeds on other fungi that are growing on dead branches.
So, why not pop into The Bumpy soon and see what you can find?!