Birdwood Gully – Fungi and Orchids – 1 July 2020

I joined Liz for a walk down Birdwood Gully at Springwood to look for fungi. I did not have that high hopes we would find a lot, but it turned out to be surprisingly good. We found quite a few waxcaps and also some other interesting species. There was also a lot of orchids out. This made for a nice morning.

Hydnoplicata convoluta

Early on, not far down the track from Poland Avenue, we found some Hairy Trumpet – Panus fasciatus out.

And the first of the orchids. Some Nodding Greenhoods, Pterostylis nutans –

On a tree near the creek crossing, I look and found small Toothed Jelly – Pseudohydnum gelatinosum –

And a log had some Mycena sp.

Here is some white coral and white discs –

We explored up the small side creek for waxcaps, and soon found a few garden ones, Gliophorus graminicolor. The we found more and more. Nice!

This encouraged us to look for more waxcaps. We fund some Porpolomopsis lewelliniae –

And some Hygrocybe anomola var. anomola. Here is one-

There were also some Hygrocybe batesii –

And we found one small Humidicutis helicoides –

We then continued along the track towards the second bridge. Here is a Cortinarius rotundisporus –

Liz spotted this small native snail, which she was later able to identify as Austrochloritis sydneyensis, a species that loves to eat fungi.

And another of the orchids, Pterostylis grandiflora –

Another Hygrocybe batesii –

And a club, Geoglossum cookeanum –

And sone red waxcaps, Hygrocybe sp. –

Urnula campylospora

Geastrum pectinatum

An old Hydnum repandum –

Clavulinopsis sp.

Entoloma sp.

Hygrocybe anomola var. anomola

Hygrocybe batesii

Cortinarius rotundisporus

We also found quite a few of these strange convoluted fungi growing in the sandy soil near the track. They are Hydnoplicata convoluta. This is the first time I have seen them growing on the mainland.