Recording

Recording information about the fungi you find is a good way to build up a profile of what is in your bushland. You will need to take note of the general charactersitics of each fungus found and their habitat. PUBF's Field Recording Sheet has been designed to help you to do this. It has 'tick-a-box' sections for ease of use and space to provide extra detail. Take a look at the Field Recording Sheet with examples to show you the sort of information that is useful to record in the field. 

There will be instances when you can't identify a specimen and will need to write a more lengthy description of it so that it can be identified at a later time. PUBF's Fungi Description Sheet captures the necessary information you will need. Coupled with excellent photos the recording sheet can useful for identifying unknown specimens. The more descriptive you are the easier it will be to use the information later on. In order to describe the fungus you need to look at its features carefully. Some fungi are large enough to view the features by eye, but it's often necessary to use some magnification such as a 10x hand-lens or a microscope. If you have a collecting licence you can take specimens home or to the laboratory.

Whether you are collecting and describing or viewing in the field it's best to record features of fresh specimens as they can go off quickly. Features such as size, colour, shape and smell can change immediately after the fungus has been picked and with time. Recording these changes is also important to note as it can be used in the identification process.