Mushroom magic: Blue Mountains has hit the motherlode

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 toadstool 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 mushroom poisoning [incident in Victoria]," she added.

Those in the know believe the consistent wet weather has given the Blue Mountains National Park a bumper season and turned it into a "fungus wonderland".

Professor Brett Summerell, AM, the chief scientist and acting chief executive of the Botanic Gardens in Sydney is a fungi expert who has helped describe more than 120 new species of fungi.

Professor Summerell said while we have had wet years since the Black Summer, there has been a succession of wet years that is building on itself each year, creating good conditions for the organisms.

"It's been a nice combination of extended periods of rainfall ... temperatures are cooling and a nice extended period of rain ... perfect for the mushrooms to appear, it's just gone mad ... it's crazy, mad and abundant".

"This year has been absolutely amazing. And all over the place. In the 30 odd years I've been working here I've never seen a year like it, it's absolutely crazy."

Professor Summerell said it's estimated there are about five million species globally, but only around 250,000 have been identified, adding to the danger of eating a mushroom.

"Most are microscopic. There's not a lot of funding for this sort of work unless it's a species that causes problems.

"But they are so important in all the roles they play whether it's recycling nutrients or extracting nutrients out of the soil for trees and plants."

Also keen to spread the love about mushrooms is outdoor education teacher and amateur mushroom enthusiast and forager, Leura's Zuza Kania, (whose last name means Parasol mushroom in her family's home country Poland).

She took part in her second mushroom hunt in Wentworth Falls on Mother's Day with Martin Martini through Belly of the World Mushrooms. She teaches her students about mycology and has loved the organisms since she foraged for Slippery Jacks as a child.

"Everyone is taking notice cause it's hard not to."

"It's just a special time of year now they really burst. They're doing their thing, as decomposers and nutrient transplanters - our soils are quite poor - they're a central part of the ecosystem that goes unseen."

"There's so little known about mushrooms in Australia. In Europe and Asia mushrooms have been foraged and eaten for a long time."

Former science teacher Dave Noble picked up fungal studies as a retirement hobby and is helping spread awareness about their ecological significance.

He started the Fungi of the Sydney Region Facebook page ten years ago and is a member of the Sydney Fungal Studies group where academics with expertise in mycology get together. He helps coordinate some of the group's field studies. They have a scientific licence to collect species.

"Fungi are very seasonal from January to late July, in particular from March onwards, and come out after good falls of rain - say 80 millilitres."

"What you see is the fruiting body - similar to a wildflower or spore releasing organ," he said, adding that the fungus is underground as mycelium - a network of microscopic threads that can spread for some distance.

"A typical mushroom might last a week ... they are very ephemeral".

He recollects "the last good season in the Mountains as 2016".

Those looking to find mushrooms can check in rainforest gullies in the leaf letter, on waterfall tracks, pine forests, at Leura Forest and Scenic World, the end of Leura Mall; as well as parks and gardens, particularly where fresh wood chips have been laid.

Wild Blue Mountains, an Environmental Conservation Organisation which celebrates the beauty and diversity of the natural environment advises people to "look, photograph, but don't touch or disturb any of the plants, animals, or fungi ... so these areas can be enjoyed by all who visit after you".

Their website says: "The primary role of the visible portion of a mushroom is reproduction. Their basic strategy is to produce and disperse millions of microscopic spores quickly, so the mushroom is designed to develop rapidly (in one to seven days) and have a maximised surface area for spore production."

NSW Health do not recommend picking and eating any wild mushrooms as some species can cause poisoning including liver and/or kidney failure. Effects may be delayed and deaths have occurred.

Unless you are a fungi expert or are being supervised by a fungi expert the risk of fungi misidentification and poisoning is too great, and there is a potential to disturb the ecosystems the fungi belong to.

The Fungi of the Sydney Region website advises that some species are very rare, as well as critically endangered and protected by legislation.

Foraging is not allowed in national parks. Mushrooms are expected to be seen until June.