This is the time of year when fungus forays organised by local natural history groups are providing an ideal introduction for people like me, who want to learn how to appreciate one of the most intriguing aspects of the world of wildlife around them.

For those who wish to investigate to a greater and more scientific depth this mysterious world of fungi, there is also a welcome from the Fungus Survey of Oxfordshire, the local recording group of the British Mycological Society, whose role is to record the fungi of the county and to contribute these records to the society’s national database.

As well as forays in the autumn, members of the group also make expeditions during the spring, for there are species of fungi of which the fruit bodies are produced at other times of the year. There are further occasional forays, which are organised jointly with the neighbouring Thames Valley and Gloucestershire groups.

The finds lead to more detailed studies of the specimens they have collected, in order to determine their exact species.

Forays by the group are not open to the general public, as they are often on sites where there may be limited parking space, or may be on private land on which the group is working with the permission of the owner.

But individuals who would like to further an initially general, but now more growing, interest may take part.

Wendy MacEachrane, secretary of the Oxfordshire Group, said: “We are a very diverse group of amateur and professional mycologists,” she said. “Some members enjoy taking part in our forays in the field and adding to the Oxfordshire records, while others are keen to identify new species and to have their work published. Our records are added to both the county and British Mycological Society databases.

“This is very much field mycology. A lot of people just go out to collect and learn about that stage. There is basic information to be gained from the shape, colour and texture, measurement of the cap and stem, and spore prints, but the final stages of the identification process require work with a microscope.”

The Fungus Survey of Oxfordshire was founded in the mid-1980s, by Marion and the late Arthur Warland, who lived in Oxford.

Dr Judy Webb, who is the group’s recorder, said: “We are keen for people interested in fungi and their identification to become involved.”

Her own interest began in 2000, while a teacher of biology at the former Milham Ford School, at Harberton Mead, in Oxford.

She said: “I wanted to investigate the fungi which were coming up on the playing field there, on land that was threatened with being sold for development.”

As a result of her investigations into the fungi and the discovery there also of rare plants, including four species of orchids and rare insects, the development did not take place, and the area is now a nature park. The Milham Ford School buildings are now part of Oxford Brookes University, for its Department of Health Care Studies.

“I had needed to document what was there,” said Dr Webb. “This was a matter of necessity. I contacted the Fungus Survey and asked the group to identify the fungi, which they did.”

As a result of these events she became a member. “I have always been interested in all kinds of wildlife and plants, but had been too busy to study fungi,” she said.

“Then on joining the group I started going out on forays.

“Fungi are absolutely fascinating. The skills I have learned have resulted in my finding some very rare fungi – in orchards, in ancient woodland, in meadows and on grassland. Through joining the group I have been able to make records of species which were not known to be present on a particular site, and whose presence needs to be considered for the correct management of that site.

“It has been both very useful and very interesting.”

On the question of eating fungi, both Mrs MacEachrane and Dr Webb are quite emphatic. “There are edible fungi,” said Dr Webb, “And there are others that look very like them. One should not eat something when having only looked it up in a simple identification book.

“Always check more thoroughly, and ask somebody who really knows. The more you think you know, the more risky it is. People have been extremely ill as a result of eating fungi.”

All members of local groups have opportunities to attend courses and take part in workshops which are organised by the British Mycological Society.

Dr Webb recently attended one of these workshops, held in Somerset, during which the focus was on Lacharius, the milk cap fungi, of which there are many species. The studies there were into dried specimens, using microscopes, and the students also went out on forays in search of fresh specimen material. Another course is concentrating on field mycology, on local sites in Suffolk. Such events are very popular and places filled within a short time of their details being announced.

“If an expert is running the course or workshops, this is the best way to learn,” says Dr Webb. The National Mycological Herbarium is kept at the British Mycological Society’s headquarters at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew. If local groups have a particularly interesting or unusual specimen, which they consider could be sufficiently rare, this can be sent to the experts there for their confirmation of the identification.

When specimens are collected in the field, the minimum number of samples is taken, to ensure that the fungus can continue to propagate itself.

This is by the dispersal of the spores from the gills, pores or spines beneath the cap. These spores provide one of the means of identification. The fruit bodies are produced from the mycelium, beneath the soil or other surface. They may not be produced every year. “Some may not fruit for five years, or even for ten,” says Dr Webb. “They need the right degree of warmth and rainfall and need to build up their food resources. Just because you do not see a particular fungus every year, you cannot know that it has really disappeared. Other factors, such as the impaction of the soil around it by many footsteps, can inhibit growth.

Some fruit bodies may last for only a few days; others such as those of the woody bracket fungi may be seen for many months.

Fungi have an essential part to play in the ecosystem, ‘recycling’ nutrients. By using rotting materials such as deadwood as their means of building up their reserves of sugars and proteins to produce the fruiting bodies, they enable these materials to break down and their nutrients to be returned to the soil.

During the autumn, members of the Fungus Survey of Oxfordshire usually make six visits to sites of interest.

“We go out to a range of woods and other sites that we are checking,” says Mr Webb.

“Every year we like to go somewhere new, and we may also get requests from local wildlife groups who need data. People ask us to help with fungus identification.”

Anybody who would like to contact the group for help with such identification, or to enquire about joining a foray, can contact the group on 01865 377487.