The Great Otway National Park and other reserves in the Otway Ranges protect an astonishing suite of fungi, ferns and flora but it can be hard to find them because of inaccessibility. Especially if you are 'of a certain age'. Blanket Leaf PG appeals because there is a path through a wet forest of treeferns, eucalypts (and Blanket Leaf Bedfordia arborescens) leading to Cora Lynn Cascades and beyond, and the forest floor is thick with lovely wet mulch, mosses and lichens, fallen timber and smaller ferns and plants.
We found lots of fungi and we're still trying to identify most of them. Fungi can be frustrating, but they are mighty interesting. I do enjoy the process but inevitably find that we've failed to take note of or photograph the crucial identifying feature!!
But this is one I can identify and it's a beauty. It's a Toothed Jelly Pseudohydnum gelatinosum. I'd never seen one before. Unfortunately I had to resort to using the flash because in the gloom I couldn't tweak the camera settings to get a decent depth of field or decent shutter speed so the colours here are a little blown out but you can see how beautiful it is. And also unfortunately, the entry in Fungi Down Under states that it 'is very jelly-like and shivers when touched' and I never touched it!
Now... on to the other 25 species. Where's my Fuhrer?
