Ghost mushroom season off to slow start under dry conditions in SA's south east
Drought conditions have slowed mushroom growth in South Australia's south-east, including the glowing fungi that has become a popular tourist attraction.
Walk the Limestone Coast owner Natasha Dawson has been running ghost mushroom tours in the lower Limestone Coast for the past five years.
She said that while the bioluminescent species Omphalotus nidiformis was found across Australia, the Limestone Coast, particularly its forested areas, was the hotspot for them.
ForestrySA set up the Ghost Mushroom Lane tourist attraction in 2017, but a poor season in 2023 led to visits to Glencoe confined to tours run by Ms Dawson.
So far this year, even she has yet to find enough of the mushrooms to take groups through.
"I've found small patches [but] not enough that I would normally like to run a tour," Ms Dawson said.
"The key thing is they're just not glowing."
Local photographer Steve Chapple said he had also noticed a slow start to the mushroom season.
"There's been a fairly significant lack of rain for everybody," he said.
Ms Dawson said the ghost fungi species was sensitive to changes to the microclimate.
"Of course they need rain, but we also think that they might have needed those really cold nights that we start getting in May to help as well," she said.
Flinders University mycologist Michael Taylor said a lack of moisture in the soil meant the fungi had a harder time forming mushrooms.
"A really good winter season is normally preceded by a good wet summer," Dr Taylor said.
"So the longer it is dry for, the less likely it is that we're going to see a whole lot of mushrooms pop out."
Dr Taylor said while no surveying had been undertaken, his observations were that it had "not been a great year for mushrooms so far".
"We might see what we call a flush [of mushrooms] towards the end of winter, or into spring, if conditions stay a little bit wet and a little bit more moderate in temperature," he said.
"Or we might just have a crumby season all round. Hopefully, we get some better rains next year."
He said the lack of glowing could be an indicator that the fungi were not well-fed or were stressed.
Ms Dawson said that with recent rain and cooler temperatures, she was hopeful the mushrooms would appear soon.
Mr Chapple said he had recently started taking groups out on photography tours as mushrooms have begun to appear, including ghost mushrooms.
"It's always cyclical," he said.
"But I was panicking about some of the rarer ones that people come from interstate to see. It was a bit difficult to find them this year."
In the long term, Dr Taylor said climate change could also change the distribution of different species.
"There's probably going to be a mixture of introduced fungi, temperature, rainfall, and a few things that may well change what fungi we see and where we see them over the next 10 to 20 years," he said.
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