Now I'm not sure whether these are early fungi, very very late fungi, or I'll-just-party-coz-I-want-to-fungi, but I didn't expect to see these babies on my walk to the White Knights and waterfall at Evercreech. They were like a special bonus just for me and confirmed why we'd come out of our way to this beautiful forest walk in Tassie's north-east. If you missed the Evercreech walk, check it out in yesterday's post, where we visit some giant old trees and a waterfall.

The fungi deserved a post of their own. First of all was the ubiquitous bracket fungi, who don't die off like their fleshy friends but harden and turn into shelves for fairies. So that wasn't too much of a suprise. We did love how they appeared to be marking a gateway into the forest though, like we needed a secret password to enter.

Then we spied these guys, which had me on my hands and knees for a bit, figuring out the macro settings on my phone.

Then there were these dudes, which Jamie said smelt quite like almonds, but his sense of smell is always more sensitive than mine. I was trying to put my phone underneath to see their gills without breaking one off, and it's always amusing when your phone is in selfie mode when you do so.

I needn't have worried - down the path there were ones more easily accessible. Do you know what they are? They seem to be a type of honey fungus but I'm not convinced. They did seem to have to get really big before the sheath broke and the gills were exposed.

After that I found some cool bracket type fungus except they were growing from teh ground near the trunks rather than the trunks themselves. They had a different pore structure underneath and when they were rubbed they seemed to bleed red.

There were other 'bleeding' fungus too, like these. Very pretty and strange. In fact most of the mushrooms here were strange, and I hadn't seen them before. It's so hard to identify them without a book, but even now I'm home, the book isn't giving me any answers!

It was funny when I got back to camp and the phone beeped, my daughter in law sending me a picture of the mushrooms that were growing at home. Three months I've had these pink oyster mushrooms on the go! Sadly by the time I got home they were truly done, but I'll be putting some more on next week. Ella put the capsicum there to compare the colour - they're a pretty deep pink aren't they?

Oh, and I mentioned the AI writing a mushroom poem, so I suppose I better share it. I don't think it's going to win any poetry awards any time soon, what do you reckon? I mean, it's factual, but very childlike. It's hardly Sylvia Plath.

In the rainforest, deep and green
Fungi thrive and flourish, unseen
A secret world that few discover
Of magic, mystery, and wonder

With stems and caps that come in hues
Of orange, red, and purples, blues
A kingdom where they rule supreme
And grow in rain that drenches the scene

From composting to aiding trees
Fungi serve with great ease
Their role in life, so vital and grand
In the rainforest, they take a stand.

With Love,

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