Beachgoer stunned by growth sprouting from driftwood: 'Seen it in the supermarket'
The woman was wandering down her local beach this week when she stumbled upon the unusual sight nestled in the sand.
An Aussie wandering down her local beach this week was stunned to spot an odd fan-shaped growth sprouting from a piece of driftwood. The woman admitted online she had “never seen” such a sight on the subtropical sand dunes in northern NSW, prompting her to snap some photos.
Images show what appears to be a cluster of white fungi emerging from the side of the old, weathered trunk with a leading scientist from the Botanic Gardens of Sydney telling Yahoo exactly what it is.
“The fungi is growing on a tree that washed out of the Richmond River during one of the last floods, easily a year ago, possibly even the 2022 flood,” she said, referencing the devastating and deadly series of weather events that rocked southeast Queensland and NSW’s northeast coast.
The woman told members of the Facebook group dedicated to identifying fungus found in Australia that she “thought they looked familiar”, almost resembling something she had seen “in the supermarket”.
And she was right.
“Just oysters going back to where they belong,” someone joked, while an expert identified the fungi as “pleurotus djamor var djamor” — otherwise known as pink oyster mushrooms, which can also be cream or white.
Fungus can live on and in dead trees for 'a number of years'
The growth on the driftwood is indeed an oyster mushroom, Botanic Gardens of Sydney’s chief scientist, Professor Brett Summerell, confirmed to Yahoo News Australia on Thursday.
There are a number of native species that live on dead wood, he said.
“They can survive for a long time on fallen trees, especially the mycelium (fungal threads) that will be growing inside the wood, which will be protected from being submerged in the water,” Mr Summerell explained.
The professor said that the fungus will grow on and in the tree for “a number of years until the wood is broken down and fully decayed by the fungus”.
However, that doesn’t mean beachgoers should be picking them for dinner.
“Some oyster mushrooms are safe to eat and some are poisonous so it is best not to try and eat them,” Mr Summerell said.
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