May dates are sold out! 130 tickets gone in 6 days, thank you everyone 😊
June dates will be announced by the last week of May.
Come for a walk with Jeremy Hegge to see fascinating fungi, learn about their ecology, understand the puzzle of mushroom identification and just how little we know about the incredible fungal diversity of Australia! We also debunk many of the myths surrounding this mysterious kingdom of life.
I can't wait for another VIC fungi season!
Tickets in bio / $80pp.
Tours last for approximately 2.5 hours.
13 people max per tour.
Walks are for 15 years and older (under 18's must have a guardian).
Pets cannot attend walks and locations cannot be accessed by public transport.
As always, thanks to @jzjeanes for the poster design.
Went for a walk with a friend on Monday out near Gembrook in the Yarra Ranges. Spring flowers are great but our cool season mushrooms.. way better (sorry plants).
It's a beautiful time of year 🌞
1-2. Cortinarius archeri
3. A surprisingly purple Ramaria, with corals this colour is usually reserved for Clavaria or Ramariopsis
4. Sowerbyella sp.
5. Cantharellus subgenus Cinnabarinus, I don't think I've seen this bright yellow species before
6. Amanita pagetodes
7. Cortinarius kioloensis
8. Cortinarius memoria-annae
9. Pseudohydnum tasmanicum
10. Amanita armeniaca
11. Hydnoplicata convoluta
12. huge Ramaria
13. Boletellus section Boletellus
14. Cantharellus concinnus
15. Multifurca stenophylla
16. Cortinarius sp.
17. Cortinarius sp
18. Geastrum sp.
19. Galerina patagonica
20. Cortinarius sp.
11/05/26 on Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung country
It's been such a good season so far down in southern VIC! Here's a few of the mushrooms we saw on last weekends walks in the Macedon Ranges 🍄
We wouldn't have walked more than 500 metres on either of them, too many mushrooms to look at (and touch and smell) 😸
1. Heterotextus sp. - lots of these bouncy jellies out and about.
2. A little Fistulina spiculifera / Beefsteak
3. probably undescribed Cortinarius sp. - I collected this afterwards for herbaria as they were abundant!
4. Chlorociboria sp.
5-6. Boletellus section Boletellus / Shaggy Caps
7. Ramaria sp.
8-9. Tremella fuciformis / Snow Fungus
10-11. Hypholoma australianum
12. Armillaria luteobubalina / Honey Mushrooms
13. Amanita section Roanokenses, might be Amanita effusa
14. P.s. alutacea
15. P. s. subaeruginosa
16. Cortinarius archeri / Emperor Webcap - there were dozens and dozens of these on Saturdays walk
17. Cortinarius abnormis
18. A different goooopy Cortinarius
19. Mycena mulawaestris
20. The lovely marginate gills of Russula lenkunya
The season has a long while left, I am super excited to see how it unfolds over June and July 🤩
9-10/05/26 on Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung country.
A pretty stunning blue-green Fibrecap (something in the diverse and cryptic family Inocybaceae) found recently in the Antarctic Beech / Nothofagus moorei rainforests of the Dorrigo Plateau in NSW.
This species starts off a vibrant turquoise blue before turning more green as it ages. Super cool.
Collected with permit to be deposited at the National Herbarium of Victoria in Melbourne.
on Gambalamam/Gumbaynggirr country.
A lovely purple Entoloma species that likes to grow in Australian Nothofagus rainforest. I found this one recently around Antarctic Beech / Nothofagus moorei up on the Dorrigo Plateau in NSW (which was a big extension of the known distribution) but it is more commonly found in the Myrtle Beech / Nothofagus cunninghamii rainforests of VIC and lutruwita/ TAS. Seems to mostly occur in old growth remnants.
For a long time, this species has been called Entoloma uliginicola. But that species was described from Aotearoa / New Zealand and has a brown cap. So I'm not too sure if it actually has a species name or not!
These were collected with a permit to be deposited at the National Herbarium of Victoria in Melbourne. Hopefully we know a little bit more about it one day.
💙
on Gambalamam/Gumbaynggirr country.
My first time seeing Otwaya verruculospora in VIC! These tiny blue/green & hairy cups are a bit tricky to find, especially as they like growing in the awkward deep crevices of stumps.. but they are remarkably fluorescent under ultra violet light so can be found easily enough if you have a UV torch ⚡️
After recently getting my eye in for this species up on the NSW/QLD border where they were growing on Antarctic Beech / Nothofagus moorei.. I thought I should try to see if I could see them down here on Myrtle Beech / Nothofagus cunninghamii. This genus was originally described by western science in 1978 after being found in the Myrtle Beech forests of the Otways, VIC. This was done overseas in a British Journal (Transactions of the British Mycological Society) and I'm finding the original description a little hard to find 🫠
Otwaya has only been documented a few dozen times since it was originally described, but it is probably often mixed up with the similar looking Chlorociboria.
The main thing that sets Otwaya apart is the finely dense hairs which cover its flesh (peridium). This level of detail is pretty hard to see without magnification.
Otwaya is also only known to be found on Australian Nothofagus so the substrate helps narrow it down but Chlorociboria also loves Nothofagus. And some Chlorociboria are fluorescent under UV too!
If you're in NSW, VIC or TAS, go out and try to find them 😍 every observation helps us understand their distribution better which also helps us assess how endangered they may be. I have a feeling they may actually be common in remaining habitat but Nothofagus dominated rainforests are already endangered ecosystems in Australia as they are very sensitive to fire (and most in VIC have been historically logged). These rainforests are also very beautiful and a wonder to walk through anyway 😊
I found the Otwaya on Sunday afternoon up at Toolangi after the rain had mostly subsided. Pretty lil' things 😻
3/5/26, on Taungurung country.
There were still so many mushrooms around on last weekend's walks in Warburton despite it not having rained for weeks! These cool, damp forests around the Yarra Ranges are so good staying wet and humid once the weather cools down.. It was honestly a little shocking how much was still around and popping up.. I think we only walked a few hundred metres on each walk.
😁 fun 😁
1-2. A species of Entoloma in subgenus Prunuloides, rather chunky and often colourful. The first photo is this species (which I've only seen once or twice over the year) fluorescing under 365nm UV light.
3. Mycena interrupta / Pixie Parasol
4. Podoserpula pusio / Pagoda Fungus. We saw a tree fern covered in these!
5.. An Amanita in section Roanokenses. I went back after the walk and collected this one for herbaria 🤓
6. Trogia sp.
7. Cross-section of Cortinarius ingratiolens, this species is was really common on Saturdays walk. They get much larger too!
8. Cross-section of a mystery red capped Bolete
9. Pretty massive Amanita in section Roanokenses. The cap was at least as big as a dinner plate and the baby is so cute.
10. A really interesting species of Amanita section Roanokenses with two rings.. also collected for herbaria
11. Tylopilus balloui (species group).
12. Hydnum sp. / Hedgehog
13. Strobilomyces sp. / Old man of the woods
14. Entoloma fluorescing under 365nn UV light
15. Multifurca stenophylla - I find these are fairly common out here. A native lookalike to Lactarius deliciosus
16. Mycena mulawaestris
17. Spinellus sp. - these are pin mould fungi which parasite and grow on mushrooms. Fluffy but goopy.
18. probably Entoloma albidosimulans
19. Sanguinoderma rude / Red-staining Polypore with a bit of droopy guttation.
2+3/5/26, on Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung country
Stacks on stacks on stacks. So many Podoserpula pusio / Pagoda Fungus! 🌵
This funny mushroom grows in these ongoing layers which has an interesting crumpled fertile surface on the underside of each protrusion. They are decomposers in the family Amylocorticiaceae and are quite distantly related from most other fungi.
A native species but on this occasion were thriving (so many) around the base of a rotting Pinus radiata stump.
There are some remnant pines in this little area which are mixed into an otherwise shady, damp and mossy tea tree (Kunzea leptospermoides) forest with some larger Eucalyptus and tree ferns. It's such a nice spot.. there tends to be a high fungal diversity here ++ it takes a long time to dry up 👏
There were still heaps of mushrooms around considering it hadn't rained for nearly 3 weeks!
Found last Sunday afternoon in the Dandenong Ranges just after we finished our walk. I went back to photograph some of the interesting fungi we had seen and then found these hiding in a stump, about 5 metres off from the track 🙀
26.04.26, on Boonwurrung country.
Here's just a few of the mushrooms we saw on our walks last weekend in the Dandenong ranges! So many cool finds, thanks to everyone who came 😁😁 these walks were super fun 😊
1. Entoloma viridomarginatum 💚 (thanks to @unhallowed_thing for finding this one!)
2. The biggest Rooting Shank / Oudemansiella gigaspora I think I've ever seen!
3. A mystery Amanita species, so beautiful though 😍
4. Drechmeria gunnii / one of the Vegetable Caterpillars
5. Cortinarius archeri / Emperor Webcap
6-7. Hypholoma fluorescing under 365nm UV torch
8. Tricholomopsis cf. scabra
9. Urnula campylospora / Brown Forest Cup
10. The vibrant insides of a Cortinarius that was very common on Saturdays walk
11. Chlorociboria / Turquoise Elf Cups
12. Ramaria filicola
13. Mycena nargan
14. Strobilomyces / Old Man of the Woods
15. Phellodon sp.
16. Sanguinoderma rude / Red-staining Polypore
17. Entoloma sp.
18. Descolea sp.
19. Chlorencoelia sp.
20. Amanita in section Roanokenses, the local species still need to be deciphered from the original descriptions on the 19th and 20th centuries which are honestly not great and most lack photos or illustrations 🫠
Definitely smelt funky though 👃
25-26/04/26 ⭐
Hispidula dicksoniae, a tiny little ascomycete fungi that only grows on the decomposing rachis of Hairy Tree Ferns (Dickonsia sp.) 🌟🌟
I've struggled to find them down in VIC and have previously only seen some old dried out ones that just have the little hairs protruding from the tree fern rachis. But! I found these with little effort a few times recently on the Dorrigo Plateau in NSW 🤓
Total old-growth cloud forest vibes... oh.. what a dream...
With the current data we have, this could be currently seen as an isolated population of this species - more than 1000 kilometres away from known observations. But I bet there are plenty of them hiding in the dark, damp rainforests along the Great Diving Range.
I bet you might have walked them a few times too.. it's amazing what tiny wonders surround us but you'd never know unless you look. A macro camera sure does help 😛 but several modern phones have decent macro modes or even a jewelers loupe can help you find all the little things that are hiding around you 👀 ~
Please tell me if you find them 🥺 Better yet, put them up on iNaturalist 😎
March, '26 / on Gambalamam/Gumbaynggirr country.
Absolutely in love with these Beenakia dacostae / Long Tooth mushrooms I saw the other day in temperate rainforest, Yarra Ranges🦷
Beenakia dacostae has the odd habit of growing in the deep shade and protection of objects like the underside of logs and rocks. This is only the second time I've seen these! They like particularly wet, dark mountainous forests and their hidey habitats definitely make them hard to spot 🤭
(shout out to my friend Evan who spotted them).
They are more slender and delicate than Hydnum / Hedgehogs mushrooms that they may appear similar to. Hydnum will smooth and fleshy :)
When fresh like this, the Beenakia caps feel like you are touching a fuzzy cloud ☁️
Cute little things.
(Nerd footnotes) Beenakia are most closely related Clavariadelphus, these fleshy club-like mushrooms which don't look anything like Beenakia!
I believe the holotype for this Beenakia dacostae was collected in 1955 by Derek. E. Reid from Cumberland Falls deep in the Yarra Ranges. It's known from in VIC, lutruwita (TAS) and Aotearoa (NZ).
20/04/26, Taungurung and Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung country.
A few of the mushrooms I saw yesterday in a remnant of Myrtle Beech and Mountain Ash temperate rainforest in the Yarra Ranges.
1. Ramariopsis aff. crocea which were growing abundantly over a tree fern
2. Mycena interrupta / Pixie Parasol
3. Mycena toyerlaricola - this species only grows on the fallen leaves of Myrtle Beech 🍃
4. A super tiny Entoloma I suspect to be in subgenus Pouzarella
5. Hymenoscyphus berggrenii - this one also only grows on Myrtle Beech leaves!
6. A pretty weird and honestly quite smelly Cortinarius species that was associating with Myrtle Beech. It smelt phenolic / chemical to me but my friend thought it smelt lovely and sweet 😅
7. Coltricia sp.
8. "Cordyceps" cranstounii - this species is a hyperparasite which grows on Ophiocordyceps robertsii, one of the "Vegetable Caterpillars" which itself can only grow by consuming and mummifying buried Ghost Moth larvae that feed in the soil, mostly on Acacia roots. This species is probably in another genus called Pleurocordyceps but this has not been confirmed yet.
9. Cortinarius phalarus - a cool species with a fleshy sac as its base.
10. Cortinarius / Thaxterogaster sp.
20/04/26, Taungurung and Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung country.
