A few weeks back, while taking a stroll in the Wellington Botanical Gardens with friends I was delighted to find some beautiful examples of one of New Zealand’s most charming and fascinating fungus: Ileodictyon cibarium, commonly known as basket fungus or basket mushrooms.

These fungus start out as little grey-white balls and bloom out into basket shapes, which then break off their bases and roll around in the wind, or downhill (as in the example above) spreading their spores as they go.

Ileodictyon cibarium are edible and are eaten before they open into baskets.

There are numerous names for them in te reo Maori.

There are poetic descriptions such as kōkirikiri whetū (scattered stars), kōpurawhetū (star seeds) and whareatua (houses of the gods).

Other names, like popo whaitiri (decay/rot of the thunder god) allude to the fact they come up after rainstorms.

And then again, you could call them tūtae kēhua (ghost turds).

Basket mushrooms are also found in Australia, Chile & Argentina.  They have also spread to a England and East Africa via the soil in potted plants from NZ or Australia.