Autumn
is a time of rich colour. Red's, oranges, browns, yellows. Colours
that warm you up and get the heart racing. That moment when the sun
hits the copper of a beech tree and you have to stop and take it all
in. Walks in the woodlands take on a different feel. Wrapping up warm
and getting out on a crisp frosty morning, nothing like it.
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| Westonbirt |
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| Acer |
To
combine a bit of family visiting and to get the most out of the
Autumn colours we decided to visit the national Arboretum at
Westonbirt! We were not the only ones who had this idea, it was
immensely busy, but the colours were great. They really do have a
fabulous tree collection. However, for me the real highlights were
some of our native species. Beech trees really do turn a stunning
colour and I think that familiarity can often prevent us from
recognising them.
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| Westonbirt |
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| Worcester in Autumn |
Visiting
the Arboretum really encouraged me to take note of some of the
woodlands and trees around Worcester. Sometimes you can easily take
for granted what you have on your door step. So we made a few
woodland trips over the last few weeks to local woodlands: Pipers
hill and The knapp and paper mill. My daughter loved them. Taking in
the colour of the trees and getting out on the colder days for an
embracing walk. However, if you keep your eyes peeled there are other
sources of colour to be found. Fungi.
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| Knapp and paper Mill - Ann-marie (King Alfred's Cake) |
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| Knapp and Paper Mill - Jemima |
This
Autumn when ever we have been out and about we have tried to find as
many fungi as possible and indeed photograph them. We turned it into
a bit of a competition on who could take the best photo! The idea is
to try to identify them but this is a challenging job. The diversity
of fungi is huge. The total number of fungi species in the UK is
15,000! They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Spending a bit of
time looking and enjoying them is the first step in understanding how
this amazing form of life survives.
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| Knapp and paper mill - Laurie (Matchstick Fungi) |
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| Piper's Hill - Gabriel (Amethyst Deceiver) |
The
exciting part of fungi is the mushroom or toadstool. However, this is
only a small part of the organism. It is important to note that fungi
are a kingdom of their own, they have a completely different cell
structure to plants and animals. They have a different way of doing
life and the mushroom is a small but important part of that.
Toadstools are the fruiting body and connected to a much larger
organism that lives under the ground. They are found as a network of
cells called hyphae that are grouped together as a mycelium. They are
vital for life on earth as they help transport nutrients through the
soil and enable trees to exploit water and nutrients in the soil. The
hyphae will interact with the root system of a plant or tree. The
hyphae are smaller and further reaching than the plants own root
system so can cover a wider range. This makes them vital for the
survival of plants and trees.
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| Piper's Hill - Gabriel |
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| Piper's Hill - Jemima (Fly Agaric) |
They
obtain their energy, not from the sun, as plants do but from
decomposing organic matter. They do this by absorbing the nutrients
through their cells walls, which are made from chitin not cellulose
as it is in plants. They are in fact important decomposers as well as
providing trees and plants with nutrient they break them down into
the soil. They also have a complicated reproduction cycle as well.
But it is the reproduction cycle that provides the toadstool that we
often enjoy fried for breakfast.
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| Piper's Hill - Laurie |
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| Piper's hill - Laurie |
Fungal
reproduction is a complicated topic and most fungi will reproduce
both sexually and asexually. Asexually is by far the most common
method. It is quite simple as they don't have to come across a
partner. They just produce the spores and away they go. There is a
disadvantage and that is that it produces genetically identical
offspring. Sexual reproduction tends to occur when nutrients are
scarce. It is a very complicated process compared to plants and
animals but the out come is essentially very similar to that of the
asexual process: spores.
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| Pipers hill - Jemima |
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| Pipers Hill - Jemima |
Which
ever way they reproduce they will produce spores. I think that the
fungi's real bit of evolutionary genius is the spore. Made in the
fruiting body and they are a microscopic, often single cellular, new
self contained fungi organisms ready to grow into new mycelium. Due
to being so light they can be transported on the wind and air and
spread out across the world. What an amazing, and successful, way to
spread out across the planet. But I suppose it is the spore
producing, spore releasing fruiting bodies that form all these weird
and wonderful shapes that make the whole process so enjoyable to the
human observer. Of course that is not why they evolved.
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| Croome - Ann-marie (Earth Star's) |
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| Pipers Hill - Jemima |
We
have really enjoyed walking in our local woodlands this autumn.
Enjoying the natural colour of the leaves and doing our fungi forays.
I really think it an excellent way to get out and enjoy nature. Even
of the huge variety of mushrooms is daunting. We can at least reflect
on the diversity that our planet has evolved.
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| Knapp and Paper Mill |
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| Pipers Hill |
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| Dipper from Knapp and Paper Mill |
