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Thefungi of Australia form an enormous and diverse group, encompassing a huge range of freshwater, marine and terrestrial habitats with many ecological roles, includingsaprobes,parasites andmutualistic symbionts of algae, animals and plants, as well as agents of biodeterioration. Where plants produce, and animals consume, thefungi recycle, and as such they ensure the sustainability of ecosystems.
Knowledge about the fungi ofAustralia is meagre. Little is known about aboriginal cultural traditions involving fungi, or about aboriginal use of fungi apart from a few species such as Blackfellow's bread (Laccocephalum mylittae). Humans who came to Australia over the past couple of centuries brought no strong fungal cultural traditions of their own. Fungi have also been largely overlooked in the scientific exploration of Australia. Since 1788, research on Australian fungi, initially by botanists and later by mycologists, has been spasmodic and intermittent. At governmental level, scientific neglect of Australian fungi continues: in the country'sNational Biodiversity Conservation Strategy for 2010–2030, fungi are mentioned only once, in the caption of one illustration,[1] and some states currently lack mycologists in their respective fungal reference collections.
The exact number of fungal species recorded from Australia is not known, but is likely to be about 13,000.[2] TheCSIRO has published three volumes providing a bibliography of all Australian fungal species described. Volume 2A was published in 1997,[3] and Volume 2B was published in 2003.[4] Unlike theFlora of Australia series they are bibliographic lists and do not contain species descriptions.
The total number of fungi which actually occur in Australia, including those not yet discovered, has been estimated at around 250,000 fungal species, including about 5,000mushrooms, of which roughly 5% have been described.[2] Knowledge of distribution, substrata and habitats is poor for most species, with the exception of common plant pathogens.[5] One result of this poor knowledge is that it is often difficult or even impossible to determine whether a given fungus is a native species or an introduction.
Early collections in Western Australia were made byJames Drummond andLudwig Preiss in the early to mid-19th Century. They sent their specimens toW.J. Hooker atKew andElias Magnus Fries respectively.
John Burton Cleland conducted the first systematic review of Australian fungi in a landmark monograph of fungal specimens at theSouth Australian Herbarium. Comprising some 16,000 specimens, this included fungi from elsewhere in the country as well as South Australia. He was assisted by such people asEdwin Cheel, keeper of the Herbarium at theRoyal Botanic Gardens in Sydney,Leonard Rodway of Tasmania andPhyllis Clarke (later North), who provided some watercolour paintings. These three were honoured with at least one specific epithet of new species described by Cleland.[6] This resulted in two comprehensive volumes (1934–35) on the larger fungi of South Australia, and was reprinted in 1976. These were reworked and published in 1997 asLarger Fungi of Southern Australia by contemporarymycologistCheryl Grgurinovic, though funding only allowed the publication of a volume on larger fungi.[7]
Bruce Fuhrer andTony Young, whose book was first published in 1982 and has been revised several times since, have been instrumental in promoting Australian fungi to the general public with popular books on fungi in Australia.[8][9] Published knowledge is augmented by locally produced guides in Western Australia,[10] Queensland and Tasmania.[11]
Commonly called ascomycetes, this group, theAscomycota, is likely to be the largest fungal phylum in Australia in terms of species numbers. Australia's ascomycetes include some large and conspicuous fungi, but the fruiting bodies produced by most species are less than about 1 cm in their largest dimension. The range of habitats they occupy is the same as for the fungi as a whole. Most of Australia'slichen-forming fungi belong in this group. With a few exceptions, the ascomycetes of Australia are very poorly known, and many remain undiscovered. Partly because of their importance in forestry, species associated withEucalyptus trees have received considerable attention and, with hundreds known to be associated with some of the more studied tree species, it is clear that these fungi form a huge, complex and important component of Australia's forests.[12] Charismatic species include the "golf-ball fungi" (species of the genusCyttaria) which occur only on living branches ofNothofagus trees. Australia's nativetruffles (subterranean ascomycetes) form another distinct and interesting group which remains poorly known.[13]
Representatives of all three subdivisions of theBasidiomycota are found in Australia. These are theAgaricomycotina (bracket fungi, jelly fungi, mushrooms and toadstools, puffballs etc., i.e. most of the species commonly understood to be fungi), thePucciniomycotina (rust fungi), and theUstilaginomycotina (smut fungi).
Native species are very poorly known, with most taxa undescribed. For those that have been, there are huge gaps in knowledge, especially with respect to distribution and, for the larger species, edibility. Reasons for this include the brief and unpredictable appearance of fruiting bodies, often the only evidence of most species, and the fact that there has been comparatively little scientific attention focused upon fungi in Australia.[14]
There are several exceptions; one is the familyHygrophoraceae, which has been written about by mycologistA. M. (Tony) Young in 2005.[15] Another is a treatment of the genusMycena in Southeastern Australia.[16] The genusAmanita has been the subject of two reviews but a microscope is still needed to distinguish many species and coverage has concentrated in Australia's eastern regions.[17][18]Alec Wood has also published a study of the genusGalerina, describing 29 species, 21 of them new, primarily in New South Wales.[19] A more usual state of affairs is that reported byRoy Watling with regard toboletes, that in Australia, it appears to be rich in species yet only a minority are described.[20]
With the notable exception of the giganticPhlebopus marginatus, possibly Australia's largest mushroom, many of the most conspicuous fungi have been introduced in association with exotic soil and trees;Lactarius deliciosus,Chalciporus piperatus,Suillus luteus andSuillus granulatus are European fungi found in pine plantations in Eastern Australia. The deadlyAmanita phalloides is found underOak in urbanCanberra andMelbourne and has caused deaths. There are concerns at least one of them,Amanita muscaria is spreading into (and forming newmycorrhizal associations with) nativeNothofagus woodland and possibly displacing local species.[21] Lawns, farms and parklands see exotic fungi such as the shaggy ink cap (Coprinus comatus), the poisonousChlorophyllum molybdites and several species ofAgaricus, including the edibleA. bisporus andA. campestris as well as mildly poisonousA. xanthodermus.
Mycorrhiza ofRhizopogon luteolus was deliberately introduced to improve the performance of pines in pine plantations inWestern Australia in the early part of the 20th century.[6]
The stinkhorn-like speciesAseroë rubra is significant in that it is the first fungus species known to have been introduced in the other direction, namely to Europe, from Australia. It was recorded growing on soil transported from Australia in a glasshouse inKew Gardens in 1829.[22]
Rust fungi are a large group of plant parasites. Many of them are highly host-specific. Some cause significant losses to economic crops, and where the crop itself is an introduction to Australia, the rusts on that crop may also be non-native. Rusts on native species are likely to form an important component of the natural checks and balances of native ecosystems, and may have their own distinctive conservation needs. There seems to have been no compilation of information about the rust fungi of Australia since the detailed monograph by McAlpine (2006).[23]
These fungi are parasites, mainly of flowering plants. Unlike theAgaricomycotina, they are usually small and easily missed by the untrained eye. These fungi are most easily noticed when they produce their fruiting structures, called sori, which are most often confined to the host flower, but may also sometimes be seen on fruits and leaves. In Australia, 296 smut species from 43 genera have been recorded.[24]
Apart from fungi of the subkingdomDikarya, such as those described above (Ascomycota and Basidiomycota), some non-Dikarya fungi are known to have relatively high diversity in Australia; e.g.Backusella.[25]
Selected mycologists that have made significant contributions to Australian mycology:
Many of the books on Australian fungi are listed below:[26][27][28]
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