\n\tThese filaments are called hyphae – they release enzymes and absorb food. They can link to tree roots and greatly increase the spread of nutrients that a tree can get access to which is why gardeners and horticulturalists add Mycorrhizal fungus to the roots when planting trees or shrubs as we have done with the fruit trees in the Wenvoe orchards. The fungi take sugars from the tree and in return give them moisture and nutrients.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\tThere are many 'amazing facts' about fungi. They provide us with medicines (and not just Penicillin) and were being used in the shape of yeasts to make mead 9,000 years ago. Think how many types of food use yeast! Truffles, Marmite, Quorn and cheese all depend wholly or partly on fungi. A fungus has been found which breaks down plastics in weeks rather than years and they are used to make bioethanol from crop waste. They are even being used to extract cobalt and lithium from old batteries. Synthetic rubber, even Lego, are made using an acid from <\/span> fungi. But they do have a darker side wreaking havoc across the world to trees and crops.-,Honey Fungus can often be found in our local woods where it kills trees and shrubs.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n \n\t \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t \n<\/p>\n \n\t <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the Wildlife Group fungi competition ongoing until the end of October it is worth reflecting on what fungi are and why they are so important to us. Most people think of fungi as the familiar mushroom or toadstool sticking out of the ground and, so far, competition entries have followed this line. But just as an apple is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6cWjO-1jD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8892,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=8892","url_meta":{"origin":5061,"position":0},"title":"Sirhowy Valley Country Park","author":"Alan Williams","date":"28th December 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Sirhowy Valley Country Park Sirhowy Valley Country park is south of Caerphilly, with 4 miles of flat well surfaced path along the former railway track. The entrance to the park follows the old railway and we drove past Full Moon, once the site of the Full Moon Inn and a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Picture3.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Picture3.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Picture3.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16272,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16272","url_meta":{"origin":5061,"position":1},"title":"Talybont and Llanfeugan","author":"Alan Williams","date":"24th October 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Talybont and Llanfeugan Talybont and Llanfeugan Parking in Talybont, where toilets and showers were available for a small fee, we set off along a section of the canal. The walk was taking in parts of the Taff trail, Usk Valley walk, and the Brecon and Monmouthshire canal. Henry Vaughan \u2018the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Footsteps-4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5332,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5332","url_meta":{"origin":5061,"position":2},"title":"Fungi Competition","author":"Alan Williams","date":"24th December 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"'A Fungi competition was held in the Autumn of 2018 run by the Wildlife Group and sponsored by Grow Wild\/Kew Gardens. There were three categories - photography, art and craft and there were over 100 entries. Here are some of the prizewinners'\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Wildlife Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/fungiCraft.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/fungiCraft.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/fungiCraft.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/fungiCraft.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5136,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5136","url_meta":{"origin":5061,"position":3},"title":"Fungi Competition","author":"Alan Williams","date":"21st December 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 At the time of writing we had been inundated with photos of fungi for the competition and it has been great to see how many people are out there snapping toadstools and mushrooms which are popping up everywhere with the damper weather. Somewhat disappointing is that we have not\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Wildlife Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":16789,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=16789","url_meta":{"origin":5061,"position":4},"title":"Margam Park and Merthyr Mawr","author":"Alan Williams","date":"27th March 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Margam Park We parked at the small fishing lake near Margam Abbey, the drive over had been misty and as we started out it was raining. Heading north we passed the lake with ducks and swans. Margam park is one of 22 sentinel sites across Wales acting as an early\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Footsteps"","block_context":{"text":"Footsteps","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=38"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Footsteps-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5417,"url":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?p=5417","url_meta":{"origin":5061,"position":5},"title":"Fungi Competition","author":"Alan Williams","date":"6th January 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 A big thank you to all who took part in the Fungi competition and to the judges who decided which should receive an award. Over 100 entries were submitted, most of these were in the photography and art categories with only two craft entries. The Primary School took part\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Wenvoe Wildlife Group"","block_context":{"text":"Wenvoe Wildlife Group","link":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/?cat=48"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/AW2-1st.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5061"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5063,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5061\/revisions\/5063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wenvoe.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wenvoe.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Red-Fungi-diagram-1.jpg?resize=290%2C300\" "\\"\\"")
So there is a lot more to fungi than the occasional pretty red and white spotted mushroom growing under a Birch tree or the punnets in your local supermarket. They deserve respect and we hope that the competition will help all of us to be more aware of what they can do for us<\/span>\n<\/p>\n
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