Review of the Wildlife of Epping Forest in 2000
JEREMY DAGLEY
Forest Conservation Officer, Corporation of London, The Warren, Loughton, IG10 4RW
Fungi
It proved an interesting autumn for fungi again and as often with fungi there were species for which
the year seemed to be particularly good or which appeared in numbers not seen recently. One of
these, Horn of Plenty Craterellus cornucopioides that may be in decline in the Forest, had its best
recent showing with a number of forays finding clusters of this interesting mushroom. In addition,
Creolophus cirrhatus one of the finds of 1999 (see Essex Naturalist 17) fruited again in the same
Beech hee at High Beach.
The policy of conserving dead wood on the ground that has been practised in the Forest now in the
last two decades seems to be paying dividends. Four species previously unrecorded from the Forest
and reliant on fallen dead wood were found by Geoff Kibby early in the year. Amongst these were
two Pluteus species, P. luctuosus and P. luteovirens, a greeny-yellow fungus and Psilocybe
cyanescens, an introduced species known from woodchips but which in Epping Forest has now
become naturalised on dead wood in the depths of the woodland. This is only the 3rd southern
England site at which Geoff has recorded such natural isation. The fourth dead wood newcomer was
a Cortinarius species.
On Fungus Foray 2000, held by the Club and hosted by the Corporation of London on 1st October
(General Meeting 1433), more new Cortinarius species were found. C. nemorensis, found in
extravagant purple clusters under a Lime avenue at The Warren, and C. cephalixus were amongst 5
new species of fungus discovered that day. Another species was the scarce bolete Boletus impolitus
quite rare in the Forest as a whole and, perhaps the most interesting find of all, Lepiota ventriosospora,
bringing a new record for a group under-represented in the Forest. So, fittingly, at least 9 new
species of fungi were discovered for the Forest in 2000 continuing into the 21st Century an almost
unrivalled history of mycological recording (see Kibby 1992) and adding to the already extraordinary
list of over 1,600 species (Geoff Kibby pers. comm.).
Higher Plants
Forest grasslands, although generally suffering from the lack of grazing, produced a few surprises.
Betony Stachys officinalis, which, like Lousewort Pedicularis sylvatica a few years ago, seemed to
have gone from the Forest was re-discovered by Andrew Middleton at an historic location in the
Lower Forest, Epping. This re-appearance followed pollarding and ride-mowing work and along
with Lousewort, which is still doing well (see also last year's report Essex Naturalist 17), is another
notable success for the department's grasslands team.
Local volunteers have also been doing their best to halt the loss of species. The Epping Forest
Conservation Volunteers have carried out some effective clearance work around one of only two of
the Forest's Dyer's Greenweed Genista tinctoria populations at Chingford.
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 18 (2001)