This was a pleasant day out, accompanied by Digi Dave. We headed to the southern part of Royal National Park with our cameras.
Hygrocybe bolensis
Our intention was to photograph fungi at Bola and Palona Creeks, but on our way we stopped off at National Falls. There I photographed the upper falls. Continue reading
With the fungi season drawing to a close I wanted to visit Sassafras Gully at least one more time to see if any more waxcaps (members of the family Hygrophoraceae) were out. So far the season has been fairly poor for waxcaps at Sassafras Gully. Well! This trip was a big improvement. I found a lot of colourful waxcaps out – but I did have to search for them.
On this trip, I did my usual walk – in at Sassafras Gully Road – down Sassafras Gully to Glenbrook Creek, then out via Magdala Creek and fairly Dell. Mots of the good fungi was in Sassafras Gully close to the junction of the Wiggins Track or fairly high up in Magdala Creek. Continue reading
After seeing good fungi at Ferndale Park the day before, I thought it worth checking out Wolli Creek again. This time I started at Bexley North and walked down the Two Valleys Track to just below Turrella Reserve (and then back to Turrella Station). The recent rain had certainly improved things. Quite a bit was out – and a lot of it quite interesting fungi.
Humidicutis viridimagentea
The highlight was finding a species that I had been searching for. It is a rare species of waxcap, that had been found at Wolli Ck last year be a member of the Sydney Fungal Studies Group Inc. I think previously, it had only been found before in Western Australia. We think it is Humidicutis viridamagentea. Continue reading
It had been raining and I did not want to travel too far, so I headed back to Ferndale Creek at Chatswood to have another look at some of the mysterious pink waxcaps.
The evening before I had been looking at photos and seen that two photos I had taken about 5 days apart showed the same group of waxcaps. In the second photo all the fungi were pink. But in the earlier photo they were all green. So it looks like this is one fungi that changes colour as it ages. Some other waxcaps are well known for doing this, but none I know of change to pink. In their green form, the fungi looked a bit like what we think is Gliophorus psittacinus (Hygrocybe psittacina) that had been found recently, not too far away at Porters Creek near the Lane Cove River. But that species usually changes to orange as it ages. However, one online source, seemed to show a variant that changes to pink. So that could be what it is. Continue reading
The Asgard Plateau lies at the head of the Grose Valley, and can be accessed quite easily from the road to Victoria Falls Lookout. It is a beautiful and spectacular area and one that is generally quite easy for bushwalking.
Grose Valley from Thor Head
Bob and myself, set off down the closed off fire road that heads towards Asgard Swamp. A short distance before this turn off there is another that also heads off onto the Plateau. We used that the road for our return. Continue reading
I was heading up the mountains with Bob, and we were on our way to Mt Victoria for a walk on the Asgard Plateau. On the way, we decided to make a quick visit to Red Gum Park at Bullaburra to allow me to photograph Minnatonka Falls. I thought recent rain may have actually made this waterfall a bit better than with its usual flow (barely a trickle). I wanted a good photo of the waterfall to include in my Waterfalls of the Blue Mountains Website.
Minnatonka Falls
So, we turned off down Noble Street at Bullaburra and soon were walking down the track into the park. We soon arrived at a lookout. Around the lookout were four round holes. They seem to have been bored into the rock. Each one had a diameter of about 15 cm. I had seen these before on my previous visit, and was quite puzzled by them then. Seeing them again brought up the same questions. Are they man made or made by natural processes? If they are man made – who made them? Aboriginals or later visitors? Even if they are not man made, could they have been used by aboriginals for various purposes? Continue reading
I headed back to Ferndale Park at Chatswood to look for any new fungi. I ended up spending an interesting morning there.
There seemed to be a fair bit more of the pink waxcap out. Continue reading
This was a pleasant weekend walk from Bell to Wollanagmbe Crater and back the same way. Su Li and Brent organised he walk, and they were joined by Martin, Steffy and myself.
It was fine but cool weather. We set off from bell, following an old fire trail that goes down to the south branch of the Wollangambe River, then up the other side to spot height 994. On top of the ridge, we met a party of lost children, accompanied by their father. They were supposed to be walking to Goochs Crater and seemed to have taken the wrong ridge. We showed them where they were on the map. we noticed that one of the children had a map, but another had the compass – so that may have been the source of their problem? Continue reading
On this day, I had the afternoon off, so that gave me the chance for a return trip to Wolli Creek to see how the fungi was going. What a difference a week makes! The fungi that was out was a lot poorer than a my visit of a week earlier. That had been a very good trip, so a “lot poorer” still meant there was a fair bit out.
On this trip, I started at Girrahween Park and walked along the Two Valleys Track to Turrella Reserve, then little further to near the old quarry and then back to Turrella. Continue reading
This was a return trip to Sassafras Gully at Springwood to have a better look around for waxcaps in the middle part of the creek and also I had time for a look in for fungi in a short section of Birdwood Gully on the north side of Springwood as well.
Gliophorus viridis
I wanted to see if I could find more of the large pink waxcap (possibly Humidicutis rosella) that I had seen on the previous trip. While I was looking for it, I happened to find another strange fungi – this time a rather large chocolate brown species. I was not sure what it was so photographed it. Later looking at my photos I thought it may have been a Hygrocybe griseoramosa. But this did not seem right, and local waxcap experts Ray and Elma Kearney suggested it may be Hygrocybe badioclavata.
Perhaps Hygrocybe badioclavata
Nearby was the one I think is Humidicutis rosella. I had a good look around and it was the only one I could find. Continue reading
