Fabulous Fungi

When we came home from our travels it was to a yard overgrown with palms and all things tropical. We had owned and operated a landscape business as we settled this original garden and the plants were a reflection of the area and the sort of plants our customers could love and care for.

Now the situation had changed, and we wanted to create ‘Our Small Urban Farm’ which initiated a culling of the original plantings.

Now don’t feel too bad as palms are greedy plants who spread a layer of feeder roots across the top handspan of the earth, effectively removing it from the system and sending it up into palm fronds, which don’t break down easily and shade the garden from the sun.

You could say that this is a good thing but in excess it’s not.

What has this got to do with mushrooms? The moment we began removing plants from this little ecosystem we sent up the equivalent of a red flag for the fungi to move in and assist in the break down process.

The mycelium family (we’re talking all sorts of fungi here) have an amazing network system and their reproductive systems are gold star as well. There’s a web strand sort of mycelium which gathers around tree roots and, in the way of plants, communicates both with the tree roots and with their extended family linked up over under other tree roots. It’s quite mind boggling so let’s get back to some of the mushrooms we can see on the surface, in gardens and bushland.

These dudes began the task of breaking down all sorts of things, even living on treated pine logs. Seems the clever things have worked a way around the poisonous treatment.

I watched this golden family when they came up between the pavers and a treated pine plank.

The journey from start to finish just had me so involved with the gold, the way the sun set on the flat surface, the curl of the aging plant and the final bleak looking dead stalk which breaks down and creates food for the next growth time.

Even in their almost dried out state they’re a thing of beauty.

And what about this purple model? I have no idea of the botanical names for these mini wonders, I just totally enjoy the journey.

This little lollipop style was nestled into the leaf drop from my callistemon (a red flowering native).

And another which looks like the same family just popped up in a plant pot when we lived in another part of the country.

This family bravely grew inside our worm farm. I’d laid an old sack in there as the worms enjoy nestling against the sacking; then within a very short time these little lollipops had arrived. They liked the dark and multiplied very happily on top of the sacking.

This larger style mushroom (or toadstool?) winked to me as I cycled along a bushland pathway one day and it really got my storytelling button going. In my creative mind I saw a whole fairy village being established from sturdy stemmed mushrooms with smaller mushrooms as seats and I’ll stop now. (much laughter from here)

This last mushroom collage is the inspiration for this story as I’m seeing them Absolutely Everywhere at the moment. We’ve had huge amounts of rain accompanied by warm humid days and nights, so the mushroom is in it’s own version of a seventh heaven.

Even in the hard wearing nature strips in the middle of the road there are mushrooms and toadstools. They’re in my garden, on the lawn and even on the supposedly resilient retaining wall out in the front garden.

I do hope you’ve enjoyed this little mushroom and toadstool wander. As you can see, they keep me fascinated along with all of the other small miracles of nature that build up our greater ecosystems. I’ve taken a few liberties in creating this story so please bear that in mind if you’re more knowledgeable on this subject.

If you're wondering where these photos are taken, I live in Queensland, Australia. A most beautiful place to land.