Fungi foray

Fen Drayton Lakes is home to so many different kinds of wildlife, we're never short of things to discover and learn about. I've just come back from an afternoon on the reserve with our Wildlife Explorers club for 8-12 year olds. This month we were hunting for fungi and we were in luck...

We found plenty, all different shapes and sizes. Along with the bright fallen leaves fungi certainly help make this season explode with colour.

But poke a little under the surface (literally) and it turns out fungi are much more than colourful curiosities which pop up for a few weeks of the year.

The mushrooms and toadstools we see on the surface are actually not the main part of the fungus at all. They’re only the fungal fruit body, the bit that makes and disperses the spores by which the fungus reproduces.

The main part of the fungus is there all year round, hidden out of sight: a mass of hyphae, thin threads. These threads permeate whatever the fungus is growing in, usually something like rotting wood, leaf litter or soil.

The job of the hyphae is to absorb the nutrients and water the fungus needs to live. You might have found them before if you’ve broken off a piece of bark from a tree stump – sometimes they look like thick white cobwebs. 

The mushrooms and toadstools we see on the surface in autumn are also formed of hyphae, just very closely packed so they look quite solid.

Most fungi play a crucial role in recycling nutrients from the dead organic matter they're growing in. The hyphae out of sight produce enzymes which help break down the nutrients, a bit like what happens to food in our own stomachs.

Other fungi attack living organisms – often damaged, sometimes healthy trees, and in a few cases insects. Still others live in benign partnerships with their living hosts. For example, some fungi wrap tree roots in hyphae and actually help supply the tree with nitrogen and phosphorus from the soil, and in return the fungus gets virtually all its energy via the tree.

So there's a lot more to the world of fungi, and the reserve, than meets the eye. After an afternoon out looking at all the different types we could find I'm sure the Wildlife Explorers would agree that Fen Drayton Lakes is home to an amazing variety of living things. As always, thanks to all our volunteers and members who help keep it that way.

Why not create a dead wood pile in your garden or park at home to help fungi, beetles and more? Have a look here for ideas: rspb.org.uk/homes