(Image: Steve Axford / http://steveaxford.smugmug.com/)
PHOTOGRAPHER found this Schizophyllum fungus growing in his backyard. And what鈥檚 so special about his backyard? It鈥檚 pretty big for a start. Axford owns more than 3 hectares of lowland subtropical rainforest close to Byron Bay in New South Wales, Australia. There鈥檚 even a platypus living in the creek running through it.
鈥淚 am slowly replanting my land with original vegetation and I have planted over 2000 trees, so far,鈥� he says.
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The area is close to the Tweed volcano, so the soil is of a type rich in iron oxide, known as krasnozem soil. It also gets about 1800 millimetres of rainfall a year, making it great for trees 鈥� and fungi.
鈥淔ungi are stunningly beautiful, especially when they grow in perfect conditions, like in the rainforest,鈥� Axford says.
I assumed fungi would be easy to photograph, but Axford says they tend to grow in the most inaccessible places. 鈥淭here are also lots of small critters around, to make life miserable, like mosquitos, leeches and ticks,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e have paralysis ticks here, which can in extreme cases kill. But you get used to them after a while.鈥�
I鈥檒l take his word for that.
(Image: Steve Axford / http://steveaxford.smugmug.com/)
This is another beautiful fungus, Panus lecomtei, with a mosquito resting on it. Thankfully, says Axford, it鈥檚 not a species that carries nasty diseases such as yellow fever and dengue fever. So he only has bites and not debilitating illness to deal with then. Ripper.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淏ottom of the garden鈥�
