#35 Cordyceps gunnii

The Hunter Valley has received light showers of rain recently (as has many other parts of eastern Australia), hence the time is right for fungi.

Cordyceps gunnii (Dark Vegetable Caterpillar) is an intriguing fungus. Cordyceps are parasitic fungi, but rather than choose a plant as a host like many other parasitic fungi, they attack insect larvae.

The mycelium (underground mass of microscopic fungi filaments called hyphae) of cordyceps gunnii invades a moth larva, feeding on it and eventually replacing the host tissue. An elongated fruiting body is then sent to the surface to distribute spores to aid in the spreading of the fungus.

Cordyceps gunnii fruiting bodies
Werekata National Park, Cessnock, NSW

The black club-like or finger-like Cordyceps gunnii fungus fruit-bodies usually appear under mature wattles. The habitat of the examples featured here was Eucalypt, Leptospermum and Acacia woodland. Fruit-bodies have a height of up to 120mm above the ground, are dark olive-green to black in colour, are cylindrical or flattened with a blunt end. The smooth surface is covered in minute dots (ostioles), from which white spores emerge.

The head merges smoothly into a stem - this is an identifying feature, separating it from other dark club-like fungi. The white to pale yellow underground stem can reach 400mm, depending on the depth of the moth larva it has parasitised.

Cordyceps gunnii grows singly or in groups, and is known to be common. I found a colony of more than 20 fruiting bodies after rain.

A copious amount of white spores surrounds
this Cordyceps fruit-body

Notice the smooth transition from head to stalk.
My hand gives a size comparison.

The tiny 'dots' on the head are openings for spores
to emerge from the mature fruiting body

This Cordyceps fruit-body is coated in white spores

A flattened, rather than the usual cylindrical fruit-body

If a caterpillar larva is especially rich in nutrients
two clubs of the Dark Vegetable Caterpillar may emerge

I managed to extract the full stem of this Cordyceps

My sightings of Cordyceps gunnii

[This will be updated with new sightings]

Werekata NP, Cessnock, NSW - Eucalypt, Leptospermum and Acacia woodland - Jul

New England NP, NSW - Native forest - May.

#27 Plectania campylospora

Although I am reasonably confident with my identification here, I am not 100% sure, so if any readers have informed opinions for or against the identification, I would be grateful to hear of them.

Plectania campylospora, Brown Forest Cup, from family Sarcostomataceae, is found on rotting wood in wet forests.

Fungimap Australia give the size of the 'cup' as "to 80mm wide and 60mm high", but the 6 specimens I have seen have been no more than 20mm wide and high.

Exterior surface of Brown Forest Cup is more black than brown, and has a roughened texture. The interior of the deep cup is smooth and brown, aging to black. The short stem is slightly rough in texture, and can be crinkled as shown in my photos here.

Rough exterior and short crinkly central stem

Although reportedly growing in groups, the specimens of Plectania campylospora that I have found have been growing singly. Its dark colouring and unobtrusive nature makes this cup fungus difficult to spot in the dim light of the rainforest, but it is always a pleasure to find.

Known Australian distribution appears to be south eastern coast and ranges, including Tasmania.

A shallower cup

My sightings of Plectania campylospora

[This will be updated with new sightings]

Barrington Tops National Park, NSW - on rotting twigs on the rainforest floor - Apr, May, Nov.

New England National Park, NSW - on rotting wood on floor of wet forest - May.

The cup fungus has pushed aside wood as it emerged

#9 Strobilomyces sp

This interesting fungus from family Boletaceae is a Strobilomyces species, most probably Strobilomyces floccopus. It is sometimes referred to as The Old Man of the Forest. Boletes produce their spores in pores (instead of gills) which are tubes forming a honeycomb surface of holes on the underside of the fungus.

White pores and inturned margin of the 4cm cap

I have only found two specimens, both in rainforest, one growing on a dead log, the other in soil. The cap is convex with an inturned margin which can hold remnants of a partial veil, and is covered in dense woolly purple/black scales over white. The cap can be up to 110mm, but I have only seen it up to 40mm.

Pores are white, darkening with age, and staining orange/brown when bruised, eventually turning black. The stem is purplish, shaggy and reticulate (raised ridges). The solid white flesh of the stalk and cap also turn orange, then black, when cut.

Pores attach to the stem in a sinuate fashion

Short shaggy scales of the cap

I have not taken a spore print, but it is recorded that the spores are blackish brown. Here is a site with additional information on this species along with the only species it is likely to be confused with, Strobilomyces confusus.

The white pores have turned black, the white flesh orange before blackening.

My sightings of Strobilomyces floccopus

[This will be updated with more sightings]

Barrington Tops National Park NSW - singly and solitary on dead wood and soil - Apr.

A young Strobilomyces floccopus wet from rain