Charcoal and fungi

Many species of Australia's pyrophilic plants, particularly the eucalypts, wear their histories as suits that look like they made of charcoal. And so they are. You can draw with the stuff, and it certainly draws on you, if you brush past. When rain finally falls, as it has lately here, charred bark makes a perfect backdrop for explosions of fungi.

Three sites I recommend:

• The Australian National Botanic Gardens' Australian Fungi - This name is too limiting. Anyone with a tinch of interest in fungi, spores, gills, slime and strange unseen filaments will find Heino Lapp and Murray Fagg's explanations informative, but also entertaining.
• Jamie Derkenne's Fungi of South Eastern Australia
• "Gaye from the Hunter's"Australian Fungi - a Blog