Herts Environmental Records Centre (HERC), who are hosted by Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, have recently hit four million species observation records on their database, with a colourful waxcap mushroom found in a Watford churchyard being the milestone discovery.

HERC curates biodiversity information for the county, managing, collating, and updating comprehensive data on habitats, species, and sites across Hertfordshire. The information is used for local planning, conservation and research, to help users make connections between biodiversity and the world around them. 

The record-breaking entry was for Parrot Waxcap Gliophorus psittacinus, also known as Parrot Toadstool, a colourful and eye-catching fungus with bright green, yellow, and orange tones, which give it an almost tropical appearance. The small, slimy waxcap grows in old areas of unimproved and untreated grassland and is vulnerable to habitat loss. The churchyard in Watford where it was found had no previous site or habitat data held by HERC. Submitted through a national churchyard biodiversity project to an online data portal, its identification went through a rigorous verification process before being added to the HERC database.

Alex Waechter, Records Centre Manager at HERC says,

“It is a truly remarkable endeavour to hit four million records and reflection on the commitment not only of our small team of staff, but of the many enthusiasts across the county past and present who have devoted time and energy in the pursuit of knowledge of the wildlife of this county. Biological recording in the UK is, I think, the longest continuously running and most successful citizen science project anywhere in the world.

“The data we hold for Parrot Waxcap is now available to a wide array of users in the county and can inform habitat mapping, future Local Nature Recovery Strategy mapping, development control and site management. 

“It’s a good record. The presence of waxcap assemblages in grassland is a strong indicator of old habitat with a well-developed soil biome and biodiversity. These grasslands are important, but traditional botanical methods of habitat classification may not pick them up. Records of waxcaps provide valuable insight into where these old grasslands are.”

“Waxcaps are a colourful and charismatic group of mushrooms, many of which can be reliably identified by photo, and so are a nice group for beginners interested in fungi. I’d encourage those who might be interested in looking for waxcaps and who are keen to contribute to our county’s biological records to check out one of the UK identification guides readily available online or by app, ready for waxcap season in the autumn. Records can be submitted to iRecord, where wildlife sightings are checked by experts and made available to inform local and national decision making and research.”

To find out more about the work of HERC click here.