Trip Dr Posted July 24, 2006 Greetings everyone, i thought i'd share an account of my little journey into the bush the other day. After having a little bit of rain last week, and seeing all sorts of little brown mushrooms(no target species) around the gardens at uni i decided it might be worth a look in the bush for some interesting fungi. This was my first solo hunt, ie not under the careful eye of an experienced guide. I had done much research, reading many safe pick guides and posts by learnered members of this forum. I picked up a book called 'Field guide to Australian fungi' also. Anyhow my fellow novice hunter and i set out on a journey into some beautiful pine forest locations around Moss Vale. As im not a local of the coast area i tired to get as much info on where state forrests were near my home base, the gong. NSW state forrests had a wonderful brochure online about various activities and such in the forrests in the area, but it was the picture of the fly agaric that convinced me that some thing might be found. First spot or three turned up few promising examples. Not much at all. Then we came upon a spot where i could see mushrooms from the car. Walking into the trees we were greeted by hundreds of mushrooms! Unfortunately they were not what we were looking for, but i have never seen so many in one place ever, there were HEAPS. Most were whiteish grey, and looked like some of the poisonous amanita types i was in the fungi guide. Here is one below Another one of the very common type in this area was this fella? Brown cap, yellowish gills, notably differnet to the other white-grey type in the previous pic. It was obvious that this was a well known patch. There was a fair bit of litter like empty coke bottles and such around the place if you looked. Not to mention all the upturned mushies when we got there. After some more time my partner cried out in excitement! Hooray, a fly was found! About 60mm diameter and bright orange. He looked around close by, i noticed something just under the pine needles. Yep a nice fat fly, just hiding out of sight. Haha those guys who beat us here missed that one! See below We looked around the area a bit more, and found one large example that had obviously been knocked over and broken by something. There was lots of evidence that there had been big harvesting going on, lots of upturned pine needles in places with visible mycelium underneeth. Only found one more fly, but a nice looking one. Anyhow, i was after subs, but a fly is good too. My memory is a little hazy of my single guided shroom expidition(thanks to my guide, you know who you are ) so trying to recall the environment subs were in was a little hard. Found heaps of these little fellas, which to me looked quite similar to subs. My hunting buddy was almost convinced. However, they lacked the all important blue staining effect, and the gills looked too light in colour to me. I collected some anyway to get prints. Brown Now i was thinking Galerina, but i think i read that the gills never ascended toward the stem and an anualr ring was usually present. These had ascending gills and no ring. Any ideas? Anyway hope that is interesting for someone, and if we get an id on the other unknowns then maybe it will help too, cheers! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trip Dr Posted July 26, 2006 No one wants to help id those other ones for me Today was much more rewarding MUCH closer to home too. And a more 'interesting' species . Sydney siders should be on the look out with all this rain Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trip Dr Posted July 26, 2006 Alrighty then, here's a few pics of todays find. Totally unexpected, and in a spot where i actually looked a couple of days ago. It even appeared that i may have seen them earlier, but just not clicked Anyway, these were found in quite a public place so couldnt get any shots in their environment. Had to make several stealth runs at the little patches. No officer im not doing anything sus! These were found in garden beds in wood chip derbis. Under eucalypt and pine trees. The small but welcome find. Above: The little fellas were rinsed to get rid of dirt etc and placed on paper towel to dry out. Notice the blue stain on the paper towel! This was a really blue specimen. Has dried considerably due to having a fan blowing on them. A younger one, these seemed to bruise faster on the edges of the cap a lot quicker than the stem. Finally a nice little group photo of a few nice ones. After i had taken prints to study, all of these specimens were promptly destroyed to ensure that no one would be harmed by their extreemly dangerous toxins. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shaman Posted July 26, 2006 if your asking for an I.D, im 95% sure these are an active species, most likley subs. nice find mate.........*jealous* Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trip Dr Posted July 26, 2006 Yeah i know the ones in todays post are very likley subs Its a couple of the ones in the first post im not sure about Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MORG Posted July 26, 2006 Nice subs dude. And very considerate of you to destroy them before they tear the fabric of our society as we know it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Trip Dr Posted July 26, 2006 Oh yes now that i have 're-tuned' my eyes to these little devils, i am going to make it my number one priority to eradicate this foul scourge from the land. As we all know, the government knows best and as such I am proclaiming myself their new leader in the fight against this terrible enemy! Onward then, to save humanity from certain doom, despair and an eternity of damnation Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
