It would seem that in their hunt for wild, interesting, and edible mushrooms people are simply gathering everything they can find, taking them home, consulting guides to funguses, and then discarding the poisonous ones. The effect of which is to seriously damage the ecosystems of some woodland areas.

Now landowners are making pleas to would-be gatherers to be more discriminating in what they take or risk further bans being imposed across the country.

Incidentally, mushrooms should not be washed in order to clean them since washing damages their delicate structure, instead a mushroom brush should be used to clean off the dirt, or they can be peeled.