Fungi on Ulva Island
My introduction to Stewart Island Fungi was over 40 years ago when as Forest Ranger I hosted a Swiss Botanist, whose specialty was fungi. His name if I remember correctly was Ebon Horack [sic]. He told me that there had been so little work done on Stewart Island fungi that a botanist would perhaps find a new species every day, and a new genus every week. Now I have no idea if that was accurate or not, but it did stick in my memory. I fear I wasn’t a very good collector for him, as one fungi looked much the same as the next to my inexperienced eye, and after a couple of days was bringing in many duplicates.
In our wet climate fungi appear to do very well, and add splashes of colour to the forest. These have attracted my camera, and then my interest in learning their names. I have a small book on Fungi, and with online reference material, I will attempt to ID each photo and will update the images as I do. Any of my identifications should be seen as seriously suspect, and I would welcome corrections. Please quote the “Id Number” with each slide.
Since that very “Fungi Summer” around 2010, our fungi have been very average, with nothing approaching the spectacular display of that year.
