Sir John Burton Cleland CBE was a renowned Australian naturalist, microbiologist, mycologist and ornithologist. He was Professor of Pathology at the University of Adelaide and was consulted on high-level police inquiries, such as the famous Taman Shud Case in 1948 and later. He also studied the transmission of dengue virus by the mosquito Stegomyia fasciata.
The Fungi of Australia form an enormous and phenomenally diverse group, a huge range of freshwater, marine and terrestrial habitats with many ecological roles, for example as saprobes, parasites and mutualistic symbionts of algae, animals and plants, and as agents of biodeterioration. Where plants produce, and animals consume, the fungi recycle, and as such they ensure the sustainability of ecosystems.
Armillaria luteobubalina, commonly known as the Australian honey fungus, is a species of mushroom in the family Physalacriaceae. Widely distributed in southern Australia, the fungus is responsible for a disease known as Armillaria root rot, a primary cause of Eucalyptus tree death and forest dieback. It is the most pathogenic and widespread of the six Armillaria species found in Australia. The fungus has also been collected in Argentina and Chile. Fruit bodies have cream- to tan-coloured caps that grow up to 10 cm (4 in) in diameter and stems that measure up to 20 cm (8 in) long by 1.5 cm (1 in) thick. The fruit bodies, which appear at the base of infected trees and other woody plants in autumn (March–April), are edible, but require cooking to remove the bitter taste. The fungus is dispersed through spores produced on gills on the underside of the caps, and also by growing vegetatively through the root systems of host trees. The ability of the fungus to spread vegetatively is facilitated by an aerating system that allows it to efficiently diffuse oxygen through rhizomorphs—rootlike structures made of dense masses of hyphae.
Omphalotus nidiformis, or ghost fungus, is a gilled basidiomycete mushroom most notable for its bioluminescent properties. It is known to be found primarily in southern Australia and Tasmania, but was reported from India in 2012 and 2018. The fan or funnel shaped fruit bodies are up to 30 cm (12 in) across, with cream-coloured caps overlain with shades of orange, brown, purple, or bluish-black. The white or cream gills run down the length of the stipe, which is up to 8 cm (3 in) long and tapers in thickness to the base. The fungus is both saprotrophic and parasitic, and its fruit bodies are generally found growing in overlapping clusters on a wide variety of dead or dying trees.
Porpolomopsis lewelliniae, commonly known as the mauve splitting wax-cap, is a gilled fungus of the waxcap family found in wet forests of eastern Australia and New Zealand. The small mauve- or lilac-coloured mushrooms are fairly common and appear in moss or leaf litter on the forest floor in autumn, and are biotrophic. The key distinguishing feature is the splitting of the cap dividing down the middle of the individual gills.
Macrolepiota clelandii, commonly known as the slender parasol or graceful parasol, is a species of mushroom-forming fungus in the family Agaricaceae. The species is found in Australia and New Zealand, where it fruits singly or in small groups on the ground in eucalypt woodlands, parks, and roadsides. It is a tall mushroom up to roughly 20 cm (8 in), with a broad cap covered with distinctive rings of dark brown scales. The whitish gills on the cap underside are closely spaced and free from attachment to the slender stipe, which has a loose ring on its upper half, and a bulbous base. The edibility of the mushroom is not known with certainty, but closely related parasol mushrooms are edible and some are very sought after.
Pholiota communis is a species of fungus in the family Strophariaceae. It is found in Southeastern Australia. The small brown mushrooms appear in leaf litter of pines and eucalypts in autumn and winter.
Amanita ochrophylla is a fungus of the family Amanitaceae native to southeastern Australia. Its large and distinctive buff fruit bodies are common after rainfall.
John Henry Warcup was a New Zealand-born mycologist. He moved to the United Kingdom to undertake his PhD, examining distribution of fungi through soil profiles at Lakenheath Warren, in the University of Cambridge's botany department. He worked as a member of the Botany Department in the British Forestry Commission until 1951, when he accepted a position as a senior microbiologist in the Department of Plant Pathology at the then Waite Agricultural Research Institute, University of Adelaide where he worked until his retirement in 1986. In 1996 he was honoured by the British Mycological Society, becoming a Centenary Fellow. Warcup published over 70 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and was best known for his work with orchid mycorrhizal fungi, along with Aspergillus and Penicillium species. He was the patron of the Australasian Mycological Society, and two monotypic genera of fungi: Warcupia and Warcupiella (family Trichocomaceae) are named in his honour.
František Bubák was a Czech mycologist and phytopathologist.
Austrocortinarius australiensis, commonly known as the skirt webcap, is a species of mushroom in the family Cortinariaceae which is native to Australia and New Zealand. The white mushrooms appear in autumn and can grow very large, with their caps reaching 30 cm (12 in) in diameter.
Uromycladium is a genus of rust fungi in the family Pileolariaceae. It was circumscribed by mycologist Daniel McAlpine in 1905. The genus was established by McAlpine for rusts on Acacia with teliospores that clustered at the top of a pedicel.
Uromycladium tepperianum is a rust fungus that infects over 100 species of Acacia and related genera including Paraserianthes in Australia, south-east Asia, the south Pacific and New Zealand. The acacia gall rust fungus species Uromycladium tepperianum has been introduced to South Africa as a biological control on the invasive Australian shrub Acacia saligna.
Kenneth A. Harrison was a Canadian mycologist. He was for many years a plant pathologist at what is now the Atlantic Food and Horticulture Research Centre in Nova Scotia. After retirement, he contributed to the taxonomy of the Agaricomycotina, particularly the tooth fungi of the families Hydnaceae and Bankeraceae, in which he described several new species.
Dorothy E. Shaw (1920–2007) was an Australian plant pathologist, best known for her work on coffee leaf rust and discovery of several species of fungi.
Charles Clifton Brittlebank was an Australian plant pathologist, mycologist, scientific illustrator, university lecturer and farmer. In all of his endeavours he became outstanding in his field, gaining international acclaim for his discoveries and publications. In February 1992 he was officially commemorated by the naming of the road Brittlebank Circuit, in the suburb of Banks, in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory.
Pedro Willem Crous is a South African mycologist and plant pathologist.
Lilian Ross Fraser was an Australian botanist. She became the first woman inducted as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science.
Stephen Denis Garrett was a British plant pathologist and mycologist who did pioneering work on soil-borne pathogens, root pathology and soil ecology. He was the first to apply ecological concepts to interactions in the soil. Much of his research used as a model system the fungus Gaeumannomyces graminis, which causes the important cereal disease take-all. He also studied Armillaria root rot of trees, among other plant diseases.
Macalpinomyces is a fungus genus in the Ustilaginaceae family.
