Fungi foray, New Forest

Fungi to be with is reaching out to the general public and offering an enlightening, entertaining and insightful introduction to the fascinating and increasingly important world of fungi. As well as getting to know some of the edible and toxic mushrooms, the forays also create the opportunity to compile species lists and to collect specimens as voucher material, which will be held at the Kew Gardens, mycological herbarium. This helps contribute to an ongoing documentation of numbers of species in specified areas over time and their distribution patterns across the U.K.

These foray walks work on many levels; not only do they provide an opportunity to learn more about wild mushrooms but they also give people the chance to meet other like minded people, give exercise with a focus, they utilise our parks and woodlands, and they can work wonders on stress levels. Attendees can learn to identify many of the more common species such as, Chicken of the Woods, The Amethyst Deceiver, Honey Fungus, The Stinkhorn, the notorious Death Cap (credited with the death of the Emperor Claudius) and many more. It is essential that all those who take part respect the regulations operating in the area where the foray is held.

The forays start at 10am and finish around 2pm.

Site: New Forest, Hampshire

Price: £20 per individual, £38 joint booking (partners), £15 concession (unwaged, pensioner and students) £40 family (two adults & two children).

Thanks to Andy Overall, Anni Burnell, Miranda Gavin and Leila Fonseca for use of photos.

Fungi to be with was formed in the early 1990's by myself Andy Overall, and Miranda Gavin, who having played an important role in helping set up FTBW, is no longer involved.

FTBW was created to fulfill a role that up until that time and even now is scarcely covered. That role was to help the interested people of Greater London and the home counties, with an emphasis on fungi, connect/reconnect with the natural environment surrounding them.

When I first became interested in mushrooms, during the 1980's I took it upon myself to begin the long process of getting to know these unusual organisms. Following my initial forays into the fungi world I realised the need for 'fungi to be with'. "How many other people, like me, were looking for an introduction to the mushrooms that they came across whilst out walking?"

Some ten years or so on fungi to be with is now affiliated with the British Mycological Club (BMS) and is recognised as the longest standing, London Fungus Group. Some of the collections of fungi, made by foray attendees and myself, are deposited at the herbarium in Kew Gardens. Species lists are drawn up following each foray, which are then given over to the governing bodies of the areas in which the forays take place, providing an ongoing record of the fungi that occur or re-occur in those areas over time. Recording began in 1996 and the successful continuation of these records have been helping to produce a clearer picture of the distribution of fungi across the home counties and in London's parks and woodlands.