EFC Exhibition and Social 6 December 2003
PETER ALLEN
The Fourth Annual Exhibition and Social continued the high achievement of the previous occasions,
now with over 100 people attending and over 20 displays illustrating the impressive vigour and
scientific endeavour of the Field Club and other natural history groups in the county. Again there
was a purposeful but welcoming and relaxed air to the afternoon.
Tony Boniface, for the Essex Fungus Group, had a display of gasteroid fungi with photographs and
identification hints. A selection of dried specimens and of books of illustrations supplemented Tony's
article on these fungi in this year's Essex Naturalist. A collection of fresh fungal specimens was brought
in from Hatfield Forest and Birchanger Wood by Shirley and Charles Watson; Mark Hanson and
Shirley also brought in some live ferns: Male-fern Dryopteris filix-mas, Broad Buckler-fern Dryopteris
dilatata, Intermediate Polypody Polypodium interjectum, Soft Shield-fern Polystichum setiferum, Wall-
rue Asplenium ruta-muraria, Maidenhair Spleenwort Asplenium trichomanes and Hart's-tongue Phyllitis
scolopendrium. Brian Ecott provided a Lichens of Hainault Forest display, with specimens and
photographs of 35 species. There were also photos of a Pemphigus populi gall on a Black Poplar, the
large hoverfly Volucella zonaria and the fungus Ganoderma resinaceum on a beech stump. Ken Adams
exhibited an account of bog mosses, together with a compendium of Essex Sphagnum bogs and 1 km
dot maps for each of the species recorded for the county. Plus, as a live demonstration, Ken illustrated
the extraordinary ability of the cation exchange sites in the cell walls of the moss to turn the local
Chelmsford tap water acidic by replacing most of the cations in the water with hydrogen ions. Copies
of the just-published 3rd edition of English Names for Bryophytes were on sale, plus a selection of
BSBI identification handbooks. John Skinner showed a selection of sheets from the herbarium of the
naturalist Christopher Parsons (1807-1883), who lived at Shoebury and whose collection is in the
Southend Museum. The collection is of interest because it is well documented and includes important
groups of specimens of arable weeds, many now rare, and plants of the coastal habitats in the Shoebury
area. Examples from both groups were shown.
Robin Field had a display on
research undertaken at Writtle
College into the value of
Countryside Stewardship
Scheme field margins for
butterflies. The latest results
were presented and showed how
few butterflies have been
recorded on the field margins
throughout the course of the
Stewardship Agreement. Tim
Gardinerhad adisplay detailing
a new Essex Garden
Grasshopper Survey and
people were encouraged to take
a recording form and species
identification sheet from the
table. Copies of published papers on the grasshopper and butterfly research at Writtle College were
also available. Peter Harvey showed pictures of the stiletto-fly Thereva fulva new to Essex from a
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Essex Naturalist (New Series) 21 (2004)