The regular recording of fungi at Tophill Low began in 2005, but Group members must often come across fungi elsewhere in the Hull Valley and it would be interesting to receive reports of any that seemed at all unusual. There may be problems with identification (see below), but who knows what rarities may be found? Fungi do not, for the most part, deserve the bad reputation which they have acquired, though a few are indeed poisonous and healthy trees may occasionally be attacked. In general, fungi aid the growth of trees and are vital agents of decay and in the recycling of nutrients. They should not be ignored: on the contrary, along with dragonflies, moths, and the rest, they can add interest to a ‘bad bird day’, as several regulars at Tophill have been discovering! As regards eating them, don’t. We have enjoyed two or three tasty fungi collected at Tophill, but there are too many caveats to need repeating here.

The variety of fungi is enormous and a few hours at Tophill may produce the familiar mushrooms and toadstools, brackets growing on trees, crusts covering the surface of fallen branches, jelly fungi and slime moulds on plants, and assorted oddities like the phallic Stinkhorns. The range of size, shape, and colour is almost endless.

This Dryad’s Saddle (Polyporus squamosus), growing on a dead Horse Chestnut tree in a Cottingham back garden, can justifiably be described as large – the bracket in the foreground was nearly two feet across.

At the other extreme is this Leaf Parachute (Marasmius epiphyllus), growing on the stem of a dead Beech leaf at Tophill, which was about one centimetre tall.

For sheer beauty there could be little to beat the Turkeytail (Trametes versicolor), found on a log in Thwaite Gardens, Cottingham. The
species is highly variable, but rarely does it have the rainbow colours shown by this specimen.

The fungus which no gardener wants to see is, of course, Honey Fungus (Armillaria mellea). These were in a public garden in
Cottingham, on a dead stump, but it has also been found at Tophill and is very common.

Much more desirable was another typical ‘mushroom’, Yellow Domecap (Clitocybe chrysenteron), which two Tophill regulars found beside a path near O Res. There have been fewer that 20 records of the species in Britain.

The number of species recorded at Tophill has now passed 220 and is steadily increasing. Anyone finding fungi on the reserve should, please, leave details of the location with Richard Hampshire. Reports from elsewhere in the HullValley would be welcome. Please send photographs to the website in the usual way (showing where appropriate more than one view, see the Yellow Domecap), together with brief details of  place, grid reference if possible, size, medium on which the fungus was growing, and habitat. The smell and taste can also be distinctive and helpful! It must be stressed, however, that many species can be identified only with a microscope, and specimens from Tophill often have to be sent away to an expert. That would be impracticable for a wider area, unless we seemed to have something special.                                            Keith Allison 2009