I was invited to join Liz and Gemma on a walk through Birdwood Gully at Springwood looking for fungi and slime moulds. There had been some recent rain in the lower Blue Mountains, but I was not all that hopeful that we would find much. This turned out to be wrong. Perhaps because we had three pairs of eyes spotting for fungi, we found a reasonable amount. And also, what we did find was certainly quite interesting.
I think the most interesting find of the day was this beautiful strawberry coloured coral fungus. So far we have not been able to identify it. Liz had seen it before in Birdwood Gully, but I could recall having seen it in he nearby Sassafras Gully.
We also found quite a few boletes. Here are some –
And, one log in Birdwood Gully is always reliable for hosting the Toothed Jelly – Pseudohydnum gelatinosum.
We also found quite a few Entolomas –
We were surprised to find some waxcaps. These are probably Hygrocybe miniata. Here is one –
We also found a few of the blue tipped coral – Phaeoclavulina abietina. I have seen this same species in Sassafras Gully.
Another unusual fungus we found, that Liz had sene previously in the gully was a Gomphus. It seems to be the same one that occurs in one location in Sassafras Gully, and is notable for exuding blue liquid. I think it is a root parasite.
Here are some more corals –
We found quite a few of these tiny white fungi going on dirt or moss covered rocks. I don’t know what they are.
And also, on another dirt bank, we found these – two occurrences of two distinct species growing near each other –
Some of the other fungi we observed –
And the slime moulds –
I will soon post larger pictures with identifications to my website.