Fantastic Fungi

At our June meeting Les Hanrahan gave a fascinating presentation about fungi. He has a wealth of knowledge built up over the last 15 years or so. After the autumn rains many fungi start to appear. They come in shapes and sizes and are seen in a variety of habitats.

The Sunday following the presentation, Les led a fungi  excursion to one our our favorite fungi spots at Blackwood. Twenty six people turned up to be led through the bush to see where fungi occur.

When identifying fungi there are a number of characteristics that need to be observed such as size, colour, shape, margin, moisture on the cap, spore print and texture to name a few. This list is to emphasize that it is not always possible to definitively identify fungi from a photo. Some fungi are poisonous so you need to be very sure of which ones are edible if you plan to cook any. There are a lot of myths around about how to test if the fungi is edible and they are not to be relied upon.

Here is the presentation which has been slightly modified allow uploading. Les retains the photo copyright. There is a list of useful resources at the end of the slides.

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Blackwood Fungi Excursion

As the fungi season approaches we look forward to where we will be led on an excursion. This year it was back to Blackwood and some of the tracks accessed from the carpark near the Garden of St Erth. Here are a few of the many fungi observed on the day. We thank Carol for this selection.

Bisporella citrina

Crepidotus nephrodes

Mycena epipterygia

Trametes versicolour

Trametes versicolour

Fungi in the Fog at Mt Macedon

Our June excursion was to Sanatorium Lake at Mt Macedon. It is quite a while since we ventured to this area as a club and there were a large variety of fungi. The foggy surrounds added to the atmosphere and despite an interaction or two with leeches,  it was well worth the trip.

Blackwood Fungi Excursion

This gallery contains 14 photos.

The Field Naturalists Club of Ballarat visited Blackwood on 7 June 2015 for their annual fungi excursion. Leader Les identified a large variety of fungi for the group. Photos: Val Hocking, Ian Ashton and Ambika Bone

Mt Cole Excursion

We travelled up the Main Mt Cole Road, stopping soon after entering the forest, to look at the large area that has been invaded with agapanthus. It is the largest patch I have seen in a bushland area. At the junction of Main Mt Cole Road and Camp Road we inspected Mount Cole Grevillea Grevillea montis cole growing along a graded road edge. In this wet area the forest of Eurabbie Eucalyptus globulus bicostata and Messmate E. obliqua is tall and straight. Sweet Bursaria Bursaria spinosa was a common shrub and Cut -leaf Daisy Brachyscome multifida crept through the grasses.

Egg-yolk mushroom

Egg-yolk Mushrooms Bolbitius vitellinus have been plentiful on my farm at Bungaree this year. When small the caps are a bright yellow, but when the caps expand the caps lose most of the yellow colouring. The mature caps are about 40mm across and the thin stem about 100mm tall. They were seen in a damp spot near a dam.

Early Fungi

Hypholoma fasciculare

With below average rainfall for the past seven months I was not expecting to find many species of fungi when I went for a look in the Wombat forest near Korweinguboora recently, but I did find some interesting species. The first fungi I noticed was an grey-black Enteloma in a fallen log that was half rotten away. These were mature specimens with pinkish spores from the taller one partially covering the cap of the lower one.

One species that occurs early in the season is the Austropaxillus infundibuliformis. This species has yellow funnel-shaped cap with an inrolled margin when young. The forked gills are decurrent, running down the stem.

The beautiful Marasmius elegans was the next species seen. The orange caps were up to 25mm across, supported by a slender two-toned stem,white at the top and red-brown below.

Enteloma rodwayii

An rare green Enteloma rodwayii was seen near the Great Dividing trail near Cairns rd, Korweinguboora in early May. The green conical cap about 35mm wide was supported on a green stem 60mm tall.

Enteloma rodwayii

Mt Beckworth fungi sighting

When out at Mt Beckworth, near Clunes last week we noticed a great fungi that looks a bit like an orange peony flower.

I would love to know what it is called. It was about as big as a cricket ball and growing on the base of an eucalypt. If fungi don’t interest you then there were plenty of orchids and blue squill out in flower.

Blackwood Fungi list June 9th 2013

Fungi List Blackwood June 2013