'Moss' identification help

Hi there, my husband and daughter saw several of these whilst tramping near Taupo this weekend. I haven't had any luck working out what they are, but they look to be a moss of some kind? Any ideas?

What's the tree? Moss, or lichen?

He thinks it was on a beech tree, and when I zoom into the picture it looks 'fluffy' like a moss rather than a lichen.

It looks quite amazing up close, but when I uploaded the pictures they became smaller...not sure how to avoid that.

Possibly a fungus?

Can you email it to me?

I think you're right! I did a search and came up with Coral Tooth Fungus, which looks quite similar.

Coral Tooth Fungus

It says they grow on dead trunks, though apparently there were plenty on the live trees they saw.

Oh. Would never have seen that in the first picture.... but enlarged, you're right, it's beautiful!

Ruth wrote: Can you email it to me?

I just sent you the pictures.

Ruth wrote: Oh. Would never have seen that in the first picture.

No, the pictures they took were very big when he emailed them to me, but small when I uploaded them...I've forwarded the big ones on to you, they are quite pretty!

www.hiddenforest.co.nz/fungi/family/hericiaceae/heric01.htm

Tonic, this isn't going to be a lot help but when we lived in Taupo I saw this several times, usually on dead trees but not always. Unfortunately this far down the track I can't tell you which live trees I saw it on. No Google back then! It's very pretty.

Looking at your photo (as good as mine) I wouldn't have recognised it as something I'd seen other than the colour but your link is I suspect correct and going back to your photo, I can now see it.

Taupo has some very interesting mosses and lichens.

Cheers,
Ronnie

It certainly looks pretty and interesting! I wouldn't have guessed fungus as they are usually a bit more fleshy looking, so I learned something new. My girl also took a lovely picture of a 'fairy tale toadstool', all red with pure white spots, which she thought was amazing.

The fairy tale mushroom is Amanita muscaria, or Fly Agaric. It is said to be deadly poisonous...guess the bright colours are its warning sign?