Fungal Foray
Fungi fulfil vital ecological roles, such as breaking down wood and leaves and forming beneficial partnerships with most plants. The challenge is to identify and catalogue the discoveries.
Increasing public understanding and appreciation, as well as gathering the diversity and distribution of fungi, are among the main goals of Fungal Forays.
The 24th annual New Zealand Fungal Foray took place at Glentui (near Oxford, north-west of Christchurch) recently, although the local conditions were far too dry to be ideal for fungi and participants travelled further afield to collect fungi in damper forests.
Fungi fulfil vital ecological roles, such as breaking down wood and leaves and forming beneficial partnerships with most plants. The challenge is to identify and catalogue the discoveries, much of this occurring on long evenings following the day’s field collecting.
Organiser Jerry Cooper says 1 in 8 of New Zealand’s most threatened organisms are fungi and the week-long event is an opportunity to increase public understanding and appreciation of these often overlooked but incredibly numerous and ecologically important organisms. Much of the Fungal Foray takes place on land administered by DOC and the results help them to better manage this on behalf of all New Zealanders.
Dr Cooper says around 35 participants from throughout New Zealand, as well as Australia, the United States and United Kingdom, collected and identified the fungi of the Oxford, Craigieburn, and surrounding areas.
The four days of collecting are complemented by a mid-week day of research papers, the Mycology Colloquium, attracting additional participants from Christchurch.
Since 1986, the Foray has been an annual event, held at different sites around New Zealand. One of the key aims is to provide a relaxed, enjoyable forum for anyone interested in fungi, and participants include amateur and professional mycologists. The amateurs range from members of the public with a general interest in natural history to those with an extensive knowledge of New Zealand’s fungi.
This year, there were several interesting finds as well as two items of concern:
- New populations of the introduced fungal pest Amanita muscaria (fly agaric – the red-capped ‘toadstool’ with white spots) were found invading beech forest; its continued spread is a concern as it must be impacting the many native fungi that typically associate with, and benefit roots of beech trees.
- Blackberry rust (self-introduced from Australia) was found fruiting on native Rubus species growing beside the blackberry bushes. The rust was far more prolific on the blackberry, but finding it had ‘jumped ship’ to a native host is of concern.