Fungi - the Tree Crop hiding beneath your feet

Date & Location

Sunday 13th April 10.30am - 2pm with postponement date of Sunday 27th April - Meet at Harrier’s Athletics Group, 164 Alexandra Rd, Newtown, Wellington. 

About this event

Want to know more about the fascinating world of fungi? They play an important role in both the growth and decay of trees, so are vital for tree croppers to get to know better. They also have many tasty varieties from porcini to puffballs, truffles to sticky buns, all of which can be found in our region.

Maybe you know they are important, but don't know how to find the good ones, or encourage them to grow at your place?

If you want to be confident picking a field mushroom, or are too scared to taste ones you know are harmless, you'll be enriched with knowledge and confidence by our guide, Nick Cattell.

Perhaps you want to know more about where and when is the best time to hunt your quarry, and whether there are rules about what you can take and how to take it without harm. 

A couple of year’s ago, Nick lead our group on a successful fungi foraging exercise at Harcourt Park in Upper Hutt and had us scrambling through the undergrowth. This year we had a warm wet spell early in January which resulted in a flush of fungi appearing. It is not clear how this might impact on the usual April/May season. For this reason, and also being contingent on the weather, a postponement date has been allowed for.

Nick is a moderator, identifier and expert at Mushroom Hunting New Zealand on Facebook, and has enjoyed finding, identifying, eating and painting fungi in Aotearoa and abroad for over forty years.

Introduced to foraging and the natural world at an early age, Nick grew up exploring the countryside and ancient woodlands of Berkshire and Dorset in England looking for penny-buns and beefsteaks, cobnuts, damsons and crab-apples. Trained as an artist, he considered becoming a scientific illustrator before pursuing first painting, and then concept art and game development.

Since coming to NZ in 2001 he has maintained a serious amateur interest in Mycology and Natural History throughout a career as a concept artist, illustrator and matte painter in the entertainment industry.

Nick lives with his family in Wellington, creates digital environments for feature films and TV at WētāFX, and makes and exhibits plein air landscape and botanical art.

What to bring:

Bring your camera to get lots of great fungi photos as Nick shows us likely spots to find good specimens, and learn what you need to observe to get a good ID from. Bring your lunch and a drink and a portable stool if necessary. We will be doing a bit of walking. Remember to dress appropriately for the weather.

Programme:

10.30am Arrive and register

10:45 am Welcome and an introductory talk by Nick prior to heading out

12.30pm BYO lunch

1.15pm Continuation of walk and discussion. 

Note:

Parking is available around the clubrooms as well as on the road.

There are public toilets further down along Alexandra Rd, as well as in Taurimu St in Hataitai if required, particularly if you have come from further afield. 

Our members include vulnerable people, please help protect their wellbeing. If you are unwell, please stay home and cancel your ticket. Ticket price (if applicable) will be refunded if you are unwell.