Australian native fungi spring to life during colder, wetter months

Australia Broadcast Center

19-07-2025

Deep in native Australian forests is a wonderland that springs to life each winter.
It is a mysterious world of colourful toadstools right out of a fairy tale, of bizarre white "cages" that smell of death and decay and of ghostly mushrooms that glow eerily in the dark.
Australia's native macrofungi — those visible fungus forms that can be seen with the naked eye and often appear during the coldest, darkest time of the year — play an essential role within any ecosystem.
They are nature's recyclers, fertilisers and rehabilitators.
While a few notorious introduced varieties have engendered a toxic reputation, Australia's native macrofungi remain largely an enigma.
Fewer than 10 per cent of the potentially hundreds of thousands of fungus species in Australia (estimates range up to 250,000) have been formally identified and described.
"It shows how little we know," ecologist and author Alison Pouliot said.
"There are whole lot of reasons for that. I think the big thing, for a lot of them, is they are out of sight, out of mind.
"They are most often underground for most of the year."
Fungi occupy a strange space somewhere between the animal and vegetable kingdoms, having some traits of each but being truly neither.
"They are a whole separate kingdom," Dr Pouliot explained.
Dr Pouliot said fungi get their nutrition through digestion like animals rather than from sunlight like plants.
"Fungi don't photosynthesise like plants," she said.
"They digest like we do.
"They are also made of a compound called chitin instead of cellulose like a plant. We find that in the animal kingdom. That's what a crayfish's shell is made of, for example."
The most visible component of macrofungi, such as the parasol-shaped mushroom, makes up a mere fraction of the living thing itself.
It is, in fact, the sex organ of a much larger organism that is most often hidden underground.
"Collectively we call them [the visible component] the reproductive sporing bodies," Dr Pouliot said
"A mushroom is just one type of structure. There are puffballs and morels, for example, and these are not mushrooms."
The greater part of the organism below the surface is called a "mycelium", which includes the seldom seen root structure.
A mycelium can range in size from mere specks to metres.
Some are among the largest living things on the planet, stretching square kilometres.
Many of the most familiar varieties become active in autumn, activated by changes in the soil.
"Why we see [them] most in autumn is the mycelium responds to a drop in soil temperature and an increase in soil moisture," Dr Pouliot explained.
A warmer, drier summer across south-eastern Australia has likely had an impact on how many native mushrooms and other macrofungi are able to be seen this year, according to Victorian Western District field naturalist Helen Langley.
"A few are appearing now in the Western District," Ms Langley said.
"There does appear to be less of them because it has been so dry.
"It has also got cold quickly this year, which hasn't helped."
Dr Pouliot said fungi were resilient, however, and should bounce back if and when the rain returned next year.
News stories about toxic mushrooms have blurred the terms "mushroom" and "toadstool".
Scientifically, at least, they are all now referred to as mushrooms.
"Originally a mushroom was an umbrella-shaped fungus that was edible, and a toadstool was an umbrella-shaped fungus that was toxic," Dr Pouliot explained.
"Over the years, those two terms have been used synonymously, and we saw books being published about things like poisonous mushrooms. The world was like, 'Hang on a minute. They're supposed to be edible'.
"Today, the word 'toadstool' has pretty much fallen out of use. It's more a poetic or literary term.
"And today the word mushroom doesn't refer to edibility, it just means umbrella-shaped."
The term "toadstool" (a stool for toads in English) has an etymology rooted in its toxicity, however.
"Tod" is the German word for "death", while "stuhl" is German for "chair".
A "bolete", meanwhile, is mushroom-shaped macrofungus that has a spongy underside with pores rather than the gills synonymous with mushrooms.
Ms Langley said people should avoid foraging for native fungi.
"Like many native plants, native mushrooms are not supposed to be picked and collected," she said.
"They are meant to be left alone in their natural environment.
"For a lot of native fungi, we just don't know about their toxicity. It is not worth the risk.
"My advice is not to touch them and just to look at them and enjoy them for what they are."
Several of the most recognisable macrofungi, including the charismatic fly amanita (Amanita muscaria), the infamous death cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides) and familiar edible varieties such as the common mushroom (Agaricus bisporus), are not native to Australia.
Dr Pouliot encouraged bush explorers to find and photograph Australia's fantastic and fabulous native fungi but suggested we don't disturb them and leave them be.
She said, among the potentially hundreds of thousands of species that could be discovered in Australian forests, were these spectacular varieties:
The striking rhubarb bolete (Boletellus obscurecoccineus) is distinctive for its red-to-rhubarb-coloured cap and underbelly of yellow pores. It's found among eucalypt leaf litter in Victoria, Tasmania, south-western WA and south-east NSW.
The widespread pretty horn (Calocera sinensis – calo = beautiful and cera = horn in Greek) appears as little yellow clubs or spikes. It's a wood-recycling fungus that grows on logs, branches and twigs.
Growing in south-eastern Australia, the green skinhead (Cortinarius austrovenetus) is unusual for its green colouration. Members of the genus Cortinarius are known as webcaps as they have a cortina, or web-like veil that protects the gills during early growth stages.
Appearing like rubies among the leaf litter on the forest floor, the tiny but conspicuous ruby bonnet (Cruentomycena viscidocruenta) is always a joy to find. It grows in wetter forests in Australia and New Zealand.
This fungus is not your average umbrella-shaped mushroom. The smooth cage fungus (Ileodictyon gracile), while striking to look at, has a fetid odour that is likely to repel you. Native to Australia, it often pops up in garden beds.
The gem-studded puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum) is a cosmopolitan species with many common names including warted puffball, common puffball and devil's snuff-box. You'll find it in all kinds of habitats from forests and woodlands to grass clearings, gardens and track edges.
The Australian parasol (Macrolepiota clelandii) often appears in grassy verges along roadsides. This handsome species is recognisable for its raised central brown knob, or umbo, and "chocolate-chip" scales. It's also known as the graceful parasol or slender parasol.
The endearing pixie's parasol (Mycena interrupta) has a Gondwanan distribution but here in Australia you'll find it in Tasmania, Victoria, NSW, South Australia and if you're really lucky, in Queensland.