Fungi Finds: British citizen scientists make rare pink and purple discoveries | Mushrooms
Cemeteries, sheep farms and garden lawns are among the hundreds of new sites for rare pink and purple mushrooms discovered by citizen scientists.
The Plantlife charity has enlisted 850 volunteers to search for wax towers in their local areas, so that scientists can obtain data from places such as private gardens to which they did not have access before.
They found 300 new locations of candy pink plague (Porpolomopsis caryptriformis)who is Classified as “vulnerable” on the World International Union for the Conservation of Nature (Red List of the IUCN of endangered species and 18 new locations of the dynamic purple coral, Clavaria Zollingeri.
“Last year was our greatest year for surveys on citizen sciences,” said Dr. Aileen Baird, manager of Mushroom Conservation in Plantlife. “The interest of people for mushrooms increases definitively, and we would not have found these new locations without them.”
Before the survey, just over 1,000 pink wax coral sites and 183 purple corals were recorded in the British Mycological Society database, so that the new results have considerably widened the data.
Baird added that there was a “relatively high number” of these mushrooms in the United Kingdom, although they are rare internationally, because they thrive in a type of old nutrients poor in nutrients found in Britain.
“They are internationally vulnerable, which places them in the same category as snow leopards and giant pandas in terms of risk of extinction. We therefore have an international responsibility in the United Kingdom to protect these mushrooms, ”she said.
She added that they were “very beautiful” and an indicator of these older and increasingly rare meadows. “They are a habitat of which we lose massive quantities and therefore these mushrooms can also be a very good way to discover where these remains of old meadows are.”
This habitat was lost in development and agriculture, as well as planting trees, because mushrooms need meadows rather than wooded habitats. “There can be a little confrontation there, because obviously, the planting of trees overall is a positive thing, but it must be in the right places. And it is therefore this change of use of land and intensive agriculture. Mushrooms do not like fertilizers and fungicides and other types of pesticides and things such as plowing and soil disturbance. All these elements can have a negative impact.
For scientists of beginner citizens, Tabriques are a good species to start because they are easy to identify. “If you are in grassy habitat, then these are quite distinctive,” said Baird. “They are generally bright colors. So we have bright red, pink, orange, yellow, a little green and purple. ”
Clare Blencowe, member of the British Mycological Society mycology and conservation committee, said: “The discoveries of so many new sites for Lecap de Cire Rose and the purple coral are really impressive. These endangered species survive. »»
WaxCap Watch is the annual plantlife fall poll to identify new sites where meadow mushrooms can be found. This year’s investigation takes place from September 15 to December 31.
