Endemic by James Harding-Morris: Drunken fungi that thrive on a cider diet
Endemic: Exploring the Wildlife Unique to Britain by James Harding-Morris (Bloomsbury Wildlife £20, 336pp)
What have the following in common: the Orkney vole, York Groundsel, the Scottish Crossbill and the Menai Strait Whitebeam?
The answer is, not only are they all incredibly rare species still found in Britain, but they are only found here. They are what biologists call ‘endemic.’
How wonderful that even in our over-crowded and over-developed country, the British Isles remain so various and complex that they contain such natural wonders.
And James Harding-Morris makes a delightful and humorous guide as he sets off in search of these exotic natives.
In the conifer forests of the Scottish Cairngorms, the author pursues the Scottish Crosshill, identical in every way to the common crossbill except for a different ‘excitement call.’ And yet the jury is still out on this one, with one expert thinking its pretty much a made-up species ‘to attract tourists.’ It’s just a common crossbill with a Scottish accent.
Yet Britain is certainly home to multiple endemic whitebeam trees, elms, hawkweeds and dandelions – over 250 different species of this last one! And not forgetting the British earthstar fungus, Just as some fungi only grow in close proximity to oaks or pines, so this one ‘seems to like growing alongside old cans of cider.’
Rare as they are, all of these are more easily observed than the British cave shrimp. Planning to find it leads to an unexpected conversation with another naturalist called Lee. ‘How big are you?’ ‘Normal-sized,’ replies Harding-Morris. ‘Not skinny, but, you know, normal.’
The cruel truth is that plus-sized naturalists will struggle to observe the British cave shrimp in situ, because it lives down a very long narrow tunnel in South Devon. Eyeless, like a translucent grain of rice, these shrimp may have lived down here for a staggering 20 million years.
Of foreign extraction: It is thought that the Orkney Vole was brought to the island 6000 years ago by Dutch farmers
Big drinkers: British earthstar fungus ‘seems to like growing alongside old cans of cider.’
The rare and lovely whitebeam tree is truly amazing. It loves remote and rocky places, with no competition, such as Cheddar Gorge and the Isle of Arran. A handful live around Watersmeet in Devon, and are known as Sorbus admonitor, Admonishing sorbus, because the first specimen identified had a National Trust No Parking sign nailed to it.
And the chapter on elms is a happy one, for all who still lament the loss of these shaggy giants of our landscape. One was once measured at 46 metres tall, ‘the tallest native tree ever recorded in Britain.’
They’re gone as trees, killed by a fungus (Dutch elm disease), but live on as shrubs, suckering wildly throughout many of our hedgerows. ‘Death is rarely fatal for elms,’ as one expert dryly observes.
Last but not least, there’s the stout little Orkney vole, up to 70g compared the common 40g vole, and although endemic to Orkney, genetically closest today to the voles of Belgium. How on earth … ?
One theory is that some 6000 years ago, some early Belgian farmers sailed to Orkney to settle, accidentally bringing voles with them in hay bales. It’s as good an explanation as any I suppose! And Endemic is a joyous and eye-opening read throughout.