New Zealand has a particularly rich fungal flora, with an estimated 20,000 species most of which remain undescribed. Identification of toadstools and mushrooms is notoriously difficult, but I've had a go, and after consulting various field guides have come to the conclusion that these are possibly Honey Mushrooms.
If I'm right the Maori name is harore and they were once used as a food. Although William Colenso (1811-1899)mentioned they were eaten only when other foods were scarce. Elsdon Best (1856-1931), the ethnographer, noted that harore were cooked by the hupuku method (ie put into a basket and placed bodily in the steam oven).
There are two species in the genus Armillariaof honey mushroom, both widespread throughout New Zealand, living on dead wood of both native and introduced trees. These specimens were growing on a large old tree stump, in Glenfalloch Gardens. The stump was so covered in lichens and moss that it was impossible to tell what it had been in life. In the middle picture the group is at a younger stage than the other two pictures.
Source: Eric McKenzie Introduction to the Fungi of New Zealand, Hong Kong, Fungal Diversity Press, 2004
