Waxcap fungi discovery
8 November 2010
A remote Scottish island has been found to be an internationally important site for waxcap fungi, after an expedition to map its populations of fungi, moss and lichens found a particularly high number of species growing there.
The island of Canna, the westernmost of the Inner Hebrides, belongs to the National Trust for Scotland (NTS), and is famous for its wildflowers and its seabird colonies. However less is known about the hidden organisms – lichens, fungi and moss - growing in its extensive grasslands.
A team of mycologists, lichenologists and bryologists from the NTS, the British Conservation Trust for Volunteers, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh (RBGE), spent a week on the island surveying the island's lower plant forms. During the expedition, trainee mycologist Ali Murfitt recorded 18 species of waxcap, as well as coral fungi and the smut fungi Entyloma, all of which thrive on nutrient-poor grasslands.
"The grasslands of Canna are extremely important because they have such a good selection of waxcaps: if you find 13 types of waxcap you've got a site of international importance, but Ali has found 18," said Roy Watling, of the RBGE.
Sightings of waxcap fungi (Hygrocybe spp) have been increasing in recent years, and mycologists believe they may be more common than previously thought. They appear on grassland where the soil has been undisturbed for a long time, and come in a wide range of different colours from yellow to pink.
The information collected in the survey will now be used in management plans for the island so that the populations can be conserved and maintained.
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