The international conservation importance of Welsh ‘waxcap’ grasslands

The large decline in plant and animal diversity of semi-natural grasslands resulting from the introduction of modern agricultural practices in the 1940's has been well documented and such changes are also suspected of causing the decline in the abundance and diversity of macrofungi in these habitats.We conducted repeated surveys at 48 selected grassland sites around Wales to record the presence and abundance of fruitbodies (FBs) of grassland macrofungi belonging to the taxa Clavariaceae, Hygrocybe, Entoloma, Geoglossaceae, Dermoloma (also Porpoloma and Camarophyllopsis spp.) which are grouped collectively as "CHEGD" fungi (acronym of group names) and considered typical of nutrient poor 'waxcap' grasslands.A total of 111 CHEGD species (of the ca.200 species previously found in UK/Ireland) were recorded.