Bill Leithhead's
Web Site
Web Site
Fungi Photos Group Q
Podoserpula pusio to Pseudocolus fusiformis
© 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.
Podoserpula pusio, "Pagoda Fungus", is a an uncommon, beautiful little Australian wood-rotting fungus, found usually in sheltered places on well-rotted logs, tree fern trunks, or on forest litter; singly or rarely in colonies, even clumped. A pinkish fleshy stem (to 100 mm high) bears a tiered series of yellowish to orange-brown, soft, chamois-like lobes with folded pinkish orange fertile undersides; spore print white. [This image shows the agaric Hypholoma fasciculare side by side.] Morwell NP ref Baldry Crossing, Green's Bush, 2008. 52 kB
Polyporus melanopus, is a world-wide wood-rotting stalked polypore occasionally found on logs. Cap to 100 mm, brown to red-brown, fairly tough, regular in shape, funnel-shaped. Pores underneath off-white shades, fine pores; spore print white. Stem stout, often eccentric, usually brown and felty. Hidden Forest NZ ref
MycoKey ref Day's Picnic Ground, Mt Macedon, 2008. 54 kB
Poronia erici, "Dung Buttons" are tissue-rotting ascomycetes which grow on herbivore dung, and it occurs here and in Europe; it's widely found here on marsupial dung. Diameter to 30 mm (usually about 10 mm), as a slightly wrinkled irregular disc (to 2 mm thick) just above the surface of the dung, coloured whitish to light pinkish brown. This is attached to a dark greyish brown tapering base deep in the dung (has been called "Nail Fungus"). The top is punctuated with well-spaced black to brown apertures, which are spore-ejecting structures called ostioles; spore colour dark brown. ANBG ref Blue Swami ref Devilbend Reservoir, Mornington Peninsula, 2007. 61 kB
Postia pelliculosa is a wood-rotting bracket fungus found on stumps and logs here, in NZ, and in South America. The bracket is 80 mm wide, 60 mm radius, attached a broad base, and is about 20 mm thick. The bracket is covered with a dense layer of red-brown hair, and is soft amd moist when fresh, brittle when dry. The white pores are fine, angular, and bruising brown; spore print white. Patagonian ref Ned's Gully, Cathedral Range, 2007. 55 kB
Psathyrella asperospora, "Weeping Mary",is a wood-rotting fungus found especially on buried wood; I suspect it's only in Australia and NZ. Cap to 100 mm, conical to convex, covered with a shaggy radial fibres and scales, brown to cinnamon, margin incurved, often with pale veil remnants. Gills close, dark brown becoming mottled, retaining a lighter margin, and in moist weather develops wet droplets, hence the name; spore print black. Stem sturdy, hairy like cap, dirty brown, darkening with age (blackened by spores), no ring remnants obvious, but smoother texture towards the apex. Hidden Forest ref Wikimedia ref Rawson, Gippsland, 2003. 51 kB
Psathyrella echinata is a short-lived wood-rotting fungus found densely gregarious on rotting wood, notable when young because the incurved red-brown caps are covered with obvious light-coloured spiny bundles of fibrillose spines (Gk; echinos = hedge-hog, i.e. spiny); upon ageing the spines fall off, perhaps leaving small scales, and the fungi are harder to identify. Caps to 20 mm, reddish-brown fading to light brown; globular when young, opening to convex then almost flat, with an umbo; pale remnants of veil around incurved margin. Gills close, brown, then dark brown; spore print dark brown. Stem 30x4 mm, pale red-brown, often curved, covered with tufted fibrils, shedded starting from the apex; white mycelium tufts near base. NB: This fungus is hygrophanous, i.e., the colour lightens as it dries out in drier weather. Day's Picnic Ground, Mt Macedon, 2009. 88 kB
Psathyrella sp.. These fragile, pale, beautiful fungi in these 4 images were gregarious on rotting wood, with fibrillose spines on the caps when young, a hygrophanous change in colour of the caps when drier, slender stems, veil remnants around caps, and probably brown spores. They were thought by an expert companion to be most likely Psathyrella aff pennata. Paradise, Otway Ranges, 2008. 70 kB
Pseudocolus fusiformis, "Stinky Squid", is one of the "stink-horn" family and is found especially in tropical and sub-tropical forests in a variety of countries. The species is found in pine forests and even on garden mulch; this specimen was in eucalypt forest. Arising from an egg-like white sac, the 3 or 4 orange wrinkled arms emerge, joined at the apex, bearing a malodourous dark brown slime (called the gleba) containing the spores, which are distributed by insects such as flies. Wikipedia ref Mushroom Expert ref Melba Gully, Otway Ranges, 2008. 31 kB
