The 5th Kingdom - Intro

Read anything about Fungi and some surprising facts are revealed. Not until 1969 were they classified as being a separate kingdom distinct from plants and animals. Another thought provoking statistic, is that in a broad leaved wood, 10% of the biomass is fungi, which is a considerable mass and not one that is readily apparent. Fungi only become readily apparent when they produce their fruiting bodies to disperse spores and Autumn is the prime time for that event in my local woodlands.

Blusher (Amanita rubescens)

The various Agarics, Amanitas, Bolettes, Brittle Gills, Ink Caps and a host of other fungi emerge from the leaf litter and dead wood.

Upright Coral (Ramaria stricta)

The Forest of Dean provides a range of habitats, from veteran trees to old grasslands, for an impressively diverse number of fungi species. Mycologists of the Dean Fungus Group run Fungal Forays all year round and the number of species recorded so far by the group, runs into the thousands and are listed on a 104 page pdf.

Newly emergent Grey Spotted Amanita (Amanita excelsa)

This year I resolved to make a concentrated effort to learn more about Fungi and make a photographic record of my endeavours. I'll post more in due course.

On average a hectare of woodland produces 5 tonnes of organic debris per annum.

I asked myself the simple question - What is the weight of leaf litter produced by deciduous woodland? An almost unhealthy amount of google searches later and I am still none the wiser, there is no simple answer it seems.

Coarse woody debris

In the course of my search I did come across numbers for the organic debris generated by broadleaf woodland. Again there's no specific number, it depends on the nature of the woodland, the age of trees and a multitude of other factors. Organic debris encompasses the shedding of overtopped branches, leaf fall, seed casings, wind thrown branches, fallen trees, snags etc. There are figures published for the organic debris produced annually for a hectare of woodland ranging from a high of 25 t/yr down to a low of 2 t/yr, several sources settle on a hectare of broadleaved woodland producing 5 t/yr as a reasonable average figure for the organic debris produced.

Black bulgar (bulgaria inquinans)

I also discovered the ecological importance of organic debris in providing a habitat for a surprisingly large number of invertebrates, bryophytes and fungi, in short the biodiversity of a wood is proportional to the quantity of organic debris, age of the wood and trees within it. Veteran trees with their associated deadwood play host to a number of rare species,