joemallik

I've been interested in mushrooms and wild plants from a young age. When I was 6 my mum gave me "Wild Flowers of Britain" by Roger Phillips which is about as comprehensive a guide as you can get when it comes to British wild plants (at least as far as guides for the general public go with good descriptions and good quality photographs, many guides have only blurred photographs taken for a distance which do not show much detail on the flower parts). Later I bought myself other books by Roger Phillips such as his "Mushrooms and Other Fungi of Great Britain and Europe", "Trees in Britain, Europe and North America" and "Wild Food". I have always had an interest in the plants, fungi etc around me. When I was a small boy, I remember picking mushrooms with my big brothers in a little wooded area near where we lived. They used to go off shooting rabbits with their air rifles and sometimes they would take me along but as the area was on the other side of a busy dual carriageway, I wasn't allowed to go on my own. This may sound like a very peaceful and idyllic place in which to grow up but the wooded area was part of the estate belonging to a chemical company called ICI and was not far from their factory. The wooded area was part of a bit of undeveloped land that included some trees and fields and a farm or small-holding of some sort (I recall that we sometimes bought eggs at the farm). Until the age of 11, I grew up in a village just outside the northern edge of Bristol on the banks of the River Severn and I used to wander on the riverbank or in fields on the edge of the village but because of the proximity of an industral estate, whenever I was out wandering, I used to be able to see the tall chimneys of the ICI chemical factory some of which produced whitish-grey smoke and one of which produced yellowy-brown smoke. The village had once been a holiday destination. It contained a caravan site and at one time had had a boating lake, an outdoor swimming pool etc and a busy railway station. All I remember is railway station house being empty and vandalised (the railway still exists but has no staff or station house these days; the station house was eventually refurbished as flats), the swimming pool being derelict and subsequently being bulldozed and filled in. The boating lake was filled in as well. The caravan park was no longer a holiday destination and had become a place where people lived (because they could afford a house). It was a place of contrasts. Later, I lived in an industrial town located on the other side of the industrial estate but I continued to be interested in the natural world. When I was a boy, my mum encouraged me to take an interest in the natural world (and the supernatural) and she in turn seems to have got these interests from my great-grandmother (who came from an area called the Forest of Dean and moved to my home city of Bristol when my great-grandfather found work here sometime in the early 20th Century...maybe the late 1920s or 1930s, I am not too sure exactly when). When I was older I continued to study the natural world albeit in a different way by studying Biochemistry and Philosophy. I still find fungi to be quite fascinating things. (although many of my acquaintances do not share my enthusiasm and have long since written me off as a weirdo). Fungi play a massively important role in the ecosystem by recycling organic waste and also by helping plants to grow. Many fungi form symbiotic relationships with the roots of trees called mycorrhiza. The fungal mycelium acts as an extended root network passing water and minerals from the soil to the plant roots and receving organic cabron (ie sugars) in exchange. Without fungi, trees wouldn't be able to obtain as much water and minerals from the soil and would grow much more slowly. Since getting back from holiday I have been vey busy at work (working 6 days per week) which is a shame as we are entering the mushroom season. Various mushrooms can be found at all different times of year but the most abundant time of year is Autumn. Later on in October I am going on a fungal foray with my step-dad but for now its just going to have to be work, work, work!!!

Thanks for the book recommendation, dude