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Fungal Foray, Ancient Oak Woodland on Castle Hill
Duncombe Park, October 16th 2010

notes by Rhona Sutherland [Species list below]

Sixteen of us met in Helmsley and then drove to a ridge of Ancient woodland to the south of the river Rye within Duncombe Park. This is an area of mostly old Oaks, small leaved Limes and Birch, with patches of Bilberry and Bracken. The gnarled old trees were just magnificent. It has been an exceptionally good year for fungi and I had hoped to find all sorts in this special habitat. In fact although there were fungi there, they were not in the profusion you might see in more open areas like Castle Howard Arboretum. We only looked at a small area and I am sure merely scratched the surface of the fungi present, but with 16 pairs of eyes and three visiting Mycologists we found some interesting species including the rare bracket fungus – the Oak Polypore Piptoporus quercinus – and a total of 63 species. We were very lucky to have Gordon Simpson with us who shared his knowledge of fungi and identified many specimens.

It was a delightful walk and just whetted our appetite for finding out more about fungi here and elsewhere.

Leafy Brain Tremella foliacea.	Oak polypore Piptoporus quercinus. The bluish marks may be another fungus growing on the polypore.
Smoky Bracket Bjerkandera adusta.	Clustered Bonnet Mycena inclinata.

Species list (63spp.)