I recently visited this small park three times to check out and photograph the marvellous fungi found there.
My visits were on 6 June (clink links for more photos), 10 June and on 15 June I was on a field activity run by the Sydney Fungal Studies Group Inc to the Park (and also see this link). This was organised by Ray and Elma Kearney who have a long association with the study of the marvellous fungi in this park.
The Park is famous for its Hygrocybes – a genus of fungi noted for bright coloured fruiting bodies.
On my visits – some of the fungi were the same, but a lot of new fruiting bodies had appeared and some had gone. What was very worrying was Ray reporting that very recently some of the red Hygrocybes near where the track crosses the creek had been dug out!! This park is a special reserve for the protection of fungi. Some of the fungi found there occur no where else.
There are large fines for removing fungi from the park or damaging them. Also, members of the genus Hygrocybe, cannot be transplanted to somewhere else. They cannot be propagated from spores in the laboratory or other controlled environments. Perhaps their spores need to pass through the digestive system of some of the small organisms that eat them for them to be viable? As far as I understand, no one is sure.
Another worry is pollution in the creek. A lot of the Hygrocybes have some relationship with the moss that grows very close to the creek bed. The moss depends on clean water.
Here is a short collection of some of the fungi that I observed in the Park –
