Scotland's rare tooth fungi: - Plantlife

Perceived threats● Habitat loss at both macro and micro scalese.g. clear felling, alteration of site conditionsby invasive plants such as bracken orrhododendron or loss of suitable, sandy soilmicrohabitats● Eutrophication of soils through airbornepollution or agricultural run-off● The application of fungicides or substancescontaining nitrogen and / or phosphate● Liming alters the soil pH dramatically.Workin Sweden and Germany has found thatliming was detrimental to establishedectomycorrhizal species (Taylor & Finlay,2003)● Compaction or disturbance of soil bytrampling or machine● Lack of awareness of the habitatrequirements of tooth fungi amongst landmanagers● Lack of understanding of the ecology andtaxonomy of the groupWhat you can do if you find tooth fungi● These are species of conservation concernand collection should be kept to theminimum necessary to establishidentification.● Tooth fungi, some of which are listed onthe UK BAP (2007) list and in thepreliminary Red List of Threatened Fungi(Evans, 2007), are not currently listed onSchedule 8 of the Wildlife and CountrysideAct (1981).Although a licence from thegovernment is not required to pick fruitbodies, permission of the landowner mustbe sought.● These fungi are not poisonous and workingwith the fruit bodies will not require actionbeyond normal health and safetyprocedures. Most species are either tooA survey plot for tooth fungi © Liz Holden●●●tough or bitter to be edible although someare collected for dying craft materials.Check whether their presence is alreadyrecorded at the site using your own landmanagement records, by checking theFungal Records Database of Britain andIreland through the British MycologicalSociety website or by contacting PlantlifeScotland (contact details on back page). Ifthey are already well recorded then there isno need to disturb them further; if not thenadvice can be given on how to proceed.Refer to the management guidelines belowif interventions are proposed for the site.Consider undertaking a simple survey, asthere is very little base line data availablefrom which to assess the impact ofmanagement interventions. Surveys shouldtake place over at least 5 years, as sometooth fungi do not fruit regularly. Monthlyvisits from early August to October eachyear are also recommended as somespecies fruit early and others later.Temporarily mark each fruiting site to avoidconfusion in successive monthly visits. GPSreadings, good field notes and photographscan help to accurately map your tooth fungiand inform future site management.Contact Plantlife if assistance is required.9