“It was a magnificent specimen,” says Lee, who identified the species. “Its cap was 27cm wide – by far the largest non-bracket type macrofungus we’ve ever seen in Singapore. Most species of macrofungi in Singapore have caps that are only 1cm to 5cm wide and barely make it past 10cm in height.” It was first collected in the 163-hectare (402-acre) Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, one of the first forest reserves to be created in Singapore, in 1939, and was described as a new species in 1962 by botanist EJH Corner, a former assistant director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. There were no sightings of the fungus in Singapore until August 2020, when a member of the public posted a photo of a curious-looking toadstool to a Facebook group about the flora of Malaysia and Singapore. Lost and found: how a Facebook post led to the ‘chocolate chip’ toadstool
