UK conservationists with special interest in fungi are urging us all to pay more regard to the fungi we find around us. Some internationally important fungi could turn up in your garden and, if they do, the conservationists want to know about it.
The Fungus Conservation Forum is an assemblage of organisations with an interest in fungi and their conservation in the UK. Member organisations include Plantlife International, the British Mycological Society, English Nature and the Association of British Fungus Groups.
The forum has highlighted a group of fungi known as 'waxcaps' as an example of British species which are internationally important. The pink waxcap (
Hygrocybe calyptriformis), for example, may be more common in Britain than anywhere else in the world. This fungus is quite likely to turn up on your garden lawn as well as in meadows and woodland margins. If you find one, you are urged to report it via the
Plantlife International website.
