Fungi became an interest for me in 1962, when I started post-graduate studies in organic chemistry at Melbourne University. Although my research project was not related specifically to fungi, my supervisor had other students studying plant pigments from various sources, and I developed a side interest in the chemistry of plant pigments and other compounds, including naturally-occurring substances originating from fungi, such as the penicillins. And so I started looking with some interest in the little toadstools that I could see in the bush.
They turned out to be quite difficult to identify, and they still are! In those days a newly-published book, "Victorian Toadstools and Mushrooms" (FNCV, 1957) by J.H. Willis, of the Melbourne Herbarium, was all that I had to go on, and that was quite difficult to use, (being now superseded). Having no friends with similar interests, I more or less gave up, but retained a curiosity in these fascinating organisms as well as a general interest in botany and other aspects of the natural world. However, fungi took a back seat to the weighty matters of family and career.
I retired in 1988, and some years later at last acquired a reasonable SLR camera. About the same time I heard a broadcast on ABC Radio National about an organization based on the new-fangled internet. Called Fungimap, it is centred at the National Herbarium of Victoria, administered by Dr Tom May, Senior Mycologist at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. Fungimap aims to engage the interest of amateur enthusiastic like myself to spot any of a series of target species of fungi, with the aim of building a data-base of distribution in this country. Many fungi growing in Australia are found nowhere else in the world.
About 2003 I started photographing fungi and making contact with other people, particularly through the Fungi Foray group of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria (FNCV), and I now count my "field nat's" fungi-hunting companions as among my best friends. They've helped me with my photography and fungi identifications. Several relatively recently published fungi books have been a boon, and and so I've collected hundreds of identified fungi images for display on this web site, from forays since 2003.
There are probably hundreds of thousands of different species of fungi, most of them microscopic, such as the Penicilliums that cause grey-green spots to appear on rotting fruit, and the yeasts that are used in food production. My interest is in the larger ones easily visible to the eye, such as the gilled agarics, polypore fungi with pores, bracket fungi, cup fungi, coral fungi, etc.
These types of larger fungi are all examples of the "fruiting bodies" of fungi, the purpose of which is to aid the distribution of microscopic spores to grow more fungi. The main body of the fungus consists of a mass of thread-like structures called "hyphae", making up a total mass called a mycelium which is usually out of sight in the ground or growing within the tissues, rotting wood, or even inside the living wood in the case of parasitic fungi. It is the fruiting bodies or sporophores that tend to attract the interest of mycologists, amateur or professional.
Fungi are thought to have evolved as early as 600 million years ago, and play a pivotal role in ecology, especially of the plant kingdom, with which they form mainly beneficial partnerships. They are unique in having cell walls made of a nitrogenous polysaccharide material called chitin, the same substance as the exoskeletons of insects, rather than cellulose, as in plants.
Unlike plants, fungi lack chlorophyll for photosynthesis, but play various roles in the web of life. Some form a codependent, symbiotic relationship with living plants by wrapping their hyphae around the roots of plants, entering inside the tissues. These are called "mycorrhizal" structures, wherein the plant receives soluble nutrients from the fungus, and the fungus receives sugars and other carbon-based products from plant photosynthesis. One particularly close relationship occurs between algae, which have chlorophyll, and a fungus, this pairing occurring in lichens.
Other fungi perform a quite different role, growing inside dead wood, breaking down the dark lignin and the white cellulose. All decay of vegetable matter arises mainly from these "saprotrophic" fungi, together with a few bacteria. If this didn't happen, we would be surrounded by dead vegetable matter! Some fungi do attack living plants, thus functioning as a parasite, ultimately destroying the plant. Agricultural products are all subject to various fungi parasites, such as rusts and smuts of grains, and heart-rots in trees. There are also fungi which attack living insects and animals, including human disorders such as tinea, ringworm, certain lung diseases, and so on.
It appears that any given soil sample contains many different fungi, and we are all surrounded by a kind of soup of many different fungal spores, all waiting for the required conditions to germinate.
The commonest fungi produce fruiting bodies that have the characteristics of the common edible mushroom, namely a cap (pileus), a stem (stipe), and perhaps a little bulb or cup at the base. Most commonly, underneath the cap are gills (lamellae). Gilled fungi are called agarics. The gills are lined with microscopic club-shaped cells called basidia; at the end of the cap grow several or more usually 4 microscopic spores, which mature then break off and become dispersed by air currents. There is a torrent of spores falling from the gills. If the cap is laid flat on some paper in an undisturbed place, this spore powder can be captured in the form of a spore print. The colour of this spore print is an important characteristic in fungi identification. Fungi with basidia are called the basidiomycetes.
Many agarics grow with a sort of veil covering the cap and gills, fragments of which remain, as they mature, in the form of scraps of tissue on the cap, and, most importantly, a ring on the stem.
The colour and texture of the cap, gills, stem and base are all taken into account in fungi identification. The casual observer can be quite successful in matching the look of a fungus by reference to several books on the subject, but beyond a certain point, microscopic investigation is necessary.
Some capped fungi have pores underneath, which are apertures from which the spores are released; these fungi are referred to as the boletes. Others form little teeth underneath the cap, from which the spores emerge. Many gilled and pored fungi grow with the stem very much on the side of the cap, giving a sort of kidney shape to the cap; sometimes the stem is almost non-existent.
Then there are the shelf or bracket fungi, which grow out of the sides of dead logs or living trees, with no stem at all. These usually have a finely pored spore-bearing (sporophorous) surface underneath; the cap or top of the shelf often has zoned patterns on it. Certain bracket fungi have a kind of ridged, maze-like surface underneath rather than pores.
Then there are the coral fungi, which look like anything from cauliflower-like to simple slender fingers, often brightly coloured, on the soil or on dead wood. As well, many fungi grow like little cups, with the spore-bearing surface on the inside of the cup. Instead of the club-like basidia bearing spores, they bear their spores inside little sausage-shaped structures called asci, often bearing 8 spores, which are released when the asci break open with ageing. Such fungi are called ascomycetes, and there are many shapes adopted by these fungi, including the edible morels.
It is the endless variety of forms, colours and textures in which fungi are found, that enthuse the fungi forayers, and although some fungi are edible, I and my friends do not seek them out for that purpose, but rather for the sheer pleasure of locating them, describing them photographing them, and trying to identify them. It is a potent mixture of the fresh air, the thrill of the hunt, the aesthetic appeal and perhaps the scientific activity that gives so much pleasure for myself and fellow fungiphiles, who are active all over Australia.
The first thing is to make a proper description of the characteristics of the specimen; this should preferably be done in writing in a field notebook, and can often be done without disturbing the specimen. With experience, excellent mental notes can be done, too. It should be noted that it is a breach of conservation regulations to pick fungi unless one is on private property. For Field Nat's forays there is usually someone with permission to take samples from National Parks, etc. In group forays there is always a group clustered around the latest find, reference books open and an animated discussion happening.
Identification is probably most easily done by comparison with photos and descriptions in text-books. At present, there is no reliable, up-to-date systematic key to the identification of Australian fungi.
Australian fungi present a problem that there are always changes happening on nomenclature as more taxonomic studies are done, including DNA work. Consequently names can be changed, and books gradually become out of date. As part of this process, it has been found that many Australian species were given names in earlier years because they resembled known northern hemisphere species, but as herbarium data are reviewed, changes are needed.
However, most names are reasonably stable, and this uncertainty need not detract from the pleasure of fungi hunting.
For identifications that I have made in my photos, I am indebted to many of my expert companions on forays, who have often identified material in situ, and from which I have made notes.
In some cases common names are available, especially for those that have been introduced into Australia from the northern hemisphere. Some Australian native species were initially given European names owing to understandable confusion, and these do persist. Some common names for Australian species were proposed by Ed and Pat Grey in their book "Fungi Down Under", and I have used these where appropriate, as well as others gleaned from the internet.
Reliable identification of fungi in the field and from pictures can be difficult, but I have done my best; I am open to suggestions. In many cases the accuracy is obvious by inspection; in others I have relied upon on-the-spot identification by experts with me in the field during forays. But there are some cases where verification would have needed microscopic confirmation, but even then there can be uncertainty. Moreover, some species names will be incorrect owing to recent changes in taxonomy. I am happy to know of any needed name changes.
Many identifications have been made by reference to the virtually indispensable book by Bruce Fuhrer (2005), "A Field Guide to Australian Fungi", Bloomings Books (360 pp.). This has a useful balance of excellent images and moderately descriptive text.
A useful book is the slim volume McCann, I.R. (2003), "Australian Fungi Illustrated", MacDown Productions, (128 pp.), with a lot of good photos but minimal descriptions.
Although there is a slight emphasis on Western Australia, there is a book which is a work of art as well as a good fungi reference. This is Bougher, Neale and Syme, Katrina (1998), "Fungi of Southern Australia", University of Western Australia Press, (391 pp.). This contains useful scientific discussion plus beautiful water-colour paintings of fungi by Katrina Syme.
An occasionally useful reference book is Young, A.M and Smith, Kay (2005), "A Field Guide to the Fungi of Australia", UNSW Press, (240 pp.). This has excellent descriptions but fewer photos than Fuhrer, although there good paintings and line drawings.
Much earlier in this discussion I have mentioned Fungimap, based in Melbourne, and their web site displays details of the 100 or so target species, hence is an useful aid to identification. A useful CDROM of images can be purchased from Fungimap, and members receive some useful news-letters during the year.
In conjunction with Fungimap, the Royal Botanic Gardens (Melbourne), and the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, an excellent book has been published which presents comprehensive descriptions and images specifically of the target species. This is Grey, Pat. and Grey, Ed. (2005) "Fungi Down Under: the Fungimap Guide to Australian Fungi", Fungimap, (146 pp.).
There are some more professional books and monographs which I don't happen to have at hand, but I will leave these to be sought by the more dedicated reader.
A very useful CDROM of Australian fungi has recently been created by mycologist and photographer Jurrie Hubregtse, a member of the FNCV Fungi Group and a friend of mine. This contains about 200 species of fungi, with multiple pictures of each species for comparative purposes. The 1st edition (2008) of this is available as follows:-
FNCV Fungi Group (2008)
'The Fungi CD 1st Edition' [CDROM]
Field Naturalists Club of Victoria
1 Gardenia Street (Locked Bag 3)
Blackburn 3130
Victoria, Australia.
Tel/Fax 03 9877 9860
Email: admin@fncv.org.au
Website: http://www.fncv.org.au/
A newer edition is in process.
I started photographing fungi in 2003 with a Canon EOS 300 with a standard zoom lens, which was satisfactory until 2007, when I bought a modest compact digital camera, a Canon Powershot S3 with excellent close-up performance, which made all the difference. However, it is difficult to do manual focus, which is often needed to avoid autofocus focussing on the foreground or background.
My cameras are modest in performance. Photographing fungi in the forest usually involves reduced light levels, and the need for as great a depth of focus as can be obtained, together with as low an ISO film speed rating as is possible to avoid film graininess/noisiness. My experience is that the use of on-camera flash flares out the subject, but that using natural light gives a much better shot, with best rendition of form and colour. I also found that with my equipment the upshot of all these requirements means that one needs to shoot with quite slow shutter speeds, which in turn means that the camera must be stabilized on a small tripod or bean-bag.
One of my friends gets really professional results from a high quality digital SLR with a good macro lens, a right-angled view-finder, a custom-made tripod and a couple of flash units separate from the camera, using slow shutter speeds during the flash firings. Only my modest income separates me from my dream camera outfit! Nevertheless, I feel I can offer reasonably acceptable images on this web site.
I shoot everything at the highest digital resolution possible, and from the film camera I have scanned in at 300 dpi or obtained the best images on CDROM. My image-processing software is Paint Shop Pro 8 which I find adequate for all my needs. My general approach is to use and maintain an image aspect ratio of 4:3, crop the image, adjust gamma and curves as required, tweak brightness and contrast if necessary, and finally adjust sharpness by the Unsharp Mask facility, if necessary. Finally the pictures are saved with jpg compression about 30%, which is a good trade-off of jpg artefact distortion and file size for quick loading. I have standardized most of my large images at 600x450 pixels, or 413x550 pixels for portrait, although some images are different.