The idea for this artwork came after a bush walk in the Mt Coot-tha area. Whilst my fungi identification skills are still novice level, I’m almost certain I spotted Boletellus emodensis here. Right next to it was a magpie happily warbling and some cute little yellow button flowers.
This was such a happy series of sightings that I had to turn it into a painting! I also used some artistic license and added wattle and paper daisies.
The Shaggy Cap is such a beautiful species – I love the colour and interesting cap texture. It belongs to the Boletaceae family. This is a family of fungi that have pores instead of gills on the underside on the mushroom cap.
A note on the colour of the stipe – I always try to use a range of reference images for my paintings, especially as I’m still a fungi novice and also to avoid copying anyone’s photography work. I’ve noticed some photos show a quite pale stipe, and others quite an intense pinky/red! I mention on the back of the calendar that these paintings are an artist’s impression only, so it’s not my intention that they be used as an identification tool. I just want to reiterate that here, seeing as I noticed such variation in the reference photos!
Resources to read more about the species:
- https://www.jcu.edu.au/discover-nature-at-jcu/fungi/fungi-by-scientific-name/boletellus-emodensis
- https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/fungi/60096335
- https://qldfungi.org.au/wp-content/uploads/FoQs/B-Boletellus/Boletellus-emodensis.pdf
- ‘A Field Guide to Tasmanian Fungi’ Genevieve Gates, David Ratowsky, p.159
INGRID BARTKOWIAK 