Environment – Strange fungi to watch for

This is the season when nature lovers get very excited about the emergence of some of the strangest residents of our forests and grasslands. 

There are at least 7500 species of fungi recorded in New Zealand, but many are yet unstudied so there could be thousands more. With quirky names like devil’s fingers, dog vomit fungus and shaggy inkcap they can really capture the imagination! 

My personal favourite is the bird’s nest fungus (Crucibulum laeve) which looks like miniature nests with eggs inside. 

Neither plants nor animals, fungi are classified in a kingdom of their own, and have an essential role to play in our ecosystem. Many species are nature’s recyclers, turning dead material into nutrient rich soil, and some, the mycorrhizal fungi, work in essential partnership with trees. This is called symbiosis, and in return for the carbon that the fungus gets from the tree to convert to sugars, the tree receives nutrients that it couldn’t otherwise access, boosting the root system and increasing resilience to disease. This underground network is essential for a healthy ecosystem.

Do you know the difference between fungi and mushrooms? All mushrooms are fungi, but not all fungi are mushrooms. The mushroom is the part of the fungus that we usually see – the “toadstool” or the bracket on a tree. It represents the fruiting body of a much larger organism, mostly made up of mycelium, fine threads or filaments that spread under the ground or through wood. Some fungi have no mushrooms at all, but are entirely made up of mycelia, such as the aptly named slime moulds. 

The mushroom contains spores, fine powdery particles, which are the fungi’s way of reproducing, almost like seeds. Some disperse them from their “gills” on the underside of the cap, on the wind, and others, such as the anemone skinkhorn, produce a pungent smell of rotting flesh to attract flies to a sticky substance containing the spores, which they then carry away on their legs.

Some fascinating fungi you might see locally include the basket fungus (looks like a white slimy basket), slippery jacks, spectacular rustgill (the colour is in the name), puffballs, and under pines, the fly agaric – the red and white poisonous toadstool of fairy tales. 

Māori have used fungi for centuries, in rongoā for medicine, for kai, and as a pigment in tā moko tattooing. Pūtawa, one of the bracket fungi, was used to carry fire as it could hold an ember for many hours without bursting into flame.

So next time you are out in the bush, look closely for fungi popping up on trees or on the ground, and if you are keen to know them by name, take a photo of the cap, stem and gills and upload it to the iNaturalist app, a favourite at Forest & Bird for recording and identifying critters.