The Flete Estate loaned us a beautiful venue – the Mothecombe Gardens Training Room, and with it came incredible views over ancient woodland and gardens.
Decking the space out with the help of family and friends, we created a table outside laden with fungi, wood and moss to look at through magnifying glasses, and inside a small library area (we will be uploading a ‘bibliography’ on our website which will list all the inspiring reads we’ve enjoyed over the years).
The weather held for us and Dr. Christian Taylor took us on a magical tour of the hidden, mysterious world of fungi. A passionate and hugely knowledgeable Mycologist his answer to some questions was ‘we don’t know’ – refreshing in a world that seems keen to know everything.
Fungi is understudied to say the least. We have 100,000 described fungi, but there are between 600,000 and 10 million still left to find out about. Through our endeavours on the Erme Estuary we will continue to map the local fungi and are currently growing on some of the samples we’ve collected during this 2021/22 growing season including Puff Ball and Woodland Blewitt. There are hopes that both Turkey Tail and Oyster fungi may support the restoration of water quality so we’ll also be trialling work with these native species.
Thanks to all who came along for what felt like a rich and sociable afternoon. We hope some of you will continue to get involved and will be posting here again soon about some water surveying near Holbeton Village.
