Story & photos: Christine Steers
The weather was OK for the walk around Burngreave Cemetery on 10th September.
It was organised by the Sorby Natural History Society, and led by Dave Buckley and Leonie Kapadia. Dave explained that as the summer had been dry and it was a bit early in the season, we may not find many mushrooms and toadstools – but we did!
Many common species were found nestling in the fallen leaves and a few unusual ones too. The favourite was the Fly Agaric which we had heard did grow in the grounds but had not seen yet. Dave Buckley gave us some interesting facts about each species we found as well as the scientific names for each one. The “Fly” from Fly Agaric refers to the story that witches used to make a potion from the fungi and soak their broomstick handles in it, thus enabling them to fly! The Sorby Natural History Society has a site on Flickr and they will be putting named pictures of our finds on this site. We finished the walk with a visit to the Chapel.
Please remember, according to the Health Protection Agency, over 100 people were poisoned this year through eating the wrong mushrooms, at least 45 with moderate or severe symptoms.
