Bill Leithhead's
Web Site
Web Site
Fungi Photos Group B
Amauroderma rude to Bolbitius vitellinus
© elfram.com
Requires popups enabled to view larger images. This web site is guaranteed safe.
Click on thumbnail images for larger popup image. Close larger image before returning to here.
Ensure all thumbnails are shown before clicking any of them. If not, then refresh/reload page by F5 key.
Click on thumbnail images for larger popup image. Close larger image before returning to here.
Ensure all thumbnails are shown before clicking any of them. If not, then refresh/reload page by F5 key.
Amauroderma rude, "Red-staining Stalked Polypore". Hard and woody, on rotting wood (often buried), small decurrent greyish pores staining red (hence Latin: 'rude'), changing to black when scratched; spore print brownish yellow. Cap to 250 mm across, often engulfs grass, etc, as it grows, and has concentric brown velvety zones. Stem short and brownish, central or lateral. Whole turns black on ageing. Australian native in forests. ANBG picture Sherbrooke Forest, 2003. 42 kB
Anthracophyllum archeri, "Orange Fan Brackets", on rotting wood. Cap to 35 mm, pale orange to bright red, usually reddish-brown. Gills decurrent, shallow and widely spaced, paler colour than cap, duller; maybe adnate to very short lateral stem. Spore print white. Australian forests and woodlands. Lady Talbot Drive, Marysville, 2007. 32 kB
Armillaria luteobubalina, "Australian Honey Fungus", a widespread agressive Australian plant parasite, killing its host, on native and introduced plants. Often variable in appearance, it spreads by underground, stringy "rhizomorphs", fruiting in often dense clusters, with yellow-brown cap to 100 mm, convex, flattening with age, covered by minute warty scales like sandpaper, margin incurved when young. Gills sinuate, close, dense and often deep white, then creamish, finally with deep brown to reddish spots on margins. Spores copious and white. Stem tough, whitish to yellow-brown, with prominent ring, usually high up. Taste strong hot-bitter. Wikipedia on Armillaria genus Mortimer Picnic Ground, Bunyip State Forest, 2009. 51 kB
Artomyces austropiperatus group, is a coral fungus to 30 mm high, with a peppery taste. I understand that on DNA evidence, previously-named Clavicorona colensoi and C. piperata are best viewed as members of the group Artomyces austropiperatus. There is some variation in the delay in experiencing the peppery taste. Delicate, found on decaying logs in wet forest, spore print white. Mortimer Picnic Ground, Bunyip State Forest, 2009.
Ascocoryne sarcoides, "Purple Jellydisc", an ascomycete. Pale purplish gelatinous discs with darker margins, lobed, gregarious, to 20 mm on wet, rotting wood in wet forests. Essentially no stem. Fairly common, in clusters. especially in SE Australian wet forests. It often goes into an asexual reproductive stage, forming pale tiny little paler clubs, covered with microscopic "conidia". Wikipedia ref Myrtle Loop Walk, The Beeches, Marysville, 2005. 43 kB
Ascocoryne sarcoides, - see previous; this shows the asexual conidial stage. Hopetoun Falls Walk, Otways Ranges, 2008. 61 kB
Aseroë rubra, "Red Starfish Fungus", native to Australia, a debris-rotting fungus common in forest litter and garden mulch, often in groups. It was the first fungus recorded in Australia. The base is a fleshy, pink tube, up to 80 x 30 mm, arising from an initial pale egg-like globular structure on the soil. At the top is a horizontal ring, to 130 mm diam., of tapering bright red "tentacles", aranged in up to 10 spindly pairs. In the centre is an annulus of sticky dark brown slime containing the spores. The slime has a faecal or sewage odour to attract flies for spore dispersal. Wikipedia ref Australian Fungi ref Coffs Harbour, 2010.
Auriscalpium sp. (?). Occurs as a colony on only one known living eucalypt tree at Blackwood, increasing in extent each year, with many dozens of scattered fruit bodies on the bark of the tree. Named tentatively after northern hemisphere species, which have similar teeth under the cap. Reddish-brown curved finger-like brackets 10 x 15 mm, attached asymmetrically by tiny brown stems. Underneath are characteristic very prominent greyish-brown teeth or spines. Spore print not known. Following ref shows possibly related northern hemisphere Auriscalpium_vulgare, which has a stem. Jack Cann Reserve, Blackwood, 2007.
Austroboletus lacunosus is a mycorrhizal bolete which is found on the soil in mixed forests of SE Australia, New Caledonia and NZ. It is robust in appearance, found often. Cap to 150 mm, yellowish-brown to dark brown with a suede-like texture sometimes with tissue remnants around the edge. The soft pores are circular, coarse (to 1 mm), thick, brownish-pink becoming ochre with age; spore print pale brown. The central, stout (160 by 25 mm) stem is distinctive, has no ring, is dry, pale ochre covered with a distinctive coarse network of deeply-ridged linear pits, i.e. lacunose. Tinged pinkish-rusty-yellow near base. (Similar species in W.A. is A. occidentalis, sticky stem, bitter taste.) Hidden Forest NZ ref Mortimer Picnic Ground, Bunyip State Forest, 2010.
Austroboletus novaezealandiae, a mycorrhizal bolete often found in moss beds on the forest floor, probably Australian and NZ at least. Cap to 70 mm, with a finely granulated or even tesselated surface, caramel brown. Pores large, soft, protruding down, pinkish; spore print pale brown. Stem slender and lacunose, i.e. covered with a network of slender lens-like pits and ridges, off-white. NB: Looks like Fistulinella mollis but the latter does not have a lacunose stem. Baldry Crossing, Green's Bush, 2010.
Austropaxillus infundibuliformis, often by the roadside near forests and in forests, peculiar to Australia. Cap to 150 mm, often lobed, eccentric, orange-yellow shades. Gills strongly decurrent, forked, stem similar orange colour. Spore print bright rusty brown. Jack Cann Reserve, Blackwood, 2008. 47 kB
Barya agaricicola occurs world-wide (?) as numerous tiny (1 mm high), yellow, flask-like fruit bodies on other fungi, being an Ascomycota fungus parasitic especially on small agaric fruit bodies. The microscopic ascospores issue from the neck of the tiny flask-like bodies. (Microscopically these spores are unusually elongated and thread-like.)
Beauveria bassiana, infects insects, killing them in days. Called "white muscadine disease", it erupts from the insect's cuticle as a white, powdery cushion of conidia in the form of spore balls. Has also been called "icing sugar fungus", and is in use in the form of a sprayed emulsion of spores to control insects in agriculture. Wikipedia has an excellent article on this complex fungus. This image shows an infected hairy caterpillar species. Hopetoun Falls Walk, Otways Ranges, 2008. 34 kB
Beenakia dacostae, "Beenak Long Tooth" is a rare species found on tree fern trunks and on forest litter in wet forests of SE Australia and NZ. Often found in dry forest debris under rotting logs, it has small, decurrent, soft, light olive brown "teeth" instead of gills. Soft cream to ochre cap, to 25 mm, often conjoined, with small stipes. White spore print. Microscopically related to coral fungus Ramaria spp. Myrtle Loop Walk, The Beeches, Marysville, 2005. 56 kB
Bisporella citrina, "Yellow Fairy Cups" or "Lemon Disco", convex or smoothly flattened discs to 3mm forms colonies of varied size on dead wood, bark, and cones of banksia and pine. It's a cosmopolitan ascomycete. Wikipedia ref Mushroom Expert ref Mt Macedon, 2009. 51 kB
Bolbitius vitellinus, "Egg-yolk Toadstool" are thin, Mycena-like, found near grass and/or dung. Caps to 50 mm or more, yellowish gelatinous cap surface, brighter yellow and conical when young, flattening out and ageing to tan and then very pale. Gills free, close, fragile, pale yellow when very young, then pale tan, finally rusty brown. Spore print yellowish brown. Stem slender, tapering upwards, no ring. Mykoweb ref Mushroom Expert ref Orbost Caravan Park, 2008. 47 kB
