The Danish Mycological Society

Scottish foray

September 2010 at Kindrogan Field Studies Centre

In the late summer of 2009 Bente Fabech and her husband, Jørn Gry, contacted the ‘Scottish Field Mycology’ Yahoo Group to request advice on where best to visit to observe interesting fungi during their holiday to Scotland planned later in the following month. It transpired that they were also hoping to plan an overseas foray the following year for The Danish Mycological Society. I responded to their message and we managed to arrange a couple of very enjoyable meetings at the beginning and end of their trip.

The result of this thorough research by Bente and Jørn was that on the 6th September this year, 26 members of The Danish Mycological Society arrived at Kindrogan Field Studies Centre, nr Pitlochry, in Perthshire to spend a week exploring the diversity of Scotland’s habitats, and their associated fungi. Sadly, at the last minute, one member was not able to make the trip. I joined the group also, as Bente and Jørn had kindly asked me to act as their guide. We were also fortunate enough to be able to welcome Roy and Elizabeth Watling to the party. Roy, generous as ever with his time, had offered to give a talk on the first evening and lead the first field trip to The Black Wood of Rannoch, the following morning.

The weather on Tuesday morning was nothing less than appalling! However The Black Wood of Rannoch still managed to enthuse us with its beauty and diverse fungi. We were also pleasantly surprised to be unexpectedly joined by Taylor Lockwood, visiting from America, who had been trying to catch up with Roy during his trip. As well as seeing many species typical of ancient Caledonian pine forest, we also found two of the rare ‘Tooth Fungi’ Sarcodon squamosus and Hydnellum ferrugineum which are included in the conservation action plan covering 15 members of this group. In the afternoon some of us headed a little further west to Allt Camgouran, still part of the same SSSI, whilst others decided to return home a little beaten by the weather. The latter group were subjected to rather a long detour by their confused driver, arriving home only shortly before the Allt Camgouran party for whom the weather had significantly improved. The second site was worth the effort as we encountered Lactarius repraesentaneus and Peder Rabenborg pointed out what he was confident was camarops polysperma growing on an Alder tree by the burn - sadly we could only observe the fungus through binoculars on a branch overhanging the water, distinctively debarked around the fruiting body, as it was impossible to collect from this position. Roy has since confirmed that it has previously been recorded from Loch Earn in 1981. Peder and his wife Susanne collected further material during their stay which is likely to be the second confirmed record of the species in Scotland.

On the next day we visited Blackcraig Castle and Blackcraig forest, a spruce plantation above the castle. The Plantation was not very rewarding, however a short foray around the grounds of the castle proved otherwise and our species list was nearly doubled. It was particularly pleasing that Bente found Lactarius repraesentaneus again under some old birch. However the object of the day, and the reason for visiting a plantation (on the grounds of conservation), was to find a respectable collection of edible fungi to enjoy as an evening meal. The plantation did not offer such an opportunity, but a particularly good site for Chanterelle close to the field centre saved the day. Sadly though, the kitchen then had a crisis and our fungal feast had to be postponed!

On Thursday we headed north to Royal Deeside to visit Morrone Birkwood SSSI followed by a brief stop in Braemar and to Mar Lodge, finishing with a trip to Inverey Youth Hostel Wood, where Liz Holden has recorded for many years. By luck, more than by design, Liz was there, working on her riverbank transects. Data from these transects was used recently as part of a PhD project by Sietse Van der Linde at Aberdeen, as was the Inverey site, to detect mycelia from this species group in the soil. Here we encountered many Caledonian Pinewood associated species including Leccinum vulpinum, Suillus flavidus, Lactarius musteus, Russula paludosa, and Rozites caperatus. The tooth fungi were represented by Sarcodon squamosus, Hydnellum c.f. scrobiculatum, Phellodon niger and Phellodon tomentosus. Rhizopogon luteolus was also interesting to find, as was the relatively common but visually spectacular Sparrasis crispa.

Morrone had yielded yet another record for Lactarius repraesentaneus, and a rather interesting Peziza with extremely large spores which I could only get to be P. granulosa, although I am aware that the name is not accepted. We had the best of the weather on this day, which allowed us to see Glen Clunie, The Devil’s Elbow and Glen Shee at their best both on our way up and on our journey home.

On our return to the field centre we had the opportunity to enjoy our booty of Chanterelle from the day before as part of our evening meal, which the Kindrogan staff allowed some of our party to prepare in their kitchen.

Our last day commenced with a visit to Faskally Wood where we found Boletus appendiculatus, Inocybe calamistrata, Suillus viscidus (which we had also found at Blackcraig castle, but showing yellow in the pores, rather than the grey colour that one expects), and a couple of interesting hypogeous specimens which sadly we never had the opportunity to investigate.

After lunch the group split and some went to visit Edradour Distillery, which they eventually got access to, after a bit of negotiation! Whilst the rest went on to the Garry Bridge end of The Pass of Killiekrankie where there is an old oak wood. The ground vegetation was quite dense and there was a lot of bracken cover, which did not promote much fungal fruiting. However we did collect Amanita virosa, as well as our third record of Inonotus obliquus for the week and another hypogeous specimen which again we never had the chance to examine.

Our last evening was an enjoyable affair with several speeches, thanking key players - particularly Jørn, Bente and Mette, for all the effort put into organising the week. Jørn then also kindly thanked me for the programme I had put together. The speeches were then followed, in true Danish tradition, by a song adapted to celebrate the occasion which was originally penned for the Nordic Mycological Congress, also held at Kindrogan back in 1983. This provoked many amused smiles from other residents at the field centre, which included Liz Holden’s ‘Identify Fungi’ group, who were persuaded to join in! I hope the Danish Mycological Society will return to Scotland in the future, it was a thoroughly enjoyable week.

Neville Kilkenny, Oct 2010