Ps.Semilanceata - the search continues

[spiders]

Well the story continues...

the weather hasnt been kind this year - its gone from rain to lots of dry - the top of mount buffalo this year is similar to the way it was this summer other than the frost and patches of fake snow by Cresta Lodge.

This is where some years ago i can confirm that Ps.semilanceata or a similar grass-loving species was collected - once by a university field trip and also in 1997 by the fungimap people - with specimens places in the herbarium at South Yarra.

here are the details:

http://fungimap.rbg.vic.gov.au/fmn/fmn5.html#Heading3

My advice is that if anyone is interested in finding this mushroom, check grasslands at altitude around Victoria and Tasmania - there are reports from places as bizarre as StAlbans, melbourne, but i have only have confirmed findings from Mount Buffalo thus far.

I hope it rains and doesnt snow in the next few weeks up there so maybe someone can find them for certain.

[alkatrope]

If I ever make it to Mt Buffallo, I'll be sure to look for some

[hebrew]

there are reports from places as bizarre as StAlbans, melbourne, but i have only have confirmed findings from Mount Buffalo thus far.

i am in st albans at the moment

and i am lucky to find inactives around here

however there are alot of grasslands around

but something in me tells me you wont find any on st albans

but woudl loved to be proved wrong

[PD.]

Things arent looking good at all for any sort of fungal growth in the N.E..

I remember posting in the aussie finds thread "looks like this season is going to be awesome", I was gravely mistaken. I have said to a few friends that if we dont get another flush before the end of june I am gonna call "worst season ever". The early rains got things going really well in a few patches but since then there has not been a drop, even the first lot of rain harldy touched the buffalo/bright region.

I am heading to the mountain in the next week to check on some things so i will take a look around up a bit higher and see if there is any action........but i doubt there will be

this is the dryest Autumn/winter i can remember..

Edited June 9, 2006 by phleb

[strangebrew]

Yeah it's a shocker. Such a shame after the early potential.

In the good ol' days this long weekend was ALWAYS the season starter in SA, you could never fail.

How times have changed.

[PD.]

finally........

Today it has finally start to rain, lightly. If it continues like this for four or five days we may be in luck.

*leaves computer and continues rain dance*

[spiders]

Man it has been dry up in NE Vic for ages. When i was a kid I remember regular floods up that way so i dont know what has happened - well i do but i shudder to think how quickly things are changing...

Ive actually made some big inroads in terms of new Psilocybes in Australia - i have been in contact with someone whose partner has volunteered or worked with the herbarium apparently and called someone who checked the current type specimens in there. They were also kind enough to give me the details of a gentlemen from the fungimap program who i have spoken to.

So i can confirm that we definately have the following species in Victoria, Australia - Ps.semilanceata (collections in Melbourne, Daylesoford and Mount Buffalo), Ps.aucklandii or ally (from collections in pinus radiata plantations and North of the Otways), an unknown Psilocybe from the Grampians collected by Bruce Fuhrer and collections of a mushroom that sits somewhere between Ps.stripedes and Ps.pellicosa (from grasslands areas around Wilson's Prom and Mount Macedon) - this mushroom has also been reported in Tasmania.

Added to this they have some unknown dung-loving species collected on Mount Buffalo and in other areas so its seems there are quite a few more species out there than i previously thought. Im a little doubtful of the aucklandii find - but time will tell.

The stripedes/pellicosa mushroom resembles one that was sent to me from NSW which was a mildly active mushroom with pleurocystidia making it unlikely that it is indeed stripedes or pellicosa. We couldnt work out what it was - i might try and revive it from dried state and add it to the herbarium as a new species.