With autumn rains continuing, and it not being too cold yet, we are still getting lots and lots of fungi of all sorts popping up. New varieties every week, almost. This coral fungus is amazing.
Last week I saw on the Postcards TV show that someone was running "picking wild mushrooms" tours on the Mornington Peninsula. I'm sure there are enough on our property to feed about a hundred people, but in the back of my mind is the story about author Nicholas Evans who, in late 2008, ate wild mushrooms in Scotland (along with several of his family) and they all became severely ill. The ultimate long-term effect was a total loss of kidney function, with no idea of when or if they might recover. So I'm leaving ours alone, as I have no references that will accurately tell me what I can eat and what I can't (and I'm not that keen on mushies anyway).
Initially, most of the fungi growing were huge (and still are) but now all the tiny ones are coming out, both white and orange. You have to look closely to see them.
And these are some of the sundews that are also growing in large patches. We also have the ones with the red edges but those photos didn't come out clearly enough.
Going for walks has been fun, as mushrooms and toadstools of all sizes, shapes and colours have been on the tracks and in the undergrowth. Lots of tiny orange ones started erupting a couple of weeks ago. Then I went down another track where there are several large trees on the ground, and found little "villages" of fungi along the trunks.
Now that it's rained quite a bit this week, and is getting very cold (due to snow on the mountains further north), I suspect a lot of these will shortly disappear.
