Instructions
Click on the column headers to sort the table on that column. One click will sort in ascending order, a second click in descending order, as indicated by the blue triangles. By default the table is sorted by form, then within each form by scientific name. To re-establish this order click on the Scientific Name column then the Form column.
A Horizontal scroll bar will appear if window is too narrow to show all columns. Click on the buttons above the table to hide/show particular columns.
Columns can be re-arranged by dragging and dropping the column headers.
If you resize your browser window you may need to reload the page, since I have not yet figured out how to get the table to automatically resize in all cases.
Columns in the table:
- Form
- This is a classification based on the shape or some other obvious characteristic
of the fruiting body. It does not corresponding directly to taxonomic groups
(scientific classification) although it may give a clue. Most books include a similar
classification (sometimes it is called the morphogroup) but there is no standard.
I have based mine on the groups from the
Fungimap website, which differ from those in
the Fungimap book.
Just like real scientific classifications, they can change at any time!
- bolete
- Shaped like an ordinary mushroom but with pores on the underside instead of gills.
- bracket
- A shelf projecting from wood, with pores underneath. Brackets may start as a crust on the underside of a log and only project out when they get to a vertical surface.
- club
- Various club shapes, tough. (Club shaped jellies are included under jellies).
- coral
- Coral-like, branched. Fleshy texture.
- crust
- Thick or thin crust. Spores formed on outer surface or in pores if any.
- cup
- Cup or bowl shaped.
- disc
- Disc-shaped, always very small. Spores formed on upper surface.
- earthball
- The skin either splits into lobes at maturity or erodes from the top to expose the spore mass.
- earthstar
- Have an outer layer which splits into lobes exposing a soft skinned puffball.
- gills
- Spores released from inside gills on the underside. Unlike mushrooms the stem (usually short) is at the top or side.
- jelly
- Brain-like mass or individual clubs. Jelly-like or rubbery texture.
- leather
- Refers to the texture rather than shape, which can be fan like or bracket like. Spores produced on the smooth or slightly wrinkled lower surface.
- lichen
- Various shapes but always exposed to the sun. (Mushrooms which are parasites on algae are listed here as mushrooms.)
- mass
- mould
- mushroom
- A cap supported by a more or less central stem, with gills under the cap.
- pin mould
- Spores in small balls held on the end of filaments.
- polypore
- Pores on the underside like boletes but tough rather than fleshy. Stem underneath or at the side.
- puffball
- Soft balls which release spores through hole at the top when touched.
- stinkhorn
- Various shapes. Foul smelling slimy spore mass inside the cage or on the inside of the cap. They attract carrion loving insects which disperse the spores.
- truffle
- Spores are produced in a fruiting body which grows underground or only just emerges from the ground, and needs to be eaten by an animal to disperse the spores.
- Scientific Name
- "Group" means there is a similar species which is difficult to distinguish.
If the species is not fully identified and was recorded by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria Fungi Group, then the description can be found in their reports. - Substrate (Substr.)
- What the fruiting body was growing from. "Litter" means a small piece of wood or bark, not the all too common anthropogenic variety.
- Food
- One or two letters indicating how the fungus normally gets its food. This is the same for all species in a genus and mainly comes from table 2 in Tommerup & Bougher (2000). Other sources used are
"A Field Guide to Australian Fungi", "Fungi Downunder" and Newbound, McCarthy & Lebel (2010).
M Mycorrhizal - mutualistic with the roots of a plant. S Saprophyte - decomposes dead plant or animal material P Parasitic on another organism - PA (Parsitic on Animal), PF (Parasitic on Fungus) L Lichen - mutualistic with or parasitic on algae - Year
- The year when the species was first recorded in the park.