Updated March 11, 2017 18:02:00

Planet Earth II, possibly the most lavish nature documentary ever made, has catapulted the images taken by fungi photographer Steve Axford from the forest floor to the world.

Axford started photographing rainforests around Lismore, on the NSW North Coast, about 10 years ago, and in retirement the hobby became an obsession.

Photo: Stephen Axford photographing fungi at Terania Creek in Nightcap National Park, NSW. (ABC Open: Catherine Marciniak)

The next step for Axford was to find a way to create time lapses of his fungi beauties showing the life cycles of the mushrooms.

"I had a spare shower which I thought the fungus would grow quite well in so I could bring logs in and put them in the shower and the fungus could grow and I could take time lapse," Axford said.

"Well I did that and it worked brilliantly and things have just grown from there."

Photo: Mycena viscidocruenta was found in a NSW endangered subtropical lowland rainforest. (Supplied: Stephen Axford)

Time lapse footage of Axford's fungi photography have gone viral online, and people around the world started to notice that he was discovering plants never seen before.

One of them was a fungus which is now called a blue truffle.

"It's a completely new thing — never seen before — and he's found that on the forest floor," Dr Tom May from the Herbarium of Victoria said.

Photo: Leratiomyces was captured in Nightcap National Park. (Supplied: Stephen Axford)

The fungi photographer has also been using his homegrown talents overseas, where he is helping scientists document the rare species of China's rainforests.

But by far the biggest hobby highlight has been contributing to Planet Earth II, the David Attenborough-narrated BBC documentary.

"It's a real buzz. I never would have imagined my photography would have ended up on a series that is so high profile and to have David Attenborough with the voiceover on my fungi time lapse is something pretty special," he said.

"I just love the beauty of them, I never get sick of that.

"At the same time I want to photograph them so they're useful to science as well."

Photo: Marasmius growing on a fallen leaf. (Supplied: Stephen Axford)

The full story will be broadcast on Australia Wide on ABC News 24 on Saturday, March 18 at 11:30am AEST and 9:30am WAST. ABC TV on Sunday, March 19 at 10:30AM local time.

Topics: photography, forests, environment, rain-forests-and-forest, documentary, lismore-2480

First posted March 11, 2017 17:55:42