Makuru is blue, Makuru is wet. The rain keeps falling, and the forest is full with damp, musty smelling wood. Fungi start fruiting, rotting away trees and leaf litter, like this Beefsteak fungus (Fistulina spiculifera). Known as Numar by aborigines, it fruits on Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) trees, producing a slow decay in the wood called ‘pencilling’ or ‘black fleck’.
Published on May 28, 2016
Beefsteak Fungus – Numar
That is great! I live names like that. Our stinkhorn mushrooms came up in the flower bed today. We like them, and they certainly live up to their name.
I take it that the colour is indicative that this mushroom is not for human consumption?
They are edible and were collected by aborigines. Only the young mushrooms are this bright; they are honey-yellow when they grew older and bigger. I have never tried them, but apparently the name refers more to the structure than to its taste.
Someone must have been very brave to give it a try the first time!
40,000 years trial and error! I’d trust some of it by now.