I first started dabbling in mycology in 2020, and became more serious a year or so later when I chose to write my dissertation about fungi. Jumping ahead nearly five years and I can honestly say that I have learned many lessons from these overlooked magicians of the natural world.

With this in mind, I decided to write a mini-series highlighting some of the lessons I’ve learned from fungi over the years. Some are obvious, others more nuanced.

Part 1: ID The Best You Can

As a nature nerd I frequently find myself trying to ID something. Anyone with an interest in the natural world will be familiar with this. You see a cool organism, be it a bird or a bug, and you want to identify it…you want to know what species it! Out come the guide books and keys! And with that you set at trying to figure out what genera your find belongs to, and then the species.

Now birds and mammals are pretty straight forward with the exception of a few groups like gulls. Macro marine animals can be a bit more challenging but generally not too difficult. Then there are the vascular plants, which can take some effort. Before long you’ll be tackling a non-vascular plant, or even yet a bryophyte. Finally, you’ll end up with a lichen or fungi on your table, and there is a good chance you’ll be stumped (unless it’s a fly agaric 🍄). What now?

The Self Doubt

When you start getting into the nitty-gritty of species identification, you can start to feel weak, and almost like a failure. Thoughts like “I’m a nature nerd, I should be able to figure out what this is!” start racing, and in the end you come out feeling defeated and deflated. I have been here, especially with fungi.

Fear not, the fungi have a lesson to share!

Do Your Best, It’s More Than Enough

I recently spent some time with a bunch of mycologists (it was magnificent!). I spent a few hours with the guy who wrote my go-to fungi guidebook, so as you can imagine I felt very much inferior, and rightly so.

As we wandered the woods looking for mushrooms, the experts would point out such and such species, and this and that. It was humbling to remember I know very little compared to these guys. Suffice to say I was feeling like I had a lifetime of learning to do in order to catch up.

But then something was said “I’m not sure what this is, I can’t remember if it’s [A or B]”. Then another unknown. “This one is probably a Russula, but I’m not sure”. These experts were unsure? This was somewhat reassuring to me, and also eyeopening. Then one of the mycologists remarked “…sometimes you just have to make a best guess at the group and leave it there…some common species can actually have several unique species all under the same common name!”.

It was at this point that I realised I was being too harsh on my ID skills. I realised there is more to identifying a species than pinning a species name to it and moving on. The true richness that draws us to attempt an ID in the first place is the exploration, the learning, and the process of arriving at an answer. It’s not about the ID, it’s about the process.

The Lesson

I actually came away with more than one realisation from this experience, both related but also distinct in their scope:

  1. ID’ing a fungi to a rough group is often a very good attempt. Don’t stress over not getting a confident ID on a species.
  2. We don’t ID species to add them to a checklist, we ID them for the process of doing so. Focus on the process.

So with that I will wrap up the first Lessons From a Fungi. I can’t wait to start jumping into all the amazing lessons I’ve taken from our mushroomy forest friends!

Niall.