Coloured threads create a carpet

It’s not all about looking up at Orokonui, writes Jeanne Hutchison. 

Three friends, Joe, Cath, and Benny, decided to hit the Orokonui trail to see the tallest tree in the country, a Eucalyptus regnans, reaching a height of more than 80m. On the way down the Robin Valley track, these fungi enthusiasts (mycophiles) were soon captivated by the abundance of colourful mushrooms blanketing the forest floor, the most they’d ever seen.

These three have spent many hours exploring dark, damp, precarious places to observe and photograph mushrooms. Their senses are honed to spot the striking colours, shapes, textures and earthly aromas of a mushroom on the forest floor. Their fungal forays have often unearthed new species and have added to the bank of knowledge about this ubiquitous but mysterious biological kingdom. Of the estimated 2 million species of fungi on the planet, only 5% have been identified.

Corals, clubs, pouches, puffballs, shells, inkcaps and more can all be observed at Orokonui, some of them unique to this part of the country. Photographing mushrooms, the fungi’s fruiting body, is no easy feat as the photographer crouches and contorts to capture, close up and in low light conditions, the vivid colours and textures of the mushrooms. Cath refers to this as "Bush Pilates".

Lucky for us, these friends are happy to share their experiences and discoveries with anyone who wishes to access Joseph’s "Fungi at the Orokonui Ecosanctuary" guide on myconeer.com.

My favourite species from the guide is the Violet Coral Fungus (Clavaria zollingeri). This strikingly purple club fungus looks like it should be in the reefs of tropical Queensland instead of in the leaf litter of Orokonui. Its branching tips become fine and pointy, resembling little hands, an identifying feature for this species. Joseph adds that it was named after Swiss botanist Heinrich Zollinger (1818-59), who researched the genus Clavaria.

Another fungus in the guide, which I can’t wait to see in situ, is Beenakia dacostae or the Beenak Long Tooth. It looks like glistening stalactites in a limestone labyrinthine, or as Joseph describes it, like stumbling across icicles growing on tree ferns.

This fungus is considered rare and found in dry forest debris under rotting logs and in the wet forests of southeast Australia, Tasmania, and other parts of New Zealand. The Beenak Long Tooth has white "teeth" instead of gills on its undersides and part way down the stem, making one imagine a critter from a Stephen King novel.

As our explorers reached their destination, they were mesmerised by a rainbow of colourful mushrooms carpeting the forest floor. Most prolific is the red-capped Cortinarius kula, an eye-catching mushroom with a familiar toadstool shape, bright blood-coloured gills, and a yellowish stipe (stalk).

Finally, these friends turned their gaze skywards, gaping at the towering eucaplytus in awe of its scale. Yet beneath the ground of this giant lies a network of mycelium that not only recycles nutrients of decaying matter but also chemically connects the trees of the forest, which would fail to exist without it. More about this on myconeer.com.

Jeanne Hutchison is a volunteer at Orokonui Ecosanctuary.