#54 Cyathus striatus

Although Birds Nest fungi are tiny and inconspicuous unless massed, they are fascinating.

Cyathus striatus is commonly called Striated or Fluted Birds Nest Fungi. The size of fruit bodies varies from 5 to 10mm tall and 4 to 8mm broad.  The exterior infertile surface of the tiny vase-shaped cup is brown to grey, and shaggy.  When the 'lid' or cover of the 'nest' splits and decomposes, the shiny inner surface is revealed.  The interior surface is distinctly grooved or striated vertically, making this species easy to identify.

The 'eggs' in the 'nest' are the spore packages, technically called peridioles.  These hard-skinned shiny grey peridioles are neatly packed into the cup, each having an elastic thread (called funiculus) attached to one end, with a weight (called hapteron) attached to the end of the thread.

Their dispersal technique is remarkable.  The peridole is dislodged from the cup by raindrops, and ejected with the weighted string trailing.  With the help of the weighted end, the string entwines around vegetation or other organic matter, and if all goes well, spores will germinate and invade the substrate.

Alternately, herbivores will consume the peridioles with their fodder, and the spores will pass through the gut of the animal and be excreted, possibly onto suitable substrate for germination.

Cyathus striatus can be found on fallen twigs and bark, herbivore dung, organically enriched soil, and wood-chip mulch.  Besides Australia, it occurs in North America, Canada, Europe, and possibly other countries.

Cyathus striatus on horse dung

Note the brown 'shaggy' exterior, and shiny grey striated interior.

Tightly packed peridioles.  My thumb gives a size perspective.

My sightings of Cyathus striatus

[This will be updated with new sightings]

The Pilliga area of northwestern NSW - Merriwindi State Conservation Area, on horse dung, June 2010; Aug 2010

Medicinal uses:

• Some antibiotics have been isolated from mycelia of Cyathus striatus - this could lead to treatment of some tropical diseases that are responsible for considerable mortality and morbidity.
• Anti cancer effects have been found from fungal extracts prepared from Cyathus striatus, showing significant inhibiting effects on certain chemical pathways, suggesting activities worthy of investigation as cancer therapeutics.

Blog entries on other Birds Nest Fungi species:

Cyathus stercoreus

Nidula emodensis

#53 Microporus xanthopus

Microporus xanthopus is a tropical species, found on rotting wood and is common from the Australasian, Asian and African tropics, but is absent from the American tropics. 

Microporus xanthopus (pronunciation:  Micro-poor-uss zan-though-puss) has a common name of Yellow-footed Tinypore.

The initial stage of the fruiting body is simply a white fleck on the wood surface. This enlarges into a hemispherical cushion up to a millimeter wide, and elongates to develop the stem.   A wider basal disc, generally called a 'foot' develops, and is often a yellowish colour, hence the name. A funnel-shaped cap (or pileus) expands from the apex of the stem.

Funnel-shaped caps of mature fruiting bodies are thin (1mm to 3mm thickness) and are concentrically zoned in various shades of brown, usually with a pale margin which is sometimes wavy.  The cap can be up to 150mm wide. Caps can hold water.

The fertile under-surface of the cap is white to dull yellow, with  minute pores (8 to 10 per millimeter) and can extend down the stem (decurrent).

The central or off-centre stem can be up to 40mm long and 5mm wide, expanding at the top.

Shiny wet funnel-shaped Microporus xanthopus, concentric zones of shades of brown, with pale, wavy margin

Dry caps have lost their lustre

Not all fruiting bodies form a perfect goblet shape

White fertile lower surface has minute pores.  Notice how the stem widens at the top

Off-centre stems and misshapen caps

Attractive Yellow-footed Tinypore fruiting bodies on rotting wood on the floor of a tropical North Queensland rainforest

My sightings of Microporus xanthopus

[This will be updated with new sightings]

Far North Queensland - rainforest Sept 2009

Uses of Microporus xanthopus:

• dried and used as ornamentation
• (apparently) used in Malaysian native communities to prevent infants from breast-feeding.

#49 Coltricia cinnamomea

Although this terrestrial polypore is reasonably common, it's always a treat to see. It has a distinctive satin-like sheen which is caused by the pattern of shining radial surface hairs. It is delicately zoned with concentric bands of cinnamon brown with a central depression, often vase-shaped.

Concentric cinnamon to orange-brown zones
with pale wavy rim of Coltricia cinnamomea

The cap of Coltricia cinnamomea can be up to 5cm wide, but I haven't seen any that big. I've commonly seen fruit bodies up to 3cm. Fruit bodies are often joined to other fruit bodies, and can grow around and incorporating twigs and debris.

The dry, velvety, shiny cap can't be separated from the pored lower fertile surface. The pore layer is pale cinnamon-brown to yellow-brown, with 2 to 3 pores per mm. Spore print is yellow-brown.

Stem is 1-4 cm long, 1-3 mm thick, central, round to compressed, solid, finely velvety, and equal except enlarged at the base. Stems can sometimes be fuses with other stems of the same species. The whole fruit body is tough and leathery.

Coltricia cinnamomea is a wood rotting fungus and grows from decaying sub-surface wood and tree roots in forests and woodland in a variety of soil and climates. Besides Australia, this small polypore is found in North America, but I am unsure where else around the world it occurs.

A tiny new specimen of Coltricia cinnamomea.
Note the velvety twisted stem.

A shiny vase-shaped specimen growing amongst lichen.
Notice the cup fungi, Aleurina ferruginea to the left.

Pored lower surface of a fresh specimen can be whitish

. . . . .or cinnamon-brown or pinkish

. . . . .to yellowish-brown when mature.

Notice (left) two fruit bodies fused together

Multiple stems indicates multiple fruit bodies fused

My sightings of Coltricia cinnamomea

[This will be updated with new sightings]

Pilliga Forests, Northwest NSW - native woodland, semi-arid, Jul 10, Sep 10.

Werakata NP, Cessnock, NSW - native woodland, Jul 07, Aug 10.

Hunter Region Botanic Gardens, Heatherbrae, NSW - Jul 10.

***** ***** *****

Medicinal properties: Research has been conducted on mycelial culture of Coltricia cinnamomea with results showing promise of reducing some tumors.

Coltricia cinnamomea is inedible, but can easily be dried for ornamental purposes.

#36 Phlebopus marginatus

While some species of Boletes are common and widespread, Boletes are not your average fungus - instead of gills on the fertile under-surface, Boletes have pores. Tightly packed vertical 'tubes' are affixed to the flesh of the fungus cap with the 'tube' openings all that is visible. The openings are called pores. The underside of a Bolete fungus is covered in minute pores from which the reproductive spores emerge.

Phlebopus marginatus is likely to be Australia's largest terrestrial fungus, with caps reaching to 1 metre across. A specimen from western Victoria was recorded weighing 29 kg.

Phlebopus marginatus at
Hunter Region Botanic Gardens, Heatherbrae, NSW.

Like many Boletes, the soft flesh of Phlebopus marginatus is a favourite breeding ground for insects, the larva of which cause rapid decomposition of the fungus. The mid to dark brown cap is smooth, and viscid (slippery) when wet. Edges of the cap may be irregularly shaped partially turned up. Juvenile caps are convex.

Flesh is thick and white; the pore surface is a dull yellow, aging to brown. The stem is very thick, pale to mid brown (often with a bulbous base) with a deep indentation surrounding the top where it joins the pore surface.

This large Bolete can be found at any time of year following soaking rain. It is commonly found in eucalypt forest, as well as grassy expanses such as sports ovals and parks.

This is one of several Phlebopus marginatus that
I found in damp roadside native vegetation near Cessnock

My husband's hand gives a size comparison

My hand gives a size comparison to this one at
Hunter Region Botanic Garden - July 2010

Notice the deep indentation where the stem joins
the pore surface

Thick white flesh of a fresh specimen not yet riddled with maggots. The pale yellow section is the crowding of elongated hollow tube-like structures which hold the spores.

The pore surface

The cap and stalk have darkened with age, and the cap has been damaged. This specimen was growing in lawn at Hunter Region Botanic Garden in July 2007.

My sightings of Phlebopus marginatus

[This will be updated with new sightings]

Hunter Region Botanic Gardens, Heatherbrae, NSW - in lawn July (2007, 2010)

Werakata NP, Cessnock, NSW - in damp native vegetation, July (2010)

***** ***** *****

More information on Phlebopus marginatus:

Fungi enthusiast and chemical engineer features this bolete in his blog, including potential edibility: Tall trees and mushrooms.

#34 Auricularia cornea

Many newly emerged fungi fruiting bodies look vastly different to the mature fungus, making identification difficult. In this blog I will try to illustrate, in photos, the different stages of the life cycle.

Auricularia cornea (Jelly Ear Fungus),belongs to the jelly group, which are generally gelatinous in texture and appearance, having a high water content.

The upper sterile surface of Auricularia cornea is covered in a dense silky coat of minute pale grey hairs. The lower fertile surface is smooth and hairless. The spores are white, and I have actually been successful obtaining a spore print (not an easy task for jelly fungi).

The shape of a mature fungus is usually convex. When crowding occurs, the fungi are contorted into irregular shapes, often with wrinkled surfaces. The consistency of the flesh is tough (doesn't break with rough treatment, and is difficult to tear with force), wobbly in a gelatinous manner - rubber-like. Colour is reddish brown, and translucent, drying to nearly black.

Auricularia cornea has the remarkable ability to rehydrate many months after it has dried out. I have witnessed a colony of this fungus rehydrate several times after rain throughout a 1 year period. I presume the fruiting bodies are resistant to insect and invertebrate attack when in a dessicated state, but I am unaware if the rehydrated fungus produces a second or third flush of spores.

Substrate is dead wood in tropical to subtropical forests, but I have observed them on dying exotic trees in suburbia.

A freshly rehydrated colony of Auricularia cornea

Tiny new velvety fruiting bodies of Jelly Ear Fungus.
The right-hand top corner of the image is covered
by a mature specimen.

A close-up of new fruiting bodies about 1cm in diameter.
Notice more new fungi pushing up the bark of the tree.

Smooth maturing specimens.
Notice the hollow surface white with spores.

Without crowding, the fungi are not wrinkled.
Minutely hairy upper surface, smooth undersurface

Some will take on strange shapes,
but still generally convex.
Note the tiny new fruiting bodies above and below.

The velvety hairy upper surface joined to wood.

Fruiting bodies can reach in excess of 100mm.

Crinkled, translucent, crowded fruiting bodies.

Auricularia cornea fruiting bodies dry to an almost black
under surface, but will return to cinnamon-brown
when rehydrated by rain.

My sightings of Auricularia cornea

[This will be updated with more sightings]

Singleton, Hunter Valley, NSW - Dying exotic tree, residential garden, all year

Barrington Tops National Park, NSW - Dead wood, rainforest

Hunter Region Botanic Gardens, Heatherbrae, HV - Dead wood, woodland

***** ***** *****

Edit - an interesting experiment: Following a heavy downpour 14th July 2010, I collected some rehydrated fruit bodies of Auricularia cornea from the tree in my front yard and prepared them for spore prints. I successfully collected excellent spore prints, therefore it is interesting to note that rehydrated fungi (this species, at least), do in fact produce new flushes of spores.

#28 Anthracophyllum archeri

Anthracophyllum archeri, commonly known as Orange Fan, is from family Marasmiaceae, and grows on dead wood in native forests. Pronunciation is Anthrack-oh-fill-um archer-eye. It is a common fungus and can fruit at any time of year.

Caps are shell-shaped or fan-shaped, up to 35mm and are attached laterally to wood, occasionally with a very short stem, but my local observations have noted the absence of a stem. The upper surface of the cap is smooth and radially ridged, tan to light orange.

Smooth ridged upper surface of Orange Fan Fungi

Gills are similar in colour but often darker, widely spaced and fan out in various lengths from the point of attachment. Fungi have a smooth leathery texture.

Orange Fan Fungi are usually seen in large numbers and can be spaced along a stick or log, or crowded forming overlapping clusters. The structure of the fan shape with widely spaced fold-like gills make Anthracophyllum archeri easily distinguished from other fan-like or shell-like fungi.

Orange Fan Fungi occur as many single fruiting bodies.....

.....or crowded overlapping clusters.


My sightings of Anthracophyllum archeri

[This will be updated with new sightings]

Barrington Tops National Park NSW - on dead twigs and logs in rainforest - Mar, Apr, May, Nov.

Hunter Region Botanic Gardens - Heatherbrae NSW - on dead twigs in open eucalypt forest - Nov.

#21 Suillus granulatus

With the help of other amateur fungi enthusiasts, I have established that the most recognisable physical difference (for amateurs) between Suillus granulatus and Suillus luteus is the absence or presence of a ring or annulus.

In some fungus species a partial veil initially covers the pores or gills. As the fruit body expands and matures, the partial veil usually breaks to form a 'ring' on the stem. Suillus granulatus does not have remnants of a ring, whereas Suillus luteus usually does. This feature makes it a little easier to distinguish between these two boletes that are otherwise very similar in appearance, both of which are from family Suillaceae.

Yellow pores of Suillus granulatus

Suillus granulatus is mychorrhizal with various exotic conifers, meaning that it forms a symbiotic relationship with pines. Both Suillus granulatus and Suillus luteus were introduced to Australia from Europe with exotic trees.

A bolete is a fungus with a cap and stalk that has a series of small pores on the underside of the cap, instead of gills. The pores may be either round or angular. The spores are formed inside the pores and they drop out of the pores when mature.

Pores are the 'mouths' or openings of tubes. A cross-section of a bolete shows the narrow tubes compacted.

Caps of Suillus granulatus are convex (dome-shaped) at first, becoming broardly convex, then flattening, sometimes disfiguring. The cap is viscid (sticky or slimy), although, in my limited experience, not always. There should be no remnants of partial veil on the rim of the cap or on the stem.

Stem is white, speckled with brown, and is not always centrally placed. Pores are yellow, aging to a dull yellow, and flesh is white to pale yellow. Spore print is yellow-brown.

Suillus granulatus stem is sometimes off-centre

Caps can turn up with age

My sightings of Suillus granulatus

[This will be updated with new sightings]

Greta, NSW - under exotic pines - Mar, May.

Hanging Rock, NSW - on the edge of pine plantation - Apr.

Suillus granulatus on the edge of pine plantation at Hanging Rock. Note the collapsed fungus (front right) - these boletes, like many, collapse and decay quickly and are often infested with magots.

#20 Suillus luteus

With the help of other amateur fungi enthusiasts, I have established that the most recognisable physical difference (for amateurs) between Suillus luteus and Suillus granulatus is the presence or absence of a ring or annulus.

In some fungus species a partial veil initially covers the pores or gills. As the fruit body expands and matures, the partial veil usually breaks to form a 'ring' on the stem. Suillus luteus usually has the remnants of the veil hanging on the upper quarter of the stem, while Suillus granulatus does not. This feature makes it a little easier to distinguish between these two boletes that are otherwise very similar in appearance, both of which are from family Suillaceae.

Freshly emerged Suillus luteus have a gelatinous coating

Suillus luteus (commonly called Slippery Jack) is mychorrhizal with various exotic conifers, meaning that it forms a symbiotic relationship with pines. Therefore, people who are fond of eating wild mushrooms can often pick up a feed (yes, they are reported to be edible) amongst, or on the outskirts, of pine plantations. However, I can not vouch for their palatability. Both Suillus luteus and Suillus granulatus were introduced to Australia from Europe with exotic trees.

The partial veil tears away from the cap

Caps are convex (dome-shaped) at first, and very glutinous (jelly-like). They flatten as they mature, reaching a diameter of up to 150mm, and are viscid (sticky or slimy).

Pores are yellow, aging to a dirty yellow. A brown annulus forms on the upper portion of the stem, sometimes falling off leaving a purplish brown band or stain. The white or cream stem (or stipe) is covered in fine brown speckles. Spore print is yellow-brown.

Speckled stem and remnants of a ring

Yellow pores age to a dirty yellow, and flesh is pale yellow

My sightings of Suillus luteus

[This will be updated with new sightings]

Hanging Rock, NSW - in and around pine plantations - Mar, Apr, May.

Mount Royal National Park - under exotic pines - Jun.

I encountered collectors in pine plantations of Hanging Rock. They sliced the fungi and spread them out to dry.