During a recent autumn trip to the south island of New Zealand, we happily encountered a great abundance of fungi fruiting up from fertile fields and forest beds.

Well-hydrated riches

New Zealand (Aotearoa) is blessed with abundant weathers arriving from seas on all sides, deserving much credit for the freshness and verdancy of its many ecozones.

Rainbows in the sky are reflected as well in the broad palettes of birds, flora and fungi, to the delight of anyone with eyes (or a camera.)

1. Urban forests

Our encounters began while walking in wet city parks of Dunedin, where many cosmopolitan fungal species had recently emerged to celebrate their organic fortunes.

A ubiquitously flamboyant Amanita muscaria

Most urbanized woods consist of replanted and colonially-preferred tree varieties, along with whom come fungal spores from distant lands. Many of these are considered invasive, and/or have become most dominantly observed.

The vivid orange porecap Favolaschia claudopus is one of these, reportedly originating in Madagascar.

The eye-catching porecap Favolaschia claudopus

Unfortunately these do not appear to bioluminesce like their cousins Favolaschia manipularis that I was lucky to find in Singapore.

One of the most charismatic fungi encountered was Chlorociboria, which is famous for producing large amounts of a natural pigment that stains fallen wood a deep shade of turquoise. The shade is so captivating that it has been incorporated into fine woodworks.

Another notable (albeit common) mushroom was Hypholoma, which while not particularly remarkable in appearance, strongly fluoresces under ultraviolet light.

Hypholoma justifies carrying a UV minitorch

To confirm whether these are ‘cosmopolitan’ species, we can look at the worldwide distributions of citizen science observations reported on iNaturalist.org:

Urban endemics?

There are certainly native and endemic species remaining in many urban areas, and undoubtedly pockets of native ecosystem remaining near most cities in New Zealand.

Dunedin seems no exception. A walk in Fraser’s Gully feels very ‘kiwi’–though the namesake bird may be hard to find.

Just outside of town, preservation work in the Orokonui Ecosanctuary has been very successful. And don’t forget the Catlins!

A well-fed tui enjoying protections in the Orokonui Ecosanctuary

Among endemic species, I was fortunate to notice this putative Pseudohydropus parafunebris in a residential forest, as well as few other things like these weird slugs and a cool spider.

2. Fiordland National Park

Far to the west, the (now) great plains of the South Island terminate at the protected boundaries of the Fiordland National Park.

Trekking through the soft and open-floored primary (never cleared) forests of this park system is a faerie tale-like experience, not commonly found in now more widespread anthromic environments.

Here we found the beauty of an ecosystem that has looked after itself for millennia, and also a greater diversity of species including endemics.

Upon entering this true forest, we were shortly greeted by an endemic springtail, who are known to frequent old growth forests that have never suffered from large scale timber logging or land clearing.

An exotic springtail that prefers lesser-disturbed forests

This brilliantly digitated mole-like insect was crawling over a large fallen log, and a cute little fungus that iNaturalist thinks is an Ascocoryne in the Gelatinodiscaceae family.

Observations of this species are relatively few, and as an indicator of primary (never cleared) forests, this mirrors the locations of intact forest ecosystems:

Locations of H. paucispinosa observations on iNaturalist occur mostly in primary (never cleared) forests

Fungal diversity, putative endemics

As we trekked curiously further into the depths of intact primary lowland forest, many varieties of seasonally fruiting fungi decorated our journey.

Among them were lots of ‘ordinary’ gilled mushrooms, many shelf and bracket fungi, boletes, webcaps, puffballs, jelly fungi, rustgills, pinkgills, honey mushrooms, fairy cups, and even native chanterelles.

Many or most of these below are regional or endemic species, at least according to iNaturalist distributions.

Among the numerous varieties of apparent webcaps, some were very interesting shades of purple!

A deep purple mushroom, perhaps a young webcap or bolete, within cm's of the track

Another purple webcap(?), the cause for whose hues I would like to know

Mā te wā

Dozens more local delights didn’t make the cut for this post, but some of them are included here.

Leave no trace?

Much thanks to our hosts and trekking mates, as well as multiple contributors on iNaturalist, including professional government mycologist Jerry Cooper, who evidently monitors citizen science observations and consistently provided prompt identification notes and advice.

Additional resources for identification include sites and books like this and this by Clive Shirley.

While serious mushrooming often involves touching, breaking and collecting specimens, we were careful to avoid touching or disturbing things, in the interest of preservation, time, respect, legalities, and avoiding unintentional spore dispersal and transport. Thus our largely trailside discoveries were left intact for others to appreciate.

With luck, these ecosystems will continue to thrive according to natural ways. The spreading of pathogenic fungi has been of concern, with some endemic tree species now falling victim to new diseases as a result!

The south island robin, teaching us to slow down and take a closer look

CONTENTS

Kiwi mushrooms

Fall fungal rainbows