Shroomin Time – February 2021
Group Photo by Cristina Bevilaqua at The Photo Corner.
Mushroom Photography Tour Highlights
Shroomin season is in full swing with enough regular rain to keep the fruiting bodies (mushrooms) blooming for our Let’s Go Shroomin Mushroom Photography Tours.
Our Special Let’s Go Shroomin – Mushroom Tour with local Mycologist Barry Muir on 7th February was a great success with some great examples of our regular phallus on full display. There was good variety of mushrooms to be seen.
Barry showed us the inside of the eggs of some Phallus multicolor and let us smell them. It was a surprisingly subtle mushroom smell, not stinky at all like the fully formed fruiting bodies of the stinkhorn.
A few species, including some undescribed and previously undocumented fungi in the Cairns Botanic Gardens were collected by Barry for the Queensland herbarium. Participants were able to see how Barry collects the samples for study and listened to his vast knowledge on the different species and how important they are for the health and sustainability of the natural world.
Gallery photographs of Let’s Go Shroomin Tour with Barry Muir taken by © Cristina Bevilacqua at The Photo Corner
As well as seeing some regular species like the Phallus stinkhorns, Ganoderma, Mycena, and corals, there was a beautiful single Bolette that was feeling very photogenic on the day of the mushroom tour. Lucky us!
Bolete species
L to R: Some of the species Barry collected for the Queensland Herbarium, and some Birds Nests Fungi
Also this month I was fortunate enough to meet some visiting Mycologists from Brisbane and Adelaide as part of their annual fungi foray to the Tropical North. A ‘Foray’ is an expedition to collect samples for scientific research. I happily lead them around the Cairns Botanic Gardens to show them some of the sites known for certain species as well as some of the species that they are studying. We also met at a location in Speewah for another foray in which we saw some beautiful and rare fungi.
Frances, one of the ladies on the expedition, is studying the very lovely Marasmius species, which I certainly have a soft-spot for. If you follow me on Instagram, I have a Marasmius haematocephalus as my profile pic, and it was also the first post in my account. One of the many things I learned while in the company of Frances is that a certain Marasmius stem is collected my birds and incorporated into their nests. The stems are very similar to horse tail hair so make a great building material for birds.
Marasmius bambusiniformis and Marasmius species with stems that are used in birds nests.
Mycologists, Mycophiles and friends on the annual Tropical FNQ Foray in Speewah.
Just two of the amazing speciemens found on the foray. A purple coral fungi and Cookiena tricholoma.
I’ve also had a few little explorations myself looking for some suitable locations to hold some Special Let’s Go Shroomin Tours. I’m thinking Kuranda, Babinda, Stony Creek and somewhere on the Atheton Tabelands. If you know of any shroomin hot-spots and would like to suggest some, please mention it in the comments below.
Next Blog March
Mush-Love
Bridgette
Bridgette uses Olympus OMD EM1 ii, 60mm M.Zuiko lens and CygnusTech Diffuser.
looks like a great time! great shots