Letter: Fungi forays raise free-for-all fears

Sir: Before I go out on a fungus foray, prompted by your report ('Bumper mushroom crop fails to whet appetite', 10 September), can someone reassure me that there is no danger of over-picking fungi? Wild flowers are better off unpicked; it seems curious that it is a free-for-all for fungi.

Also, I noticed in the accompanying photograph that the specimen picked had been taken up by the roots. I always understood that this was damaging to the fungus mycelium, and that the correct picking method is a knife slice through the stem.

Yours faithfully,

THOMAS ELLIOTT

London, SW8

10 September