Fungus is all around your garden and we and the garden are better for it. Fungus is a natural process that helps rot down dead plant matter and sometimes produces stunning fungi.

The first frost of this winter may have turned most fungi fruit to mush but you can brush up with a good book.

Identify Mushrooms

Mushrooms and toadstools have a good season in 2014 due to mild weather in October. Like bracket fungi they produce large fruit-bodies as reproductive organs above ground and are called macro-fungi. Some are edible whist others hallucinogenic or deadly poison. The fungus proper is the mycelium a web of of thread-like growth known as spawn in mushroom growing.

Most toadstools grow in rings outward from a point of origin as the spawn grows.This can be troublesome on lawns particularly Marasmius oreades the fairy ring fungus. Spike areas affected then water every day for a month and feed the lawn with nitrogenous fertilizer.

Fungi vary in size and colouration but none use chlorophyll for colouring or food synthesis. Fungi are all parasites on living or dead matter. They can cause a variety of plant diseases such as scab, mildew, black spot, rust etc. Never the less fungi are important in breaking down dead matter releasing valuable chemical plant food.

Honey fungus attacks trees and shrubs with rhizomorphs which travel underground from root to root killing the tree in the process. Affected plants need to be dug out and burnt as there is no chemical control.