DSC_5693 Royal pouch fungus (Cortinarius porphyroideus) a cluster of eight fruit bodies. Pouch fungi as a group, have lost the ability of their gilled relatives, to shed spores to the wind. Many pouches are brightly coloured, and more typical of fruit eaten by birds. Indeed native ground birds probably eat pouch fungi, thereby dispersing the spores through their faeces. Waikaia Bush *
DSC_5697 Royal pouch fungus (Cortinarius porphyroideus) a cluster of eight fruit bodies. Pouch fungi as a group, have lost the ability of their gilled relatives, to shed spores to the wind. Many pouches are brightly coloured, and more typical of fruit eaten by birds. Indeed native ground birds probably eat pouch fungi, thereby dispersing the spores through their faeces. Waikaia Bush *
DSC_6690 Royal pouch fungus (Cortinarius porphyroideus) a pouch fungus common in beech litter, and discovered to be a close relative of the gill genus Cortinarius. Pouch fungi as a group, have lost the ability of their gilled relatives, to shed spores to the wind. Many pouches are brightly coloured, and more typical of fruit eaten by birds. Indeed native ground birds probably eat pouch fungi, thereby dispersing the spores through their faeces. Boyle River *
