Morphy you legend!!!
Now I'm not sure how well it's ment to work but my gosh it's definitely going in my tinderbox.
Chars very well , easy to prep and seems to be easy to work with while charing.
These are the types of life skills that give me the most joy.
Identifying trees and fungi then gain more skills and knowledge as part of this. I'll be the interesting guy at campsites this year starting fire the old way with a old conk.
Thanks for the info!!!!

Stinkhorn mushrooms.

They are called stinkhorns for a good reason. Ugh. Flies love them.

Oh yeah that is one of my favorites. Mr stamets is the man.

Very kind of them to place them in good lighting

I know some guys, actually, it was the whole family, who used to pick those and make a "tea"".  I was at a party at their place back after high school when they decided that everybody should go pick mushrooms.  So we staggered out into the pasture and started looking for mushrooms growing out of cow patties.  In the dark.  With only one or two flashlights and those had rather weak batteries.

I have to admit that even rather drunk, I didn't think that was all that good an idea.  Enyhoo.  They got a bunch of mushrooms and put them in a pot and started boiling them.  I suppose that if they had cleaned all the cow manure off them, it might have smelled somewhat better. 

They poured the mess through a sieve and drank the result.  I couldn't get past the smell, every time the cup got near my face, I stated heaving.  Which at least got all the alcohol out of me. 

Then everyone sat down and waited for the pretty colors to start.  Except nothing happened.  Which meant that everyone had basically just picked mushrooms at random, boiled them and drank the mess.

The more I learn about mushrooms, the more amazed I am that no one got sick or died that night.  Most did get the runs from the manure, which is something, I suppose.  It was enough to convince me to not mess with mushrooms with out someone who knows what they are looking at, even though the "experts" were self handicapped with alcohol.

That was my first and last foray into the world of foraging for mushrooms.  Wish you were somewhat closer, Morphy, it would be nice to be able to go out with someone who could point out the edible mushrooms and not just the ones that will make you high.  And they were wrong about those, BTW.

Bill, There must be something about alcohol that makes people immune to their own stupidity. Good to hear all they got was the runs!

Mersa, if it has gills like that with orange spores it might be a gymnopilus species. There are several of those that are also hallucinogenic. Although said to be intensely bitter.



Here's Gymnopilus Junonius. I'll be the first to admit I don't know Australian mushrooms at all but that would be the first thing I rule out.

Pretty difficult to tell from that picture. Possibly a copronoid. Can't pin it down closer than that.