Fungus Foray

Home

About Us
Archive
Articles
Contacts
Future Events
Links
Stoolball

Sedgwick Park and Castle

At the time of writing the signs seem good. There has been a reasonable amount of rainfall and an initial reconnaiance has verified the initial suspicion that this would be a fascinating place to foray.

The West Drive

We can enter the grounds by walking or motoring up the West Drive from Broadwater Lane and parking in front of the house.

Notice the avenue of trees running south west. This feature has recently been renovated Wilderness Wood to the west has been bought into the estate. For a definitive account of the life and times of Sedgwick Park consult the web-site at Sedgwick Park  or even Derelict Horsham.

Walking back from the house along the West Drive we should see a number of fungi in the grass under the ornamental oaks.

Prominent among these should be the Russulas or ‘Brittle-gills’. They often have brightly coloured caps, almost always white, brittle gills and simple, stubby white stems without a ring. If you collect these, be careful to keep them intact as they can disintegrate very quickly and ruin the rest of your collection.

 

In the meadow to the south we might see White Spindles, Clavaria vermicularis, which is something  completely different!

Castle Wood

This is a richly varied habitat with native and introduced trees, such as the Coast Redwood and the Western Red Cedar, beset with a moat ponds and crumbling walls.

On first entering the site the main genus of fungus that you should  notice is that of the Milkcaps, Lactarius. They are as crumbly as the Russulas but have the added property that when damaged, the gills deliver drops of liquid with a milky consistency.They are often very specific to a particular type of tree. Thus there are Oak, Hazel and Hornbeam Milkcaps but also Woolly, Rufous and Ugly! One of the most spectacular is Lactarius delicosus, the Saffron Milkcapwhose ‘milk’ is bright orange. You may find this in the Castle site. It is a prized edible in France. We may taste it later.

Watch out for a stand of the woodland ‘Shaggy Parasol’ Mushrooms. They are rumoured to disagree with some people but you can settle for watching me eat them if you are a disagreeable sort of person.

However, I will not be defying nature with any DEATHCAPS that we find. They are of the genus Amanita, the same as the well-known fairy-tale and hallucinogenic Fly Agaric. The Deathcap has a sickly green unspotted cap with a ring, white gills and the remains of a ‘volval bag’ at the base. If you choose to gather it, please keep it separate from anything you might think is edible and please sign the form absolving the The Nuthurst Society from all responsibility if one of your close relatives dies horribly within the next month.
 
In several places, posibly under the Redwoods, you may find Boletes, mushrooms with pores instead of gills on the underside of the caps. The famously edible Cep is one such but many others are edible and only a few are deadly!

As well as gills or pores a fungus may have spines, a ‘Hedgehog’ fungi. At first I thought we had Hydnellum concrescens in the moat at one point. However, on maturer reflection, and wearing my glasses, I believe it is more like Abortiporus biennis without spines at all!

The AirStrip

Emerging from the Castle grounds we seek to walk back to the house. Remembering to look both ways as you cross the air-strip, you might spot what might appear to be a large white frisbee. It could turn out to be a large Horse Mushroom with characteristic aniseed odour, just ripe for the pan.

There are smaller ‘mushrooms’ flourishing on the lawns and verges, but unless they smell sweet I would not immediately put them into the frying pan. There are too many similar-looking species that can be disagreeable. I am very wary about pronouncing anything ‘a common field mushroom’ !

But on an unmowed patch a little nearer the house you may stumble across the

DEVIL’S FINGERS !

A local resident has been keeping an eye on these alien invaders that are slowly infiltrating the South of England.

The six garishly red-splashed fingers with sickly smelling green gunk emerge from an innocently seeeming ‘egg’. Flies are attrated to the foul-smelling green excrescences on the fingers and the seeds are sown for world domination….

Sedgwick House

There is excellent habitat for both grassland woodland fungi in the gardens themselves.

The short, historic, grassland of the croquet lawn may be sprouting mushroom of a possible edible variety together with cup fungi and, if we are lucky, the slimy yellow Parrot Waxcap and others of its ilk.

On the patio you can display what you have found and see if we can agree on identification. Anything declared edible will be fried up by your Chairman and offered to those of with cast-iron constitutions. 

Jonathan Simons 15 October  2006
Pictures copyright J Simons