For hunters of mushrooms parts of the Blue Mountains have hit the motherlode, with one fungi expert calling it the best show in 30 years thanks to Goldilocks weather conditions. or signup to continue reading Mushroom hunters are enjoying the fungi explosion whose fruiting shows no signs of slowing down. The strange other worldly species include an abundance of arguably the most iconic species, the Amanita muscaria, a fairytale mushroom most closely associated with the children's TV series The Smurfs who lived in a village of red and white spotted mushroom houses.
These particular mushrooms are being reported in great quantities and sizes up and down the Mountains. On the golf course at Wentworth Falls one fungi hunter and photographer, Magda Cawthorne of Woodford, found she had "never ever seen so many red and white things appear in one week in my entire fungi hunting days ..
. some the size of dinner plates". She said they are so stunning, they "look fake".
"I hunt for them every year and this is a big season," Ms Cawthorne said. "Every year I have my camera out - March, April, May - they come out under the pine trees. I've watched them over the years, there's been some big crops [of the Amanita muscaria] but this year has been amazing.
" Other top spots include Coachwood Glen in the Megalong Valley. "There's jelly, coral fungi, earth tongues there [and] Sassafras Gully is another good spot," she said. "There's certainly a lot of talk about mushrooms .
.. [and] after the mushro.
