Near my house is a grove of oak trees which is simply glorious at this time of year. I love gathering fallen twigs of crimson and greeny gold to decorate my kitchen and scuffing through drifts of toasty brown leaves as I make my way to the lake. Cockatoos and ducks meet and mingle in patches of sunlight in this shaded space. The sky pokes through a mesh of almost bare branches and fairy spotted toadstools sprout magically from the damp earth.
You have to be quick to catch them at their most beautiful…as I discovered when I went back a day later to photograph a stunning large specimen (as flawless as Big Ears the Brownie’s house in the Noddy books) only to find it had flattened and paled from deep magenta to dark orange overnight. These toadstools like the oak leaves around them remind us that life is fragile and ephemeral.
There are a myriad of these mushrooms at every stage of the life cycle. Sturdy pixie stools in pillar box red sprinkled with snowy freckles, brand new babies poking their cherry bright heads cheekily out of a carpet of Autumn leaves, sad flat cracked roofs aging into faded apricot and the decaying tumble of black fungus slowly disintegrating into the soil.
The sight of these mushrooms catches at a childish part of my heart. That splendid startling red speckled in white, the smooth shiny caps, the feathered gills, the way they huddle together or stand proudly apart, the perfect size and shape of them for mini foot stools, tiny tea parties, and dinky little cottages…their enchanting sudden presence under the oak trees. …
Where have they come from?
Research tells me that they are Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric or fly amanita, one of many in the genus Amanita. My scientific husband explains that their prolific appearance is probably due to a recent spot of heavy rain.
I read about their properties. I check out images of them on the internet. None of this changes the feeling of child like glee that overwhelms me at the sight of them. They might be Amanita muscaria but a part of me knows that red and white polka dots are what fairies love best …
© Anita Patel, 2016
Published by anitapatel
Anita Patel is a writer (and retired teacher) who has lived in Canberra since 1982. She is as Australian as a banana paddle pop and a pair of sandy thongs and she is also a part of the Asian diaspora. Her collections of poetry are: 'Petals Fall' published by Recent Work Press in 2022 (https://recentworkpress.com/product/petals-fall) and 'A Common Garment' published by Recent Work Press in 2019 (https://recentworkpress.com/product/a-common-garment/).
In 2019, she collaborated with acclaimed artist, Annie Franklin, to produce 'Heart Stitched' (a story - in paintings and poetry - of the quirky, unexpected and dazzling layers in the natural world). They received significant support from Nancy Sever (Nancy Sever Gallery). In 2022, their second book 'Grief and Beauty' (which arose from the 2019-20 bushfires) was published - once again with support from Nancy Sever.
She has had work published in the Canberra Times, in Conversations (Pandanus Press, ANU), in Block 9, Burley Journal, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, Demos Journal, Mascara Literary Review, Not Very Quiet Journal, Cordite Poetry Review, Backstory Journal, Other Terrain Journal, Pink Cover Zine, FemAsia Magazine, Plumwood Mountain Journal, Eucalypt: a tanka journal and Print Issue 42 of The Blue Nib Journal. Her work is also included in the following anthologies: The Australian Poetry Anthology (Vol. 8), 'This Gift This Poem' (Puncher and Wattman),'What We Carry' (Recent Work Press) and 'Book of Birds' (Recent Work Press). Her children’s poems are included in an anthology 'Pardon My Garden' (Harper Collins). Her poem “Women’s Talk” won the ACT Writers Centre Poetry Prize in 2004 and her poetry was selected for and published in Australian Book Review’s States of Poetry ACT, 2018.
She has performed her work at the Canberra Multicultural Festival, Poetry on the Move Festival, Noted Festival, Floriade Fringe Festival, In Other Words Festival (at Lost in Books, Fairfield), the Queensland Poetry Festival, the National Folk Festival, at Smith’s Alternative, at Word in Hand (Glebe) and La Mama Poetica.
Her reviews, “Found in Translation”, on the performances of four Japanese women poets and their translators at Poetry on the Move Festival, 2017 and “No More Silent Waiting”, on the anthology Autonomy edited by Kathy D’Arcy (2018) have been published by Not Very Quiet Journal. She was the guest editor for Issue 2 of Not Very Quiet Journal. View all posts by anitapatel
teapotsandincense 
I tried to grow them once. Collected the spores and set them in a little mossy/earthy mixture. Nothing. Only many years later I discovered that the amanita fungus is a symbiote. The pretty mushroom is its fruiting body, but the main fungus lives deep under the ground with its host: the root system of the oak tree (it also grows with pine, birch, cedar and a few other non-natives). They also have psychotropic properties if ingested, but don’t because you can also make yourself very sick. You might possibly see fairies though…
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Thanks for that information…I did read that they grow under deciduous trees. I wasn’t planning to ingest them – I just enjoy their prettiness and the fairy magic that is evoked by their presence. I am impressed that you tried to grow them. 🙂
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