You’d think that in such a densely populated, crowded and completely manicured country like the Netherlands the only new species to be found to be single celled, but you’d be wrong. Because late last month an entirely new mushroom species (Dutch) was found in Schouwen-duiveland, an island in my home province of Zeeland.
The new species was discovered during a research week organised by the Nederlandse Mycologische Vereniging (Dutch Mycological Society), who regularly organises this sort of trips to less well researched parts of the country. the new species wasn’t the only surprise, as they also found several species new to the Netherlands.
It seems that despite the fact that it’s almost impossible to think of any part of the Netherlands as being nature, rather than nature park, we can still be surprised by new or rare species.