In your walks, you may have noticed the wonderful and diverse range of fungal fruiting bodies on display. Victoria's display of puff balls, bracket fungi and fairy rings has been nothing short of splendid.

The fun's not over, either. This year has been a particularly good one for fungus too, and here's why. As you may recall, the harsh 2019–20 summer dried our soils, stressed much of our vegetation and led to major bushfires. In 2021, this switched abruptly to one of the wettest starts to a year on record in many places, courtesy of the La Niña climate pattern.

With the rains, the weather became ideal for fungal reproduction. We had warm, very moist soils and lovely warm and sunny autumnal days, perfect for fungi to send up their reproductive structures (you might know these as mushrooms and toadstools) and spread their spores. Conditions this good may not occur again for years so seize the opportunity to see them.

What you can see in a walk in the park

Fungi are not just for adults. Oh no! They can entertain children for hours.

In 2020, our family group took a walk in Brimbank Park, in Melbourne's northwest. The five year old leader waved his lucky stick/sword/wand in the air as we entered, declaring, "today we hunt fungus!" He was still doing so two hours later, closely followed by his younger brother.