North Kerry Waxcap Survey 2012 - the Northern Ireland Fungus Group

For these reasons, a visit was made to the high altitude corries of Mount Brandon to see if they
are also mycologically important. Unfortunately very little was found and the habitat does not
look suitable. The site where we found H. salicis-herbacea was on thin peaty and pebbly soils,
but here the sward was deep peat and very wet. Some of the slopes were more grassy but any
fungi were hard to find. Hygrocybe punicea, H.coccinea and H.laeta were found around the
corrie shown in the photograph above but it is unlikely that this site will have any of the
montane specialists. In Ireland, I would target rockier peaks with thin soils like the twelve bens
in Connemara, Nephin or Muckish in Donegal (for the latter see(Mitchel, 2009).
Churchyards in North Kerry
Churchyards and graveyards can be one of the refuges for grassland fungi in an intensive
agricultural area. A total of 32 churches or graveyards were visited on this survey and without
fail, they were not good for waxcaps with the best sites holding 3 species – St Vincent’s
Church at Ballyferriter (Q355033) and Church of the Sacred Heart at Curran (Q943061). Many
of the lawns were soaking wet and just not suitable for fruiting although in drier weather
conditions should be better. Sites like Church of the Purification at Church Hill (Q757170), Our
Lady of Lourdes Church at Scartaglin (R039038) or St Bridget's Church at Duagh (R058299)
all had the “feel” of a possible but no species were found.
Graveyards often have less “grassland” as the graves take up a lot of the space. Also cutting
the grass tends to be difficult due to the lack of contiguous space and the grass tends to be
strimmed. With the sites visited, it was noted that grass cuttings were then left to lie and this is
particularly damaging to grassland fungi as nutrient levels remain high. It would be good for
biodiversity interest to see cuttings removed.
In the six surveys for the Heritage Council to date, a total of 143 churches have now been
visited. The top seven churches have all been in West Cork with the best having 12 species of
waxcap – namely St Matthew’s Church, Baltimore (W046264 ) with Church of St Comghall at
Lisheen Lower (W037313) and St Matthew’s Church, Drimoleague (W134465) having 10
species. Hillsborough Parish Church in County Down remains the best churchyard in Ireland
with 18 species.
Good churchyards often seem associated with wealth and space. Some of the enormous city
centre cathedrals are often of little interest due to lack of grassland with much space given
over to car parks. Some of the small rural churchyards however say in West Mayo tend to be
built on poor wet ground for farming with dry ground being at a premium. Some of the
churches in Dingle certainly fell into this category but felt as though they should have been
good but with nothing found left me surprised. I think this was more a function of the year than
necessarily if the sites were devoid of interest but only more visits will tell.
Sand Dunes in North Kerry
Sand dune sites in Ireland are common especially north of Galway Bay. Dingle is rich in sand
dune sites but generally they tend to be poor for waxcaps in terms of diversity. In terms of
biomass, they can be good with huge numbers of H.conica var. conica and var. conicoides,
H.virginea (all varieties) and H.persistens being common and with H.calciphila being the
special find. Other mycological interest often centres around the presence of creeping willow,
Salix repens, in the dune slacks but with surveys being around the end of October, start of
November, it is likely that many of the mycorrhizal species have been missed as they tend to
fruit earlier.
Most of the sand dune sites visited on this survey were typical of Ireland in that they were dull
mycologically. Inch Dunes was the notable exception. Although not good for waxcaps, it
produced finds like Hebeloma collariatum, Cortinarius saturninus, Lepiota erminea and
Stropharia inuncta. The best sand dune site for waxcaps found in Ireland to date is Murlough
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