Gills of a Cortinarius species found in Otari-Wilton Bush.

I had originally intended this blog to be about discoveries “from the forest floor” – particularly mushrooms. I love photographing all kinds of mushrooms, and this developed into an interest in identifying them too. When I moved to Vancouver in 2012, I joined the mycological society (the VMS) and was a member for three years, eventually becoming a board member as well. We did annual forays which were a lot of fun and very informative. Since moving to New Zealand last year (it’s been one year to the day, today!) I haven’t done any outings specifically to hunt for mushrooms. I’ve missed it.

More recently I discovered Geoff Ridley’s blog called Spores, Moulds and Fungi where he posts frequently about fungi found in the local Wellington area. This gave me the “fungus fever” and I decided to head out to Otari-Wilton Bush for the first time, which is a botanic garden of native plants and trees just a 10-minute drive from our house. Florian joined me and we spent the better part of the afternoon walking through some beautiful forest trails. We had a great time. I got my mushroom fix and took lots of photos. There wasn’t anything too exciting out, perhaps due to it being the winter season, but there were a few finds which I’m going to share here. 

Looking up into the forest canopy at Otari-Wilton Bush

I’ll never tire of walking in the woods. I just love trees.

Honey mushrooms (Armillaria sp.)

Above is a group of honey mushrooms (Armillaria) I found growing next to the trail. They like to grow in clusters and have shaggy stalks. These ones have whitish scales on the cap. One identifying feature is their white spores. If you look closely, you might see a white dusting on the tops of caps that are sitting underneath taller ones – evidence of white spores! I didn’t spot that on this cluster, but it could be they’ve been washed off by recent showers.

Possibly in the Hygrocybe/Gliophorus genera of waxgills. 

These little yellow waxy mushrooms are fun to find. They seem to glow from out of the dimmest corners of the forest. These are probably in the Hygrocybe or Gliophorus family of waxgills.

Hypholoma species.

And here’s a high-falutin’ Hypholoma 😉 These are yellow mushrooms which are recognized by the way their gills have a dusky color due to their dark spores (see below photo). Once you see enough of these mushrooms, you learn to recognize them right away when you look at the gills.

Most Hypholomas (called Sulfer Tufts) grow in clusters on rotting wood. Sometimes that wood is buried and if you dig up the mushrooms you’ll often find it. This is one way to be sure you’re dealing with Hypholomas, although apparently there are some species in this genus that do grow on soil.

Gills of a Hypholoma species.

Here’s another fascinating find – the Wood Ear Fungus. It rather looks like ears growing out of a log. If this is the species I suspect it is (Auricularia cornea), it’s edible and favored by the Chinese.

Wood-Ear Fungus (Auricularia sp).

Wood-Ear Fungus (Auricularia sp). Photo by Amy Earl.

In Vancouver I once ate at a Chinese restaurant with the VMS where this fungus was served in a rice dish. A rather rubbery texture, but as far as I remember it was quite good. Upon closer examination of this cluster at Otari, I found that some were pliable and soft (they are covered on the outer surface by a soft fuzz), like the one turned up in the photo which I detached for the purpose of showing the brown interior.

There were others that were more rigid and dry, and these had turned darker on the inside, as in the second photo.

800-year-old rimu tree.

This is an 800-year-old beautiful native hardwood tree called rimu. I’m actually now in the process of making a chessboard using rimu for the light squares! This was quite a stunning tree. It’s supporting all kinds of other life as well. The greenish tinge on its trunk is probably some kind of lichen. There are ferns or plants growing on its upper branches as you can see in the next photo.

Cortinarius sp. Notice the bright violet color of the gills.

To the left and below is what I believe to be a Cortinarius species. This one is more interesting when you take a close look at the underside (as is true with many gilled mushrooms). The gills have quite a vivid violet hue, and there are rust-colored remnants of what I think was the partial veil which covers the gills when the mushrooms first emerge from the ground. I’m not sure, but the spores may be rust-colored too. I’m attempting to get a spore print of one now to find out.

Cortinarius sp.

Unknown species

Here’s one that I haven’t looked up yet to try and identify. The white fibers at the base of the stem are evidence of the mycelium underground that gave birth to the mushroom as we see it above ground (the fruiting body).

This mushroom was also quite small, only about an inch across, but it was pretty neat to look at it close-up from underneath. Luckily my camera has a flip-out rotating LCD screen so you can get shots from down low like this without getting down on the ground. I haven’t identified this one yet either.

The sun was setting as we climbed up a few hundred metres or so on the trail.

Nearing the end of our walk, we spotted no less than four tui birds sitting together at the top of a tree! Birds were everywhere at this park. In fact, they’re pretty much everywhere all the time in New Zealand, and that’s fine by me.

At the info center we saw this posted on the window. A cute little ode to mushrooms. I love the morbid end, it made me smile.