The pictured mushroom is quite large and its uppermost surface unusual…and lovely, to my eyes.
It is also, very evidently, “a pushy bastard”.
Have a close look at what has happened to the stringybark leaf atop the mushroom.
Had we arrived 24 or so hours earlier, I suspect that the soggy, but still substantial and strong leaf would have resembled a decorative ribbon, artfully draped atop the mushroom.
24 hours can be a long time in the ephemeral life of a fungal fruiting body.
One day younger, the pictured mushroom was probably a deal smaller and its cap rather closer to ground-level.
Probably, only a few days prior, this mushroom would not yet have existed.
However, as this fruiting body gained additional volume and height, it ruptured the leaf.
You are looking at the irrefutable evidence thereof…and – if you are looking carefully – you can also see another fungus-fancying gnat.
You can discover a great deal more about fungi via their very detailed, particularly well-linked Wikipedia entry.
A taste thereof:
Fungi, like animals, are heterotrophs; they acquire their food by absorbing dissolved molecules, typically by secreting digestive enzymes into their environment. Fungi do not photosynthesize. Growth is their means of mobility, except for spores (a few of which are flagellated), which may travel through the air or water. Fungi are the principal decomposers in ecological systems. These and other differences place fungi in a single group of related organisms, named the Eumycota (true fungi or Eumycetes), that share a common ancestor (i.e. they form a monophyletic group), an interpretation that is also strongly supported by molecular phylogenetics. This fungal group is distinct from the structurally similar myxomycetes (slime molds) and oomycetes (water molds). The discipline of biology devoted to the study of fungi is known as mycology(from the Greek μύκης mykes, mushroom