09/02/2008: Belmont Hills regenerating bushland

The 9 February Field Trip was to Nancy Cramond’s place in Carindale.

Jan McNicol had contacted Nancy Cramond and arranged for QMS members to visit her family property, which covers 18 hectares of priceless regenerating bushland at Belmont Hills.
In 1996 Nancy’s father signed a Voluntary Conservation Agreement with Council to protect and restore the land. Nancy, accompanied by two of her bushland regeneration friends from SCRUB (Save, Care for, Regenerate Urban Bushland) kindly led the six QMS members through her property. The area covered was over a distance of approximately 350m west and east of 27o 30’ 46”S and 153o 06 59E on a meandering route through the regenerating area.

Following the recent rain fungi were plentiful, and as every gardener knows so were the weeds!!. Once again, not all the fungi seen could be recorded. Most fungi were found in the litter or on fallen wood under the trees (mainly eucalypts and acacias) and a stand of Araucaria bidwilli on the southerly aspect of the hillside. Interestingly, no fungi were found along the creek banks.

In all, 28 of the fungi seen were recorded. There were a large number of what appeared to be Clavaria spp. on a mound of soil beside the gate, and to the side of the gravel drive, part way up the hill, were some Agaricus augustus. Six groups of Amanita sp. were recorded, all displaying the volva at the base – although some were well below ground level. One, possibly two, were Amanita punctata. Of the others, two were bright lemon-yellow, and one had a striate rim and a yellow “skirt” with a hint of orange midway up the stem. The other two groups were white with some veil remnants. Other fungi identified were some old and new fruiting bodies of Pycnoporus coccineus, Polyporus arcularius, and Lycoperdon sp. – both white and brown, and numerous sightings of hard old woody bracket fungi, which were thought to be Ganoderma sp and Phellinus sp.