Fungi in the Lane Cove Valley – 12 July 2019

This was an excellent fungi spotting trip. I caught the metro to Macquarie Park and then walked to Lane Cove National Park. I followed the Riverside Path to the weir near the Park Visitor Centre. I crossed on the weir and then started up the track up Blue Gum Creek. I followed the creek to the scout hall, then walked a a short bit of road that took me to Ferndale Park for a lot more fungi. Then I finished by walking the short distance to Chatswood Station.

Gliophorus psittacinus var. psittacinus

I had been on the lookout for a particular fungus, that only seems to grown in one small area near the Lane Cove River – this is Gliophorus psittacinus var. psittacinus – the Parrot Waxcap. This trip I was lucky – it was out.

This is a particularly beautiful waxcap. It starts off very viscid and a dark green shade. As it ages it can change to orange. Often it is part green – part orange yellow. I found about twenty of them in a range of sizes. The largest there had caps only about 1 cm across.

Some for he smaller ones were red in colour. It was nice to find them again. I have only seen them growing in a very small area – less than 1 square metre. They are probably out for only a week or so. I would need to make some repeat visits to see how they progress.

Some other interesting fungi was nearby, including some tiny corals  –

I do not know what species these are. The first has a dark brown base and a tan top that often branches once or twice. It is very small, only going to about 1 cm tall.

And some larger corals  –

This photo is interesting. It shows a large coral surrounded at the base by smaller corals of a different species.

I am not sure what the small corals are at the base. It is another interesting species that I will look for next visit. It has a brown base and a cream top. The top can also branch. This coral was small but more common. It looks like Clavulina cristata –

There were also a number of blue Cortinarius around –

And one more waxcap, a single Hygrocybe aurantiopallens –

I then continued along the Riverside Path. I didn’t find too much more fungi along this section.

After crossing at the weir, I walked to the Blue Gum Creek track. I followed the first part – which is a fire trail, and then turned off and followed a very rough track on the true right. I had been a few years since I had been along this track and it has become even more overgrown. I found this part of the walk disappointing and also the fungi were disappointing. I only spotted one red waxcap –

The highlight was finding a Powerful Owl. It was perched high in a tree and a macros lens is not the  best to photograph it –

Near the scout hall was a picnic table – and I stopped there for lunch. Then it wa a bit of road walking to reach Ferndale Park. Here the fungi was pretty good. A number of waxcaps were out.

Despite a lot of looking, I could not find any of the Ferndale  green – pink waxcap. Some of the other fungi was nice –

A lot more photos together with identifications are online – Lane Cove Valley and Blue Gum Creek here, and Ferndale Park here.