Ancient Tree Forum

28th April 2002 A recent English Nature report highlights the role of Hericium fungi in identifying ancient woodland with a continuity of old trees reaching into the past..		Creolophus (=Hericium) cirrhatus, Hericium erinaceus and H. coralloides in England – English Nature Research Report no 492 by Lynne Boddy and Paul Wald All three species are on the provisional Red Data List of British Fungi (Ing 1992), but only H. erinaceus is a UK BAP priority species. It is also the only one of the three on Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.This report looked at available records of these three species. It concludes that H.coralloides is probably the rarest of the three species and should be a UK BAP priority species. ‘The large number of records from semi-natural woodland with a long history of tree coverage, a range of tree age classes and retained dead wood, implies that they may be indicators of good habitat quality and increased conservation value’. There may also be a correlation with large diameter wood. Research at Cardiff University has been started to see, among other things, if new populations of the fungi can be re-established by inoculating fallen or standing trees in the field.The report makes very interesting reading. For a copy see www.english-nature.org.uk