Common fungi spreading as climate changes

Wild mushrooms and toadstools are becoming more widespread in Britain because warmer weather has increased the number of plants on which they can grow. According to The Daily Telegraph newspaper, popular edible varieties such as the the chanterelle and porcini mushrooms are among those found to have changed where they grow, meaning they will become easier to find in the countryside. Other species such as the distinctive jelly ear mushroom, Auricularia auricula-judge used to be found growing on the branches of elder trees, but researchers have now found them on 20 other plants. Scientists are not certain exactly why the fungi have started to change their hosts but believe changes in the climate may be responsible. Dr Alan Gange, a mycologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, is now appealing for the public to help track the changes taking place in Britain's fungi. Dr Gange has used data on fungi collected by his father Edward in the Salisbury area since 1950 to monitor changes. He has found that the mushroom season in the UK has doubled in length in the Uk from 33 days to nearly 75 days on average. Fungi are also starting to fruit earlier and finish later. Fungi are one of the largest kingdoms of organisms and play a crucial role in breaking down dead organic material. For most of the year they grow as microscopic structures in the soil or on wood and are barely noticeable. It is only in the warm, damp months of the autumn when mushrooms and toadstools, which are in fact the fruiting bodies of the fungi, poke through the soil or grow on rotting wood that they become obvious.Dr Gange's work shows that the Butter Cap species – an edible beige hat shaped toadstool which grows in leaf litter under oak trees – has now started to grow mainly under beech trees. The edible chanterelle mushroom is increasingly found under birch trees while it was previously restricted to oak and beech trees while the cep, or porcini mushroom – popular in Italian cooking – is now commonly found with conifer trees even thought it was previously common under only oak and beech.The common yellow Russula, which is also edible, is often found under pine and birth trees while previously it was associated with only oak and beech trees and the poisonous sulphur tuft, which grows in large clumps, is also expanding its hosts. Dr Gange also believes one of the most distinctive toadstools in the UK, the Fly Agaric, a poisonous variety which has a brightly coloured red cap with white spots and has become a favourite feature in fairy tales, is extending its host plants. It is normally found under birch and Scots pine trees. He now hopes to conduct a nationwide study of the Fly Agaric and is asking members of the public to report sightings of the plant, along with photographs and the species of the nearest tree.