Bill Leithhead's
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Fungi Photos Group S
Russula kalimna to Stereum illudens
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Russula kalimna is an Australian mycorrhizal fungus, widespread but uncommon. Mature cap to 70 mm, flattened with slight depression, various bluish colours with traces of yellow, often with fine cracking. Gills close, off-white to cream; spore print pale yellow. Stem unusually short, stout, sturdy but brittle. The whole having a chunky appearance. Doctor's Creek walking track, Reefton, 2007. 41 kB
Russula lenkunya or Russula clelandii, (possibly the latter is the more correct name) a common Australian mycorrhizal Russula in eucalypt forests, has cap to 100 mm, broadly convex to flat with a central depression, colour violet, or purplish-red. Gills are white, sometimes slightly toothed, gill margins often tinged red or pink; spore print cream. Stem off-white to pale purple, sturdy. Morwell NP ref Jack Cann Reserve, Blackwood, 2008. 39 kB
Russula persanguinea. is a common, gregarious Australian fungus, mycorrhizal with eucalypts. The cap is to 90 mm, convex with a slight depression, dark red, blood red or brick red (no shades of purple or yellow), striate margin, slightly viscid when moist. Gills close, pure white with no coloured edges; spore print white. Stem is pure white, sturdy, brittle. [Similar appearance to Northern Hemisphere poisonous fungus Russula emetica, which is not in Australia. Toxicity not known here.] Morwell NP ref Sydney Fungal Studies ref Mt Drummer Rainforest Walk, near Cann River, 2008. 52 kB
Ryvardenia cretacea is a wood-rotting bracket fungus found here, NZ, Chile and Argentina (Gondwanaland connection). It forms large mainly single brackets in Nothofagus and mountain ash forests. Brackets to 200 mm wide and 120 mm radius, toasted brown to pale brown in broad radial zones, finely rough textured surface. Underneath are fine pores in a white surface that often weeps colourless droplets of liquid. Bracket sometimes attached by a very broad lateral stem structure, but usually just broadly attached. Flesh white, dense and moist, drying to a soft, chalky texture. NB: Species name from Latin: creta = chalk. Flickr ref "Esther's Art" ref Myrtle Loop Walk, The Beeches, Marysville, 2005. 31 kB
Schizophyllum commune, "Splitgill", is a wood-rotting fungus found all over the world, growing on many different kinds of dead hardwood. WARNING: It should not be smelled since the spores of this fungus can infect the human body and cause a very serious disease, basidioneuromycosis. It forms groups and tiers of irregularly fan-shaped brackets. Each fan grows from a central point with a short lateral stem. The upper surface is densely hairy with pale pink to creamy pink tones in radial zones, with a margin consisting of small hairy lobes. Underneath are gill-like structures which are split along their edges, hence the common name. NB: Greek: schizo = split; Latin: phyllum = leaf. Wikipedia ref Tom Volk ref MykoWeb ref Ned's Gully, Cathedral Range, 2007. 21 kB
Scleroderma cepa is a common mycorrhizal puff-ball that grows all over the world. NB: Greek: sclero = hard; derma = skin. It grows on the ground as single or grouped roughly spherical fruit bodies to 60 mm, yellow-brown, roughly reticulated or cracked with age. The tough outer skin finally splits into peeled-back lobes, exposing the mature spore mass as a dark brownish-purple spore powder, dispersed by the elements. The cut skin and base tissue turns reddish after it has been cut. NOTE: Member of a group of sclerodermas which are difficult to distinguish except microscopically. MykoWeb ref Hidden Forest NZ ref Ned's Gully, Cathedral Range, 2007. 43 kB
Scleroderma cepa - see previous. Part of the outer cover has collapsed down into the spore mass. Ned's Gully, Cathedral Range, 2007. 51 kB
Sphaerobolus stellatus, "Cannonball Fungus", "Bombardier Fungus", [Greek: sphaer = ball; obolus = to throw; and Latin: stella = star], is a tiny wood-rotting fungus that grows world-wide as colonies on rotting logs, herbivore dung and mulch. Each fruiting body is up to 2.5 mm diameter as a white to yellow-ochre globular mass embedded in a mat of fungal tissue, with an upper opening from which eventually a dark brown ball of spores (a peridiole), diameter 1 mm, is ejected suddenly (1/1000 sec) and forcibly to a distance up to 6 metres. That leaves behind an empty star-shaped cup from the surface of which often protrudes a pearl-coloured ballon-like structure: this is the original lower lining of the structure, which suddenly turns inside-out to do the "cannon-like" ejection. The ejection mechanism involves a build-up of fluid action that causes the lining of the cup to gradually change shape owing to osmotic pressure changes, until the cup lining suddenly everts, popping upwards, thus dispersing the spore mass like a cannon-ball. These fungi are phototropic, and aim the ejection in the direction of the sun. Wikipedia ref ANBG ref Sydney FS ref Baldry Crossing, Green's Bush, 2008. 35 kB
Stereum illudens is a very common wood-rotting bracket fungus growing here, in NZ, and as far as I can tell, in some other countries associated with exported eucalyptus trees. It forms closely-adhering irregular patches and brackets on the underside of dead branches and logs, up to 150 mm wide, 30 mm radius, and 1.0 mm thick; the flesh is tough and leathery, wavy and buckled. The top is characteristically hairy with radial light and dark red-brown zones, very pale on the margin. Underneath, the fertile surface is smooth, pale purple-brown, plum to violet, with a whitish margin; its has a whitish bloom when spores are being produced; spore print is white. Sometimes it grows as a lower flat mat with no formation of detached bracket structures. Morwell NP ref Jack Cann Reserve, Blackwood, 2007. 43 kB
