It had been a while since I had walked along the track at Wolli Creek to check out the fungi. I had hopes there may be some out after recent rain. I started at Bexley North and then walked down the Two Valleys Track to Tempe with a number of side trips.
I did not find huge amount of fungi out, but I did spot some interesting species. Along the upper part, before Bardwell Park, the fungi was fairly poor. I spotted a few mycena growing on logs, and a few little brown mushrooms growing in the soil but not much more.
In previous years I had found a few very nice patches of waxcaps growing in this upper section. None so far this season.
Lower down between Bardwell Park and Turrella things were a lot better. A number of Cortinarius were out –
In one place I spotted a number of Humidicutis viridimagentea had emerged. Nice. This is a speceis that starts off green and then as it ages takes on a magenta hue. All of these were green, and it can be hard to tell them apart from other species. But I was confident my identification was correct as these were very close to where I had seen them a few years earlier. Wolli Creek is the only place in the greater Sydney region where this species has been found.
Not far away were some small white fungi. I think these are also the waxcap – Cuphophyllus virgineus (= Hygrocybe virginea)
I then continued along the track. Things were quiet at the Flying Fox Camp – the animals have moved away for winter. Further along there are several side tracks. I first visited the lower one. On top of a dirt bank a lot of Greenhood Orchids were out. The presence of orchids I consider a good sign for fungi to be out as many species of orchids depend on fungal gnats for pollination. The orchids mimic the odour of the fungi.
I looked along the bottom of the bank and spotted some time corals –
Then I spotted a nice cluster of red-yellow waxcaps. They may be an undescribed species.
Not too much else around. I continued to Turrella Reserve and then along the track towards Tempe. At one point I took a side track and then through the bush to a lower area where many interesting waxcaps had been seen in the past. This time, no waxcaps but there were a lot of cream coloured Cortinarius out. Dozens and dozens of them. They have a distinctive large base.
Some of the other fungi I saw –
More photos, together with identifications are online here on my website.