Xerula australis "Rooting Shank"is a common, very elegant, cellulose-rotting fungus usually in groups on leaf litter or above buried wood or dead roots. Previously called Oudemansiella radicata var. australis, it belongs to a confused group of 9 related species separable only microscopically. Cap to 80 mm, broadly convex (margin incurved) to flat when mature, smooth, sticky when moist, radially wrinkled when dry or old; colour brown, grey-brown to olive-brown. Gills almost distant, white, spore print white. Stem long (to 200 mm), slender (to 10 mm), brittle (snaps easily), smooth to hairy, white at apex, brown-grey at base; ring absent; extends into ground like a root (rhizomorph) (hence previous name radicata Latin: radix = root). Devilbend Reservoir, Mornington Peninsula, 2008.