I was interested to check out how some of the fungi I had seen a few days before was going. So I headed back to Lane Cove Bushland Park.
This time I intended to continue out from the bottom of the Park and follow the stream downstream to Sydney Harbour, and there join up with the Coastal Walk, walk around Greenwich Head and Manns Head and the to Gore Cove and up a track to finish at Wollstonecraft Station.
Stinkhorn – Mutinus boninensis
I was interested in the progress of the stinkhorns that I had noticed on the previous trip. Not too much had changed. The one that was out on Saturday had fallen over and decayed, but nearby new one was out. There were a lot of “eggs” ready for hatching. Perhaps they need a few more days?
One of the “eggs”
While I was waiting for the camera to take a photo (my macro shots are typically 10 – 30 second exposures), I noticed some interesting little back clubs sticking out of a nearby stick. Were they “Dead Mans Fingers” (Xylaria castorea)? No, but they were a closely related species (Xylaria apiculata). It was good to see and photograph something quite different to anything I and seen before.
Xylaria apiculata
Xylaria apiculata
Next I wandered down to near Kellys Flat. Last visit I had seen some nice coral fungi out some and some nice red waxy caps (hygrocybes). Most of the hygrocybes had decayed, but the coral fungi was still out and it was still covered with tiny bugs.
Nearby, close to the creek were some red hygrocybes and while I was photographing them, I noticed nearby a mass of small black fungi. They looked like hygrocybes. Later investigation revealed them to be an undescribed species of the genus Camarophyllopsis (Thanks to Dr Ray Kearney for help here).
Also out near the creek were a quite a few mauve hygrocybes, probably Hygrocybe reesiae. I’m not sure what the red hygrocybes I saw were. Ray had sent me a picture showing 17 different species of red hygrocybes collected at one time in the Park. Amazing!
There was some other interesting fungi around. Here is a selection –
Time to pack up my tripod and continue down the creek. At the end of the park, there is a busy road (River Road), but the big pipe that the creek flows through proved a good passage. Below the track continues through bushland. It soon passes a nice waterfall. Lilly Pilly Falls with a big swimming hole below. The falls would be quite impressive in high water.
It was not far down to the harbour, then the track continues around the bay heading towards the industrial suburb of Greenwich. I used the Coastal Walking App to guide me along a few roads to a nice park that stretched all the way around Greenwich Head. It was here that I had lunch.
The path continued past Greenwich Baths, then to Mann Head. I followed the water level track to a point then it climbed up to a nice lookout. Great views of the city and Goat Island.
After this were roads heading back past the oil refinery to a track leading steeply down to Gore Cove.
I followed up the track, heading towards Wollstonecraft. On the way, I passed what looked like an old mineshaft. Reading about it – it may be the entrance to an old Waterboard below ground aqueduct.
The track follows Berrys Creek and was hoping that it would be a rainforest gully similar to the one in Lane Cove Bushland Park. There was rainforest, but I could not find too much in the way of fungi. All I saw was a few puff balls and some bracket fungi.
At the top of the gully, is another path that leads a short distance to Wollstonecraft Station.
More photos are online starting from this page.