Ferndale Park Fungi – The Mystery Pink Waxcaps – 4 August 2016

It had been raining and I did not want to travel too far, so I headed back to Ferndale Creek at Chatswood to have another look at some of the mysterious pink waxcaps.

The evening before I had been looking at photos and seen that two photos I had taken about 5 days apart showed the same group of waxcaps. In the second photo all the fungi were pink. But in the earlier photo they were all green. So it looks like this is one fungi that changes colour as it ages. Some other waxcaps are well known for doing this, but none  I know of change to pink. In their green form, the fungi looked a bit like what we think is Gliophorus psittacinus (Hygrocybe psittacina) that had been found recently, not too far away at Porters Creek near the Lane Cove River. But that species usually changes to orange as it ages. However, one online source, seemed to show a variant that changes to pink. So that could be what it is. 

So my principal purpose of the visit was to look at the cluster of green ones I had seen on my previous visit, and see if they had changed to pink. However, when I arrived I found they had changed to mush because of the recent rain. But the trip was not in vain, as eventually I found some other green ones nearby. Now I will have to watch them. And I did collect some specimens for spore prints and drying.

As well, I did find some other interesting green – orange – yellow – pink fungi – perhaps they are all the same species? Here are some examples –

There was some other nice fungi out. Some of it fresh after the rain. Some of it looking a bit washed out.

And a few photos of the creek that flows through the park – Swaines Creek, in high than normal water –

More photos are online on my website here.