From BBC News:
Fungus enthusiast Edward Gange amassed 52,000 sightings of mushroom and toadstools during walks around Salisbury over a 50-year period. Analysis by his son Alan, published in the journal Science, shows some fungi have started to fruit twice a year. It is among the first studies to show a biological impact of warming in autumn. “My father was a stonemason, and his hobby was mycology,” recounted Alan Gange, an ecology professor at Royal Holloway, University of London. “For 50 years of his life, he went out and recorded the appearance of mushrooms and toadstools around Salisbury, and he also got his friends in the local natural history group to bring back samples they found when they were out walking.
“When he retired, he bought himself a computer, taught himself (the database program) Excel, and typed in all these 52,000 records.” Now Mr Gange senior finds his enthusiasm and diligence rewarded as a named author on a paper in one of the two most eminent scientific journals in the world. “I’m on top of the world, I can’t quite believe it yet,” he told the BBC News website.
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