The thing with writing about nature is that you quickly learn how little you actually know.
I thought I had a pretty good grasp on the basics of Omphalotus nidiformis, aka the ghost mushroom.
Ghosties fruit in rotting or dead wood and at night, to the naked eye, emit a gentle, eerie bluish-white glow. Captured with a long exposure setting on your camera or your phone, that glow becomes an exceptionally vivid, otherworldly green.
And the best season for finding them is autumn, right? Well, not so fast.
I have a favourite log in our local patch of bush. It’s provided a perch for the local tawny babies, a place for butcherbirds to wedge cicadas in, before ripping them apart and feeding to their chicks and now, surprisingly, a crop of ghost mushrooms. I say surprising because it’s summer and autumn is still months away, so what on earth is going on?
Luckily for me, David Finlay, a local expert on all things bioluminescent, phosphorescent and astronomical, is as passionate about sharing his knowledge as he is about finding these beauties.
“It’s not uncommon to see ghosties if we have a wet summer,” David explained. “While autumn is the main mushroom season, fungi can have a ‘second flush’ in summer if it’s wet.”
Turns out our current wet, cooler than usual summer has provided great conditions for a little out-of-season ghost hunting.
The trick is to find the fungi in the day, when you can see where you’re going! They look kind of like oyster mushrooms with creamy caps that can grow up to 20cm, often with a slightly bruised, purple-brown colouration and white gills. They love to grow in rotting wood so old tree stumps and fallen logs are perfect habitat for them.
Personally I think they’re spectacular in the daytime, often growing in large clusters, but of course it’s night when the real magic happens.
“‘Ghosties’ is the perfect name for them because they give off a faint ethereal light,” David said. “When you first spot one glowing off in the bush you could be mistaken for thinking you’re imagining things.”
The supernatural green colour is only seen via long exposure images and there’s a real art to getting the perfect shot; something which I haven’t yet mastered. Thankfully, this is a skill David will be teaching later in the year.
“I love sharing these experiences with people, which is why I’ll be running more nature walks and photography classes this year to give people the experiences and skills to find and photograph ghosties for themselves,” he said.
In the meantime, I’m off hunting ghosts.
