Abney, Fungi and Me.
Photographs of Slime Mold Notes.
Photographs of the notes of unidentified species.
Photographs of the flowers / flora
Photographs of Animals, birds, butterflies etc.
I am an amateur at identifying fungi and slime moulds. I have taken efforts to get suggested identifications correct but there may be mistakes. If you know better please feel free to let me know.
My notes are a result of my miserable excuse of a memory. I have to write things down to try to remember them. I have written so much down that I now feel I have information that may be of use to others, hence my decision to put it online. I didn’t have a microscope for many years so many species are not examined microscopically. I have tried to get a spore print for each species I have looked at. Many species co-operated, sometimes they didn’t.
Agaricus xanthodermus (yellow stainer) spore print.
Fungi in Abney.
Abney has a lot of rotting wood which rots down quite rapidly as expected in a healthy ecosystem, releasing nutrients back, making them available again. Part of this process are a lot of fungal species that feed on wood, such as inkcaps. There are no Russulas recorded in Abney, which is an odd anomaly. The Agaricus species most often seen is Agaricus xanthoderma, (Yellow Stainer), which has led to many cases of dodgy bellies etc. as locals think it is an edible cap. It peels and looks like that sold in grocers, but it is not advisable. No caps are advisable in Abney. Even the edible species are likely to be full of arsenic (from the Victorian embalmed bodies) and lead (from the Victorian lead lined coffins and the London car pollution) and should really carry a Government Health Warning as a result.
Slime Moulds
Slime moulds are strange things. They have a feeding phase where they are growing through whatever it is they feed in. Then they change. They move very slowly (you won’t see this happening if you stare at them), and develop spore producing structures, often in bright colours.
This slime mould is Mucilago crustacea.
If you just want to learn about fungus and slime moulds, this is a great place.
About my Notes.
My notes are not exhaustive. There are many species I have tried to identify and have failed with. My unidentified files are large. There are also new species arriving all the time. Some fungi lives in the area for a few years and is very common while it is growing, but suddenly it is absent for many more years, another species replaces it as the common species. Other species seems to be more constant. Some species turn up once and are never seen again. Logs sprout caps of a particular species for several years until the nutrient mix that the species needs are used up. Then another species takes over and feeds on another nutrient mix. The structure of the log is degraded with each species.
So please don’t expect my notes to cover all that there is to know about fungi and slime moulds in Abney. This can only ever be a work in progress.
A page of my notes
I won’t try to put all my notes online at the same time. It will happen in stages.
I have photographed my notes and loaded them onto flickr
About the History of Abney Park
The Estates that became Abney Park Cemetery .
The site is 32 acres of woodland with the native trees and plants mixed with the exotic. It originally was the grounds of Lord Abney’s residence, Abney House, which fronted onto Church Street and the grounds of Fleet house. The birch avenue from the back of the Abney House led to the chapel in the centre. The Abney’s had a close friend, Isaac Watts the hymn writer, who lived with the Abney’s and wrote on Watts Mound in one corner of the estate and has a statue of himself now standing in the birch avenue.
A Victorian Tree collection and nursery.
Its next incarnation was as a hugely important Victorian arboretum when every species of European tree was planted around the park in 1840. As many of the trees were not in conditions suitable to their species, many haven’t survived, but some have. Some exotic thorns, unusual pines and oaks are still around. These provide niche habitats for sometimes unusual insects etc.
A Privately Run Cemetery.
It then became a privately owned and run as a cemetery. It was filled to overflowing with graves before it stopped making money. It was then shut for many years and the resultant abandonment of care allowed wood to rot and general untidiness to develop. This was perfect for a lot of wildlife. The shyest birds and the most delicate fungi cold grow in the protected thickets. Shelter for invertebrates through the harshest, driest summers was guaranteed.
The odd angles of the graves due to earth settlement.
Some of the graves were not as deep as they should be and there is not enough room for the number of graves specified in the original contracts, so new graves are opened near the front. It is still therefore, a working cemetery, although it is now run by a trust. The people tending the graves have introduced decorative garden plants, some of which have spread. This can be a good thing as with daffodils and bluebells, or decidedly problematic as with the Japanese Knotweed. The Japanese Knotweed is officially banned. It grows through house foundations, motorways, absolutely everything. It eliminates its competition by outgrowing and out-competing all else and has no natural predator insects in this country. It spreads fast given half a chance. It is therefore legally prohibited to transplant it, or transplant the soil from areas where it grows, and funds to control it (incredibly labour intensive and needing continuous effort), have to be sought each year. Another foreigner that could be a problem, given a chance, is the sycamore tree, though this is less of a problem as it succumbs to sooty bark disease (a fungus). There is therefore less control of the sycamore needed.
The above area once was a dense stand of Japaneese Knotweed but has been overplanted with native trees to outshade the knotweed. This works, but not totally, and it still needs ongoing work. A shoot of the knotweed is in the foreground.
The graves, as in all Victorian cemeteries, are at a variety of unusual angles. The headstones, in those days, were put in before the earth from the burial had settled sufficiently, and the headstones settled with the earth. There is also some bomb damage from both World Wars. The first World War saw zeppelins dropping hand grenades in the area. The next was more damaging. Vandalism has taken its toll, most noticeably on the chapel. The aging trees have sometimes fallen and this has further done damage, as have their roots.
A beneficiary of the fallen wood, Pleurotus ostreatus, Oyster Mushroom.
The ground is contaminated with the lead lined coffins and arsenic embalmed bodies as well as the lead from the London pollution.
A lot of work is continually done to maintain the grounds. This work is often difficult to see, but without it chaos would result. The clearing of the thickets near the pathways has meant the disappearance of some timid birds, for example the bullfinches and the lesser spotted woodpecker, and the smaller, most delicate fungi are far more difficult to find, possibly gone. The clearing was vital for the safety of the people visiting.
Despite all this it is a magical place. It is a precious nature reserve, the only regenerative woodland in East London. It has been a Park cemetery for its whole existence as a cemetery, always with trees at the heart of its character. Fallen wood has been left to provide homes and food for a wide variety of insect and fungal life. The variety of life forms is massive as a result. Bird song is spring can be intense with seasonal migrants and winter visitors boosting varieties. There are small mammals making homes under the shelter of the stones. Every walk through Abney throws up something unexpected, something interesting, something beautiful.
The top of Chlorophyllum rhacodes, Shaggy Parasol.
And all this in the middle of a hugely built up area in North London.
I took photographs as I walked round throughout the year. I’ve put them into seasons or months so the changes through the year can more easily be seen.
About this website
For many years, more then I wish to own, I have been a visitor to Abney Park Cemetery. It became a nature reserve some years ago, and it has a unique feel to it. The mix of exotic and native species, the presence of such a varied population of users, the isolation in a built up area, all these and other factors make it somewhere like no other. This web site is about primarily the fungus, which is fascinating, but I hope to extend it to encompass other aspects of the wild life. This is just a beginning……
[…] To see the full fungal biodiversity in an old cemetry go to Abney Park Cemetery Nature Reserve in Stoke Newington, North […]
what a fantastic site, have identified several species from my garden,hope that you can keep this habitat intact.
[…] To see the full fungal biodiversity in an old cemetery go to Abney Park Cemetery Nature Reserve in Stoke Newington, North […]