Follow the Rain (2024)

[bunniefuu]

Oh, look what we've got here.

It was a chance encounter in the forest

with a stunning mushroom,

that was the start of my passion

for photographing fungi.

Arent they beautiful?

I think I sensed that these small

organisms were something very special,

and I began documenting as many mushrooms

as I could find.

Aha, I know what this is.

What have you got?

It's an Aseroe rubra.

It's a creative journey

shared with my life partner, Catherine.

Together we capture the beauty of

mushrooms in photos and in video.

And using time-lapse techniques,

we observe

how the mushrooms grow, their life

and their death.

Every day we learn something new

about these intriguing organisms.

And every day, observing them raises

more and more questions

Like, why do mushrooms come in

such a variety

of shapes and sizes and colors?

Why are some so transitory?

He one day and gone the next?

What we do know,

is for mushrooms to show themselves

they need water.

So to unearth their secrets

we follow in the path of the rain.

Our mission

is to find out how fungi fit

into the world of living things.

There is something magical

about the rain.

I can feel the forest drinking it up,

setting the stage for birth

and new life.

It's the wet season for this endangered

subtropical rainforest.

This is our local forest

and very precious to us.

Over the past 200 years,

European settlers have cleared

all but 1% of this rainforest.

They called it the big scrub.

Such a dismissive name

for this wonderfully biodiverse

and beautiful forest.

But it's not an easy place to be

a fungi hunter.

There are aggressive plants

like giant stinging trees

covered with tiny hairs that can inflict

excruciating pain for months.

And they're a wait-a-while vines,

that hook into

the body with barbed snares.

All you can do is stop, wait a while

and carefully disentangle.

There are paralysis ticks,

and of course, bloodsucking leeches.

Look what we got here.

Searching for a spot to attach himself.

But we keep coming back because the fungi

in this forest are so magnificent.

And many species are new to science.

For centuries, humans

have been researching and naming

the life that surrounds us.

But we soon learned that very little

in the world of fungi has been studied.

Fungi are not plants

and they're not animals.

They make up a whole kingdom of life.

Millions of species

that have been neglected.

Now this one's got some potential.

Looking at it from above,

it's just orange.

But wow, look at it underneath.

It's estimated that there could be

anywhere between

two million and eleven million

species of fungi on this planet.

There's a beautiful young goblet.

But so far, scientists

have only described a mere 150,000.

What's that?

That looks like a phallus.

That's partly because the window

into the fungal world has traditionally

been mushrooms, which only appear

when the conditions are right.

Now, this is a stinkhorn.

It's the sort of mushroom that you're

more likely to smell before you see it.

As you can see, the flies love it.

Now, the way this mushroom spreads

its spores

is by attracting flies with the smell.

It keeps its spores in this slime.

The flies will eat the slime or paddle

in it and get it all over their feet

and then fly away and spread the spores

so the mushrooms will come up

somewhere else.

A wonderful mushroom.

Most of the mushrooms

we find in this forest

grow on wood when it is very wet

and very humid.

But the mushrooms are just the

reproductive structures of a fungus.

A bit like apples on a tree.

Mushrooms grow from mycelium, a structure

made up of millions of connected threads.

Look at all this beautiful mycelium.

When we eat, we put our food inside us.

But when this fungus eats,

it puts itself inside the food.

And as it consumes

fallen logs and leaves become soil

full of nutrients for the plants.

These are what we call

saprotrophic fungi.

They are both

undertakers and regenerators.

We humans have a fear of death

and see it as an end.

But I like to think that these fungi

teach us that death is just part

of the process of creating new life.

Catherine and I have been restoring the

big scrub forest here on our property.

It's become a bit of a sanctuary

for wildlife and for fungi.

Oh, look at all these.

Theres really quite a variety

of mushrooms here.

There's Dacrymyces spathularia.

You can see it's sort of shaped

a bit like a spatula.

And this Auricularia here.

Auricularia delicata.

Oh, and these are

Phillipsia subpurpurea.

One of my favorites.

What's this?

Oh, really nice mycelium too.

Saprotrophic fungi are also the perfect

actors for our time-lapse videos.

Welcome to the

Planet Fungi studio.

Catherine and I call it our fungariam.

But really, it's just

a shipping container.

Hopefully that will work.

This is where

we capture the surprises

that only speeding up

time can reveal.

We see how a tiny lump

in the mycelium

inflates with water

to form a mushroom.

And we witness mushrooms

spin as they grow.

Some mushrooms wave to us.

Others have the power of resurrection.

Many mushrooms

grow like humans, babies that expand

into more mature forms of themselves.

While other mushrooms shape shift

into a completely new structure.

What you are watching

are thousands of still photos

taken sometimes over a few days,

sometimes over months.

One of my favorite forest recyclers

is a very rare blue fungus

that I found in these forests

14 years ago.

It was the first fungal discovery

that Catherine and I filmed together.

Now whats this?

Very peculiar.

It could be fruit I suppose.

But its blue.

Its mushrooms.

It's just growing on a

what looks like a seed pod

from one of the rainforest trees.

And his, just like any other

mushroom is, got a nice stem,

but more like a

more like a truffle

than conventional fungi.

Because it grows,

you can see theyre all

over the place here and they grow

very close to the ground.

Theyre hidden in behind

bits of leaf litter.

The cap never seems

to open up on them.

I've never seen anything

like this at all.

I dont know what to make of it really.

Photographing this mushroom

in all its weird and wonderful forms

has become an obsession.

And of course, I couldn't resist

trying to time-lapse it.

I went on the hunt

to find out what this mushroom is called,

but I couldn't find anything

remotely like it.

That's when I sent a specimen to the

Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria

and mycologist Dr. Tom May,

who like me, was intrigued.

When I saw that blue incredible mushroom,

I just knew

it was something really special.

It doesn't come along every day

that you see something as spectacular

as that that's so new.

And then it throws up all these questions

Blue, it's such an unusual colour for

fungi for a start,

there are very few blue fungi.

And this was enclosed,

the lamellae, that's the gills inside,

were all scrunched up and a little stubby

stem, stipe at the bottom.

And then it was this amazing blue color.

So a lot of things about it

that were really weird

and they were growing on wood.

And that's another really unusual thing

about it.

A lot of these truffle

like fungi, these enclosed fungi,

they're growing underground.

This was actually

sitting up, growing on wood.

When you see a new mushroom

or a mushroom that's new to you,

well, maybe it's been collected

and described before,

but it might be buried away

in some old literature.

Maybe it's never been seen

by a mycologist before.

So that's when a lot of

the detective work starts.

So I knew in New Caledonia there

were a few of these strange fungi.

I thought that it might be

in this genus Leratiomyces.

So I had a look at the spores

under a microscope.

And they were smooth,

and that fit with the Leratiomyces,

so sort of suggesting that.

But that's just the first step

in really putting a whole lot of different

bits of the jigsaw together.

So the next step after having a

look at the spores under a microscope

is to do DNA sequencing.

The DNA sequences really help to position

things in the Tree of Life.

To untangle the family

tree of this unusual mushroom

was to take another ten years

with many dead ends and strange relatives.

We'll come back to that story later.

It's autumn on the Tasmanian West Coast

where misty mountains

and swollen wild rivers herald

the start of the fungi season.

It's a bit mad being in the

forest at this time of year.

It is often near freezing

and torrential rain can drench us

and our equipment at any moment.

But the rewards are worth

far more than the ordeals.

This wild and remote forest

is at its most splendid after the rain.

Trees dripping in plump lichen.

Their roots wrapped in

slippers of lush moss

and mushroom treasures are everywhere.

It is a mycological mecca for fungi lovers

and not just the human kind.

This is something I've never seen before.

It's wombat poo with this beautiful

little crop of mushrooms growing on it.

One of the fungiphiles who has

followed the rain

to Tasmania this year,

is mycologist Dr Camille Truong.

She's unearthing the story of the

ectomycorrhizal fungi

that create partnerships

with trees in this forest.

Beautiful Psatyloma.

I'm studying the fungi

that associate with Nothofagus forest.

So it's not only documenting the diversity

but also understanding

what they really do for the trees.

Here is a mushroom.

A lot of mushrooms.

Yeah, lots of mushrooms.

So if we dig below these mushrooms,

we find the mycelium

that is everywhere in the soil.

And from time to time, it's

making these mushrooms.

This is a great example

of seeing the connection

between the fungus and the roots,

because you have here the mushroom

and you can see that

the mycelium is attached

to the roots at these little

which is called the mycorrhizal root tip.

Yeah, this little whitish tip.

This is actually the point

where the fungus

enter in contact with the root.

So the fungus is going

to go foraging

for this nutrient inside the soil.

That's why the mycelium

extends in the soil

many, many meters away.

And then it brings back all these

nutrients from the soil to the tree.

Okay.

And it's, it's not for free.

So it's going to exchange

the nutrients against sugar.

So if you dont bring any nutrients,

you don't get any sugar.

No, that's it.

And that's why there are many species

of fungus associating with this tree.

And so the one that gives them

more nutrients,

will receive more sugar.

Every tree can associate

with thousands of species of fungi.

Some of them do better in certain

time of the year.

Some of them are going to do better,

for example, after disturbance,

if you have a drought or even fire.

So by associating

with this diversity of mushrooms,

a single tree can cope

with different conditions.

So they are very important

for what we call forest resilience,

which means how the forest

can adapt to changes.

So this forest,

they are actually very poor in nutrients,

but thanks to these fungi,

the forest, the tree can grow.

And we think that without this fungi

there would not be any forests, actually,

because the trees that they are not able

to get their nutrients by themselves.

So if we had none of these little guys

wed have none of these big guys.

No forest without mushrooms.

No mushrooms, no forests.

Exactly.

Listening to Camille, it strikes me

that studying the fungi of these

precious old growth forests is an

opportunity to understand

both the fragility and the resilience

of the natural world.

We've known for a long time

that plants absorb and store

carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

and that without that cycle

we could not breathe.

But what we are learning now

is that they do this much faster.

Wow.

When there is mycorrhizal fungi present.

That Cortinarius is purple, isnt it?

In every handful of soil in this forest

there could be over 100 kilometers

of fungal threads

and that biomass also stores

vast amounts of carbon.

So when we cut down forests,

we not only destroy the trees,

but we also k*ll off

the fungi and short circuit

this ancient life support system.

We are only just starting

to realise that forests

and their fungi are incredibly important

in the fight against climate change.

A photographic goal of mine

is to capture a time-lapse

of one of the most iconic

Tasmanian mushrooms.

Ooh, what have we got here?

It's called the pixie's parasol,

or Mycena interrupter.

Arent they beautiful?

I just love them because the blue,

the way it fades to white

at the outer stem.

And underneath you get this

pale blue shining through.

This is where the magic happens.

Our assistant in the time-lapse

mission is an exceptional human,

Pat Harrison, a retired obstetrician.

Its all in here, Pat.

Shes donated her garage

to set up a temporary studio.

I have to get this in a little bit closer.

How long do you think

you might need it on for?

It's going to depend on the temperature,

but I guess

three or four or five days

somewhere around like that.

Thats better.

Weve got one that's already grown,

but then all the little buds

are going to come up

and we'll have a good time-lapse.

At 85 years old, Pat inspires us with her

insatiable curiosity

for nature and for fungi.

When I retired from my work in Melbourne,

I went to every adult education course

that I could and one was fungi.

We went to a forest and I just couldn't

believe my eyes when I saw

all the fungi that was there.

And of course we all fall in love

with the Mycena interrupta.

And I thought to myself,

this is where I can spend

the rest of my life

out in the fresh air,

finding these fabulous fungi.

When I first started fungi hunting,

I bought a GPS and I thought, I'm right.

But I didn't realise that GPS

didn't show up under the canopy

of the trees and I got lost.

So I spent all night

out in the forest in July.

It was raining, thank goodness,

because the next few nights

was very, very frosty.

Ever since then I have permission

to have my dog

to lead me back to the car.

And I just want to do it

for as long as I possibly can

because I enjoy it so much.

No fungi adventure in Tasmania

is complete without a pilgrimage

to the enchanted

rainforests of the Tarkine.

Here it feels like time has slowed down.

Trees can live for thousands of years.

Logs often take centuries to decompose.

Evolution has nurtured

one of the most biodiverse

and unique places on the planet,

and I have met some of my favorite

fungal characters in these forests.

There are mushrooms everywhere here.

There at my feet

growing in the trees

and they come in all colours,

shapes and sizes.

Like this one, a red Hygrocybe.

Now this is also a great location

to show you my latest obsession,

which is with the a UV light.

These are Ganodermas. As you can see,

theyre creamy white underneath,

except if you shine a UV

light on them, pinks and blues

in the rainforest, there's quite a few

fungi that do fluoresce.

Russulas fluoresce.

Entolomas fluoresce.

And of course the Ganodermas fluoresce.

There's been a great deal of interest

in biofluorescence since we discovered

that some of our cutest

Australian creatures

put on a light show at night.

Does the chemistry that turns

this invisible light

into a sparkling array of colours

help these organisms hunt?

Or is it an ancient form of camouflage?

Or could it be the opposite

a way to recognize

one of your own kind?

It's a mystery still to be unraveled.

But in the meantime, I'm loving the

discovery of shining a light

on the UV world of mushrooms.

It's been six days since we pressed

start on a Pixies parasol time-lapse.

Hopefully all has gone to plan.

The moment of truth.

Wow, 4,350 frames

and looking really promising.

Next we're going zombie hunting.

Our destination is a valley

in the shadow of a mountain

that was once part of an ancient volcano.

This spectacular peak attracts

dramatic weather,

inspiring its Bundjalung name Wollumbin,

which means cloud catcher.

Our zombie hunting guide

is Donovan Teal a fungi enthusiast

we met in our network on the internet.

Donovan was posting

very creepy photos.

Thousands of tiny insects

being k*lled and consumed

by equally tiny fungi.

A miniature battleground

on the underside of leaves.

He made many of his discoveries,

clearing weeds like these small

camphor laurel trees,

which in this part of the world

can be very destructive

as they aggressively compete

with native vegetation.

This is a good one.

So you just find them on the

underside of the leaves here, do you?

Yes, it's quite protected for them

on the underside of the leaf.

So you get a beautiful sort of change

in temperature

and look at that.

Some of them are particularly obvious.

I mean, theres a nice bright

yellow on that one.

When you do get a nice bright one

like that, they just pop.

Yeah.

It's really, really small on this camera.

But I'll show you in greater detail later

or not get a more powerful lens on it.

And, hopefully Ill get some

really beautiful photographs.

Got a great little jumping spider here.

You can see the fungus

has completely covered the soft tissue

and left some of the harder

bony parts of its face exposed.

How did you know

to look under leaves of trees?

What started you doing that?

I love spiders, so I was out

looking for all the spiders in the

so many different spiders

here right, and I

I found this beautiful spider

and I was like, wait a minute,

this things got like 12 legs.

And it was only when I posted it

to Facebook to a spider ID group

that someone was like,

yeah, that's that's a spider

that's actually been taken over

by one of these zombie fungus.

And and then I realized that I, you know,

I had to look out for things other than

what I was expecting to see.

These specimens are so small,

they're hard to see with the naked eye.

I think this one was my favorite.

It's has all, like, octopus tentacles.

Little bit larger

than the other ones, too.

Oh, wow.

Theres spikes everywhere.

Even with a magnifying glass,

it is difficult to see exactly

what is happening.

I wonder what it was.

But with high resolution photography

and intense magnification,

all is revealed.

This is the stuff of nightmares

or an example of the

magnificence of nature.

A fungus infects an insect.

It infiltrates the body,

slowly digesting it from within.

Once the mycelium has taken over the body,

it's time to reproduce.

That's when these fungi

become even more bizarre.

Surreal structures start to grow,

releasing billions of spores.

Throughout this process, the insect

is secured to the bottom of the leaf,

with hundreds of gossamer, thin fungal

threads holding the prey in place.

It reminds me of the scene in the book

Gulliver's Travels with Gulliver,

pinned to the ground

by the miniature army of Lilliput.

I love finding these little guys.

It is it is really like

like fossicking for gold, right?

Like not from this world.

Now, you might be wondering what is the

relevance of this microscopic struggle?

Donovan had the same question

and did something very clever.

He boxed up his specimens

and sent them to my mycologist,

Professor Roger Shivas.

Roger specialises in the health of crops,

the organisms that attack them

and potential biological controls.

Donovan is sending us specimens

of entomopathogenic fungi,

fungi on insects.

There's been some interest

in these fungi

as biological control

agents for insect pests.

But what Donovan's finding

essentially

native fungi on native insects

and are basically new to science.

I'm a taxonomist and that means

I identify Donovan's specimens

and it's impossible

to identify most of them.

We don't have names for them.

So the old method, traditional

method of taxonomy was to collect

something, k*ll it, dry it,

press it, store it and describe it

and what it looked like,

which doesn't really tell you what it is,

because things that look the same,

for example, everything that flies

is not a bird, it might be an insect,

it might be a mammal.

So we need to look at the DNA.

So what our group started to do now

is we've decided to base the taxonomy

totally on DNA.

It's the only reliable method.

But more than that, we're preserving

and keeping these cultures

as living specimens,

which we can make available to science.

There's a seed bank in Europe

for plant species.

What we want to do

is a fungal bank for fungal species.

So one of the interesting fungi

that Donovan found was a small Penicillium

species in this same genus from which

the antibiotic Penicillin is produced.

So were going to name this fungus

that Donovan's found Penicillium tealii

after Donovan, in recognition

of all his efforts in discovering it.

Because Donovan

is the discoverer of this fungus.

Oh, I got a good one for you.

Oh wheres that?

Look at that. We got an ant.

Oh, wow.

You can see the fruiting body

coming out of the top.

It's exciting for me

because I'm just a citizen scientist

out there having a look, taking photos

and sort of passing this stuff

onto the experts and then just

feeding off their knowledge.

It's every day something new.

You've opened up a whole new world for me.

I mean, I never realized that

this miniature world of Cordyceps existed

underneath leaves in

such profusion as well.

Clive from the Bureau with your weekly

weather update f

or Sunday the 12th of June.

Cold front in the southwest wind, rain

for the far southern, South Australia.

As a winter blast of the ice

cold air moves across Australia,

we start hearing forecasts of heavy

rain heading for the desert.

To follow this rain means

a 2,000 kilometer trek

towards the centre of Australia.

That's like driving from London to Rome.

There are not too many places

I've driven where a GPS says

that the road and the river

are in the same spot.

But that's because this riverbed

is usually dry.

The Flinders Ranges are a place

of extreme weather.

Droughts and intense summer

heatwaves are regular events

and then when it does rain

it can transform this landscape,

triggering the desert to bloom.

Oh, that's pretty.

When I was a young man,

I worked in the mines

and I still have a fascination

with the story of rocks.

And the Flinders Ranges are full of rocks.

The ancestors of these crumbling hills

were once mountains,

some 5,000 meters higher than today.

And these fossilized ripples

are a window into a time

when this baked valley was a shallow sea.

So you may be wondering why

a couple of fungi hunters

would come to such a harsh land.

Surely there can be no fungi here.

But the truth is that few

desert plants would survive

without their fungal partners.

These are Boletes.

Now these mushrooms, don't have gills.

They have little round pores

like foam rubber.

The spores are contained

within the little pores.

Wow. Look at all this mycelium.

As the land soaks up the recent showers,

the underground network of life

seizes the moment for renewal and rebirth.

What have you got there, Steve?

Ive got a beautiful little puffball.

Right there.

Both the decomposers

and the mycorrhizal fungi,

send forth their mushrooms,

reproductive bodies

housing billions of spores.

What have we got here?

That couldn't be, could it?

This is the desert shaggy mane.

It is.

Or, Podaxis pistillaris,

a classic desert mushroom,

found all over the world.

There's another one. Its another two.

And there are a couple of beauties.

The hard wide pod

like structure is thought

to protect the spores

developing inside.

Theres masses of spores inside.

It dries out in the desert heat,

becomes brittle,

and as it peels away, a powdery

mass of spores is exposed,

ready to be dispersed

by the nudge of a passing animal

or a puff of air.

tapped between the flutes of the gills.

The spores attract moisture,

water droplets form

catapulting millions of tiny spores

into the air.

We have only recently understood

how these trillions of tiny particles

created by fungi are an essential part

of the global climate story.

Along with dust and pollen and pollution,

they become scaffolding for

water droplets to form.

They are nature's cloud seeders,

helping to create the rain

so critical to life on our planet

and to us.

Today, were leaving the majesty

of the Flinders Ranges behind

and traveling 10 hours south

to spend the night

in a commercial pine forest.

This plantation is rumoured to be

the home of a fascinating,

otherworldly mushroom.

We're going ghost hunting.

We're surprised to see lots of native

fungi here, but tonight we're really only

interested in one species,

the ghost mushroom,

because it glows in the dark.

There are over a hundred

known species of bioluminescent

fungi in the world.

This is the subtropical species

we find at home,

Mycena chlorophos,

and it has been a charismatic character

in many of our time-lapses.

Bioluminescent mushrooms

produce their own light.

The main compound is Luciferin,

which literally means

the light bearer.

Why do they glow?

Well, the main theory is to attract

insects that get covered in spores

and then scatter them wherever they go.

But in our fungarium,

we've noticed that it's slugs

and snails that love to eat

Mycena chlorophos

and then spread the spores

in their slimy poo.

Tonight in Ghost Mushroom Lane

our challenge is to find and time-lapse

the local bioluminescent

fungus Omphalotus nidiformis.

There's one

and wow, there's another one.

What a beauty.

This is a gorgeous specimen,

but to time-lapse in the field is going

to be tricky.

The moon is nearly full,

which is not ideal conditions,

far too much light, and

we only have one night to do it in.

The plan is to take a shot

every 30 seconds.

So if we hang here for

around three hours,

that gives us 15 seconds of time-lapse,

hopefully just enough to give us a sense

its ghostly beauty.

Before we leave South Australia

we have one more stop

the Botanic Gardens in Adelaide.

Dr. Teresa Lebel is the senior botanist

and mycologist at the State Herbarium.

Remember that mystery blue mushroom?

Well, for the past ten years,

Teresa has been the lead detective

trying to solve

the puzzle of it's family tree.

Teresa had been researching similar

truffle-like mushrooms.

The first possible relatives were blue,

red and green pouch mushrooms.

I first got to see this particular

mushroom in the field in New Caledonia.

There was a blue and a blue green

and a red version of it,

and I wasn't certain

if they were all the same species or

if we were dealing

with three completely different things.

I then managed

to do some microscopy on them

and it seemed to me

that the red one was definitely different.

But the two blue greens,

I was still uncertain as to

how different they really were.

And then I did some very preliminary

DNA work,

and I didn't believe the results

that I got back because they said

they were completely different families,

that these two things belong to.

So back to the drawing board.

I wasn't certain that

these were the same thing or not.

So I had done trips to New Zealand

and I knew there was some fungi

there that had very similar features

to the New Caledonian ones.

When I did the microscopy, they turned out

to be completely different things

and did not appear to be even remotely

related to the New Caledonian ones.

I then went back to the herbarium

collections and started digging

through all of the undescribed material

that might possibly be one of these fungi.

And then there was one collection

from Lord Howe Island,

and it was a single fruit body,

not in great condition.

I did the microscopy and it

matched the New South Wales one.

The next step was to sequence

the DNA of all the suspects.

This time the results were conclusive.

One of Teresa's specimens

from New Caledonia, the specimen

from our forests in New South Wales,

and the specimen from Lord Howe Island,

are not only the same species, but

they are a new species.

It took ten years,

but this mushroom now has a family

and its species is

Coprinopsis pulchricaerulea

which means beautiful blue.

It even has a nickname

Frosty Blue.

What the DNA doesn't tell us

is how this fungus interacts

with other organisms.

How important is it?

And why has it only been found

in three places on the planet?

Maybe there are answers on

Lord Howe Island.

We cant resist.

We head east to see if we can find

frosty blue on this

remnant of an ocean volcano.

Lord Howe Island is spectacular.

It was World Heritage listed back in 1982

to honour its incredible biodiversity

and to protect rare species of plants

and animals

that only exist on this island.

Most of Lord Howe is a nature reserve

surrounded by a marine park.

It's probably Australia's last

unspoiled island paradise.

And it's one of the safest spots

we've been to.

The only place in Australia without

snakes, poisonous spiders,

dangerous sharks or crocodiles.

But hunting down a rare mushroom

in a forest we don't know,

well, we're prepared to fail.

I don't believe it.

It's the blues.

We came here looking for them,

but I never really expected to find them.

Theyre beauties arent they?

You can see

two beautiful mushrooms here.

There's more back here.

Oh, there's three of them?

Blue, green.

And another one over here.

This one has been eaten by something.

Perhaps a bird, but hard to tell. It could

have been a slug or a snail, in fact.

It's very unusual

to find six of these blues together

and such beautiful specimens as well.

When we share our frosty blue discovery

with some of the locals,

they tell us we have to speak to

Lord Howe's resident naturalist.

Ian Hutton is a botanist

who has been exploring and documenting

the Island's natural history

since he was a young man.

Well, I was working for the weather bureau

and I took a science degree in biology,

and I thought before I leave the weather

bureau, I thought maybe I should go

to one of their really nice,

exotic postings just for two years.

And Lord Howe Island came up

and I thought, Well, that's it.

I'll do two years at Lord Howe Island,

then I'll go and work in some

botanic gardens around Australia.

So, I came in 1980 and well

I'm still here after 42 years.

After about a year, I got really

interested in the nature of the island.

And of course while I'm out in the forest

Im looking at everything there

and there would be these fungi.

And the two that stand out here

that are quite bright

and you can't miss

them are the pink one we have,

and also this blue one.

Hang on.

Did Ian just say two mushrooms?

A pink one and the blue.

The two that stand out here

that are quite bright

and you can't miss them,

are the pink one we have,

and also this blue one.

He did say there was a pink mushroom

and he offers to show it to us.

Now, here's this pink one

I saw the other day

just under this bit of palm frond here.

Theyre some really nice specimens.

It's really, really bright, isnt it?

Theyre beautiful.

Other than the striking neon pink colour,

this mushroom looks identical

to the blue one.

Great specimens.

Yeah. Theyre beautiful arent they?

The pink one is very common

in this lowland forest,

and I tend to think

it likes the sandy soil.

And you tend to find the pink one

growing on dead palm fronds or

dead banyan and other timber

that's been on the ground for a while.

And yeah, after some rain,

it just pops up everywhere.

Beautiful little things.

And it has only ever been

recorded on Lord Howe Island.

We seem to have stumbled upon

a mushroom that is even more rare,

and we think a very close relative

to Frosty Blue.

With the permission of the Lord

Howe Island Board,

we photograph and collect specimens

to send to Dr. Teresa Lebel in Adelaide

for her to compare the DNA.

Hide self-view.

Okay, I've gotten some results back

and a nice little

twist to the story yet again.

And what is that?

The DNA is actually saying

it's exactly the same species.

So the colour might be just incidental.

Yeah, the pink colour

or the blue colour is a very,

very small change in the DNA sequence

for it to change colour.

So the Lord Howe Island pink mushroom

is also a Coprinopsis pulchricaerulea,

variety pink.

Why the colour change?

Well, it could be the soil type

or it could be to attract

different animals to spread the spores.

But at this stage, we're just guessing.

We have such a low,

or little understanding

of what so many of these fungi are doing

in the environment between the plants,

the insects, the fungi.

So much more to understand

and so many more things

to investigate

and so few mycologists to do it.

So we really, really need the help,

particularly of the citizen scientists

and the people in their local patch

going out and observing and

and finding some of these unique things.

People often ask us why we are so obsessed

with documenting the world of fungi.

Oh wow.

That came up quickly.

What's not to love?

The thrill

that comes with a beautiful find.

Or, observing the unexpected.

Losing ourselves for hours

in the minutiae of life,

its good for the soul.

But I think our biggest motivator

is that it gives us hope.

We've realised these exquisite,

delicate mushrooms are a window

into a neglected and essential piece

in the vast jigsaw of life.

We are in awe of these organisms

that make plants resilient,

sequester carbon,

provide food for animals,

break down rocks, create soil,

even make rain.

Wow. What an amazing display of Hypholoma.

I've got to get a photograph of them.

In discovering where they fit

in the jigsaw, we learn that three huge

kingdoms of life plants, animals and fungi

are interconnected.

And often it's the fungi

that holds it all together.

We humans are just one organism

in this epic story,

and yet we have the means and the power

to destroy it all.

And at the moment we're doing

a pretty good job of that.

The places we take you as

we follow the rain

are just tiny remnants of wilderness.

Every year more and more of these

living museums are bulldozed

and torn apart.

Yet we cannot survive on this planet

without them.

Just imagine if we can conserve

the biodiversity of fungi,

we may be able to conserve all of this,

the biodiversity

that is critical to life as we know it

and to our own survival.