Last month, the forest was bulging with the “flowers of the underworld”, mushrooms. Those who know me, may have witnessed my fungi obsession. I have mushroom earrings, bedspread, desk ornaments, a mushroom purse, a mushroom bag, brooches, mugs… and I’m working on a mushroom crockpot.
But nothing beats getting out there and observing them in their natural element (not, as it were, stuck on the side of a mug). Given that the mushroom season is largely over – there’s just a few deliquescing, black sticky piles where once there were bright orange blooms. But here’s what I found last month:
This baby was the strangest I found – high up on a still-thriving eucalypt. Google is trying to tell me it’s probably a lion’s mane, but it certainly wasn’t. Any clues?
There were literally hundreds of these dainty parasols on fallen logs, and they’re fairly reliable bellwethers, coming back in every winter without fail. As yet.
The ghostly jelly fungus was really sparse this year, usually we get some large flourishes, but this was the best specimen we had. Great for cuts, edible and completely tasteless!
And lastly the omniprescent orange Spectacular Rustgill, or at least that’s what I think they are…
