Collecting fungi in Auckland

It has been very interesting, discovering the world of fungi during my time at Landcare Research.  Previously, I had envisaged a mushroom as a discrete organism unto itself.  I now discover that the visible mushroom is merely the fruiting body of a much bigger organism, hidden from view underground, that appears when conditions are favourable for spores to be dispersed.  

Diagram from the bilingual teachers' guide from the Kuru Kaupapa Putaiao (Science) curriculum, kindly shared by Peter Buchanan (and freely available on the publisher's website)

Cultures taken from mushrooms at the Fungal Foray, showing the hyphae that have grown from the original plug.  Chris has incubated these samples in a fruiting chamber which he has developed.  The chamber controls temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels, providing  optimum conditions for growth.  He has also developed a medium using molasses which provides a nutritious food source for his Armillaria cultures.

Another revelation was the wealth of mushrooms that can seen, when one is aware enough to look around for them.  I found ten different varieties in Rotorua recently, and discovered twelve on a recent walk through the Auckland Domain.  This was after a wintery cold snap, which I was afraid might have not be conducive to mushrooms.  In general, mushrooms appear in Autumn when humid, damp conditions provide the best conditions for spore dispersal.

A small sample of the colonies of mushrooms found in the Auckland Domain.  Mushrooms are typically found by the base of trees or on dead of rotting wood.