DSC_6039 Bear-skin webcap (Cortinarius ursus) known only from beech forests in the South Island. The spores are rust brown and the dark, heavily concentrically scaled cap of this Cortinarius is unlike any other fungi found in New Zealand. Waikaia Forest *
DSC_6037 Bear-skin webcap (Cortinarius ursus) known only from beech forests in the South Island. The spores are rust brown and the dark, heavily concentrically scaled cap of this Cortinarius is unlike any other fungi found in New Zealand. Waikaia Forest *
DSC_2595 Common purple pouch fungus (Cortinarius violaceovolvatus var. viola) a pouch fungus in the gilled genus Cortinarius, common in beech litter. To date, seven different, unrelated species of purple pouch fungus have been described here in NZ. Pouch fungi as a group, have lost the ability of their gilled relatives, to shed spores to the wind. Many other pouch fungi are also 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. Catlins River *
