Urban suspects

This might be the last wet week of ‘Sprummer’ in Southern Mainland Australia. I have been observing and recording the ‘Summer’ fruiting of many mushrooms, puffballs and slime moulds many of the common ‘urban fungi’ including Yellow Fieldcap (Bolbitius titubans), Pleated Inkcap (Parasola plicatilis), Fairy Ring Marasmius (Marasmius oreades) and Genera Agrocybe and Agaricus, plus a puffball which seems to fruit around here in spring Giant Pasture Puffball (Mycenastrum corium).

‘Spring’ and ‘Summer’ although not peak fungi season in Southern Mainland Australia can be productive if there is enough rain and if it is not too windy. Dry spring winds dry out the fungi spore bodies rapidly. Most macrofungi are produced when there is sufficient moisture, usually rain, for the primordia to expand. This is why fungi often ‘magically’ appear overnight.

Giant Pasture Puffball (Mycenastrum corium) is a mycorrhizal puffball, starting pale it darkens with spores as it ages and eventually will invert itself to help spread its spores.