Shropshire is an exciting county with its meadows, woodlands, hills, meres and mosses. Within these habitats flourishes an extraordinary fungus flora ranging from the deliciously edible Penny Bun to the highly poisonous Death Cap, from the ordinary Field Mushroom to bizarre forms like the Stinkhorn and the Birds Nest Fungus. The county also contains a number of rare species; one of these is the Powdercap Strangler, Squamanita paradoxa. This is a parasite of other fungi and it attacks and replaces the cap of the host with its own cap and gills. Formed in 1992 the Shropshire Fungus Group now has about 30 members and our main activities are foraying and recording our finds.
We have a core of knowledgeable people who help and instruct the less expert of us. We organise a programme of forays throughout the county each year. At some point after the foray all the species are entered onto our database. This is building up a picture of the fungi found in the county and will hopefully highlight any changes occurring with time. The records are also sent to the British Myological Society for inclusion in their national database.
We also share records with the Shropshire Wildlife Trust and the Natural Shropshire website. So far we have over 40,000 records covering over 3,200 species, but we believe there are a thousand or more still to find. If you would like to learn more about this subject and help us find the remaining species why not join us. For more information about our activities contact our Secretary, Les Hughes.
