We caught up with National Trust ecologist Steve Hindle to find out more about the world of fabulous fungi in the South Pennines:
Did you know that ancient grasslands are an important habitat, along with ancient woodlands? In fact, they are irreplaceable – they can host an incredible diversity of plant and insect species and deserve to be protected. They are threatened by climate change and changing farming practices, so it’s important that we look after them and their amazing ecosystem services. Ancient grasslands capture carbon and slow the flow of water from hills into the valleys below, and host a fascinating relationship between plants and fungi.
In 2021, the National Trust started the Grassland Fungi Project to identify Ancient Grasslands around Hardcastle Crags in Calderdale. These local grasslands are internationally important for fungi which only live in this rare habitat. The project worked with local land managers to identify permanent pasture and hay meadows suitable for surveys -and the results were truly amazing.
The surveys looked at five groups of fungi known as CHEGD fungi, where each letter stands for a group of fungi. The most well-known of these are the colourful Waxcaps. The project results suggest that Calderdale contains incredible diversity of fungi, and is internationally important.
There are approximately 200 CHEGD fungi species found across Europe; the project recorded 94 of these across a small area of Calderdale in 2021. Of those 94, 28 are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN’s) Red List, meaning they are species threatened with global extinction. Every area of land surveyed in the project was home at least one threatened species.
The visible “fruiting body” of fungi don’t always appear regularly, with some species fruiting only once every 30 years. However, two of the fields surveyed just once turned out to be the most important sites in the world for their species. One is a called the Jubilee Waxcap and the other is Black Magic, this species is known from just 30 sites worldwide and only shows one or two fruitbodies per site, but one local site had 20.
Over the UK, a site with 40 CHEGD species recorded over several years is considered exceptional. One local field had 50 species present in a single day with more on subsequent days. With further surveys, this is likely to be the most diversely and densely populated site in the world.
You can help us get a clearer idea of just how special the South Pennines are by letting us know of interesting sites across the South Pennines. Please email steve.hindle@nationaltrust.
Steve’s guide to grassland fungi.
More about the Grassland Fungi Project.
Photos and words by Steve Hindle.