Finding fungi

WELCOME TO MARRIOTS FALLS, ONE OF THE MANY WALKING TRACKS ATTACHED TO MOUNT FIELD NATIONAL PARK. AROUND 85KM NORTHWEST OF HOBART CITY, THIS IDYLLIC OVERGROWN FOREST RIVALS ANYTHING ONE MIGHT FIND ON MOUNT WELLINGTON. STUNNING FERNS, HUMONGOUS TREES AND BUBBLING RIVERS CATCH THE EYE, BUT WHAT I’M MOST INTERESTED IN IS MUCH, MUCH SMALLER. I’M HERE FOR THE FUNGI.

I am an amateur mycologist and fungi hunter and have been for about six years. I traverse our expansive national parks for the corals, caps, and curls that most people miss while hiking and exploring along these tracks. Beneath leaf litter, along logs, hiding behind rocks... fungi are all around us. When you slow yourself, pause, and peer down, there is so much more to hiking and bush walking than just the squelching of mud on your boots. The fruiting bodies of fungi come in all shapes, sizes and colours with Tasmania alone having over 1000 known species. There are absolutely more that are yet to be named or studied.

Recently, I was asked to talk on ABC Hobart News about fungi and not eating random mushrooms you find on the ground. It was a fun experience for me, but what stood out the most was that the journalist asked me what my pronouns were and addressed me correctly. After the interview was complete and I’d already gone home, it occurred to me that it might cause a stir in the viewers of the news if they heard someone with breasts being called a ‘he’ - the journo apologised to me, saying it was an unfortunate thing that I’d even have to worry about that, but that there was no comment section and so I couldn’t be harassed. In the end, all feedback received was positive.

But it makes me think, queer people sort of remind me of fungi. We are often brightly coloured and we are quite literally everywhere; how strange that even in 2020 you sometimes hear, “I’ve never met a gay person before”... I’m sure they have; they just didn’t know. Reader, YOU have seen a fungus before and didn’t realise! There might even be one or two growing in your yard! You can find little mushroom caps in the city in cracks in the pavement, persevering in the harshest of climates. Queer folks survive through thick and thin. It’s a nice comparison, don’t you think?