#39 Scleroderma cepa

While puffballs are not as aesthetically appealing as the fungi showing off brilliant colours or fancy form, they are fascinating in their own right.

Scleroderma cepa belongs to the tough skinned puffball genus.

Scleroderma cepa amongst sparse grass

My observations of Scleroderma cepa match well with reliable sources. Fruit bodies grow to about 60mm in diameter, yellow-brown in colour, smooth at first, reticulated and cracked with age, folding back in lobes to expose the purple-brown spore mass.

Unlike the soft-skinned puffballs, Scleroderma cepa is never soft to touch. The gleba (immature spore mass) remains compacted for some time before the spores mature. When the top of the fruit body cracks and peels back, the mature spores are dispersed by the elements.

A wide range of habitats appears suitable for this puffball - I have found it in grassy areas (lawns and parks), semi-arid woodland, and it is reportedly common in mixed forest.

Scleroderma cepa is often partly buried by soil,
and the top is often somewhat flattened.

An immature specimen shows the internal white skin turning brown, and a solid speckled purplish-black spore mass.

The internal skin has turned yellow with cracking

The skin on the top has peeled back in lobes
to expose the mature purplish spore mass

As the fruit body ages, lobes flatten and spores disperse

Finally, after the spores have completely dispersed, the tough skin remains, and is sometimes confused with the remains of an Earthstar fungus (Geastrum).

My sightings of Scleroderma cepa

[This will be updated with more sightings]

Hunter Region Botanic Gardens, Heatherbrae, NSW - in sparse grass Jul 2010.

Baradine, NSW - in sparse grass in residential lawn Jun 2010, Jul 2010, Apr 2012, Jun 2012.

Binnaway, NSW - in sparse grass in park Jul 2010.

Maitland, Hunter Valley, NSW - in sparse grass amongst scattered native trees.

#23 Bolbitius vitellinus

Bolbitius vitellinus, Egg-yolk Fieldcap, from family Bolbitiaceae, is commonly found on fertilised lawns and rich organic material. Pronunciation is Boll-bit-ee-uss vit-elle-line-uss.

Appearance can be very variable, but the yellow slimy 'button' emerging is a readily identifiable feature of Egg-yolk Fieldcaps. Young caps can be distinctly bell-shaped, but more often are egg-shaped or round. But yellow caps are always viscid (slimy or sticky).

Caps dry out very quickly, expanding to become broadly convex (domed) or bell-shaped, eventually flattening and fading to off-white or beige. The flattened caps can also exhibit variations, some with a shallow central depression, and some with a slight umbo (domed central swelling).

These cap variations can make identification of mature specimens difficult, but one more feature that is always present and will help identification, is the marginal striations (furrows or lines) on the faded cap. Mature caps will be smooth, dry and shiny, but can vary in size from 15mm to about 50mm.

Egg-yolk Fieldcaps at different stages of maturity: right is a young yellow, slimy, newly emerged convex fungus cap; left is an umbonate cap that has lost its stickiness and most of the yellow colour; and centre is a mature flattened cap showing yellow gills. Notice the fine vertical striations on the rim of the left specimen, and the dry cap edge of the centre sample showing striations - this is an important identifying feature.

Height and thickness of the stalk of Bolbitius vitellinus is also variable, and can range from 30 to 120mm high with a diameter of 3 to 10mm. The stalk is hollow, and both the stalk and the young cap are fragile and will crumble easily if disturbed.

The yellow stalk is distinctively 'powdery' or scaly, and my observations indicate that this scaliness remains as the fungus ages.

Distribution of Bolbitius vitellinus, according to FungiMap of Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, includes eastern NSW, eastern and southern Victoria, Tasmania, southeast SA, and SW Western Australia from about Perth to Esperance. The main fruiting period is April to August.

Note that the middle of the three fungi has a slight central depression in the mature cap, and all stages of maturity feature some degree of 'scaliness' on the stem

Gills age from a pretty yellow to a dirty yellow (below). I obtained a rusty-brown or cinnamon-brown spore print.

My sightings of Bolbitius vitellinus, Egg-yolk Fieldcap

[This will be updated with new sightings]

Hunter Region Botanic Gardens - Heatherbrae, on mulched garden - May, Sep.

This image illustrates the variation in size of mature Egg-yolk Fieldcaps with a slender cap 15mm wide with thin stalks up to about 80mm high, while others I saw had larger, thicker caps and were up to 50mm wide with short stumpy stems.

#19 Omphalina chromacea

This dainty little yellow fungus is Omphalina chromacea, common name Yellow Navel, from family Tricholomataceae. Pronunciation is Omfa-lee-na crow-may-see-ah.

There is an oddity associated with this species: it grows in conjunction with a mat of green algae on the ground. It is commonly found amongst bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts), or on bare ground, but the alga is always present. It is thought by some mycologists that it is likely Omphalina chromacea may be the fungal component of a lichen (a symbiosis between an alga and a fungus). The alga is most likely Coccomyxa.

Young Omphalina chromacea with down-turned scalloped rim

Caps can be up to 25mm diameter, and start out convex (domed) with wavy or grooved margin, with a central depression. As the fungus matures, the cap flattens and then becomes funnel-shaped.

Gills are decurrent (running partway down the stem), and are yellow. The central stem can be up to 20mm high by 2mm wide. Spore print is white.

Omphalina chromacea is found in native forests in south-eastern and south-western Australia, often on the sides of tracks and banks where there has been disturbance.

Following the June 2007 Hunter Valley floods, I found many groups of Omphalina chromacea in Werakata National Park in the lower Hunter where the ground had been extremely wet. A mat of green algae was surrounding all I observed.

Omphalina chromacea amongst moss

My sightings of Omphalina chromacea

[This will be updated with new sightings]

Werakata National Park, NSW - In and on the edges of Leptospermum and Eucalyptus forest: Jul, Aug, Oct, Jun 2011, Jul 2011.

Cassilis, NSW - Under scattered Eucalypts: Jul.

The green algal mat is very obvious

#18 Aleurina ferruginea

Aleurina ferruginea is from family Pyronemataceae. It appears to be relatively common in mixed forests following good rain.

Pyronemataceae is a large family of cup, disc or ear shaped fungi. Aleurina ferruginea grow singly or gregariously (scattered, or loose groups). I have found them in two different habitats on different substrate (growing surface). My first sighting of this species was in alpine woodland growing on rotting wood, while my second sighting was in Leptospermum (tea-tree) scrub on clay soil.

Appearing brighter yellow than in situ due to use of flash

The shallow discs I have seen were up to 15mm wide and up to about 6mm deep. The yellowish outer surface was finely velvety with tiny brownish 'warts'. The inner surface was greenish-yellow and smooth.

On rotting wood in New England National Park

My sightings of Aleurina ferruginea

[This will be updated with new sightings]

New England National Park, NSW - on rotting fallen wood in alpine eucalypt and grass woodland - May 2007.

Werakata National Park, Cessnock, NSW - on soil in Leptospermum scrub - Jul 2007, July 2010.

Brunkerville (via Cessnock) NSW - on damp soil Jun 2010, Aug 2010, May 2011.

On soil in Leptospermum scrub

#2 Cyptotrama aspratum

Cyptotrama aspratum (common name - Gold Tufts), family Marasmiaceae, is a small delicate agaric growing on dead wood in moist forests. It is distinctive with it's yellow cap covered in pointed fibrillose scales when young, which fall off as the cap expands and flattens with age.

Gills are white and rather widely spaced. Spore print white (I have not obtained a spore print). Stem is white with a yellow tinge, darker at the base, and is warty. It grows singly or in small groups.

Distribution - as far as I am aware, distribution is limited to SE Qld, eastern NSW, SE Vic, Tas, and SE South Australia.

A young specimen 12mm high x 8mm wide

My sightings of Cyptotrama aspratum

[This will be updated with new sightings]

Barrington Tops National Park NSW - Rainforest flanking Williams River on dead wood: Mar 2003, Feb 2005.

Brunkerville, NSW - on dead wood in wet native forest, May 2011, Jun 2011, May 2012.

Tiny 2 to 3mm spikey buttons are newly emerging Cyptotrama aspratum on dead wood beside a maturing specimen

The flattened mature cap has lost its conical tufts

White, rather distant, gills of a mature specimen