Beyond the Seed

Review by Vanessa Ryan

Donna Davis, QMS member and Brisbane Botanic Gardens artist-in-residence for 2013-14, recently held her Beyond the Seed exhibition at the Richard Randall Studio, Mt Cootha Botanic Gardens. The mixed media installation creatively explored the complex symbiotic relationships between native plants and fungi.

Donna uses a mixed range of materials and media to represent connections and relationships within the natural world in a way which evokes curiosity and reflection. She believes that the art/science field provides a powerful catalyst to challenge our discourse, raise environmental awareness and promote the conservation of our ecology; by providing new ways of 'seeing' and creating new 'connections' in the mind of the viewer.


Beyond the Seed was a continuation of her 2013 residency project, The Plant Room. This time she investigated the hidden connections beneath our feet that impact the soil, and in turn, seed germination and plant health. It was a visual and tactile exploration of the fascinating world of fungi, with their mycelium networks and mycorrhizal associations that provide vital nutrient exchange between fungi and plants.

The exhibition featured large-scale, soft sculptures of fungus species which grow in similar conditions to the native plants that were the focus of The Plant Room. Boletellus emodensis, Amanita pyramidfera, Amanita luteolovelata, and Clavaria miniata have each been thoughtfully and carefully recreated in a manner which best represents key aspects of those particular species. To someone who knows a bit about our local fungi, the species are instantly recognisable – for example: the classic pyramidal warts of the Amanita pyramidfera and the wonderful shaggy cap and golden pores of Boletellus emodensis. Donna's choice of fabrics for these soft sculptures alludes perfectly to the colours and textures of the fungi they represent. The immediate impulse is to touch the sculptures and explore their structure and, on doing so (yes, you can touch them!), some of the complexity of the fungus organism is revealed.

The free-standing sculptures filled the central display area of the intimate gallery area. The exhibition also included large-format digital images projected on one wall in a continuous loop. Donna created these digital images by merging and manipulating photographs of small, highly detailed sculptures she had crafted from resin and other materials.





A tube of woven copper wire (Viking Knitting) features in a number of the digital works in the exhibition. Donna uses a technique she describes as ‘digital crochet’, where she digitally replicates, resizes and positions images of the tube to form an intricate design strongly suggestive of a plant root or fungal mycelium system. A large, printed image of this complex structure was hung in pride of place on the main exhibition wall.

Also mounted on one of the walls was a series of four sculptural elements representing native plant seeds. As with all of Donna's creations, this piece was made primarily from recycled materials.

Donna is an imaginative and highly skilled artist. Her works are carefully designed and crafted, with many layers of research, experimentation and development behind them. This results in pieces which I find to be a successful and thought provoking fusion of art and science.

I think Beyond the Seed can best be summed up, however, by the simple and honest reactions of an elderly lady and a young child who entered the gallery just as I was leaving. At first they were hesitant, curious, unsure. This quickly turned to exclamations of wonder and smiles of delight.

The Beyond the Seed exhibition ran from March 21-29 and has now been demounted from the Richard Randall Studio. Hopefully this installation will have a few more exhibition opportunities over the coming year.

Donna will soon be starting on a new project with the working title: "Ipswich Fungi". This project will involve regular visits to the Purga Nature Refuge, home of the endangered Swamp Tea-tree, to document the fungi that grow in and around this species. The physical documentation she collects will be passed onto the Qld Mycological Society and Qld Herbarium and the visual stimulus and research will form part of a concept development for a new body of artworks. So watch this space!

Donna's website and blog.

Update Nov 2015

We are all delighted that Donna Davis has won Donna Davis the Sunshine Coast Environment Art Award 2015

Lichens of Morwell National Park

By Simone Louwhoff

For those interested in lichens, there is now a brochure on the Lichens of Morwell National Park with 83 images of common and/or conspicuous lichens including Peltigera dolichorhiza, Xanthoria parietina, Usnea and Cladonia species, Pertusaria pertractata, Ramalina celastri and many others that people will recognise in the field.

The brochure is 10 x 22 cm and is printed on glossy, high quality paper. It consists of 12 panels of which 9 have photos of lichens, grouped according to growth form and/or colour (crustose, fruticose, light foliose and dark foliose). These are interspersed with text boxes containing facts about some of the lichen groups mentioned.

       Xanthoria parientina         
   (Ken Harris)      

A map of the park, showing tracks and vegetation categories (EVCs) takes up two panels and the last panel has general information on lichens, terminology and useful websites. The brochure is suitable for other areas with similar habitat to that found at Morwell National Park (Ecological Vegetation Classes: damp forest, herb-rich foothill forest, swamp scrub, warm temperate rainforest and wet forest).

Usnea inermis 
      (Ken Harris)   
   

Text is by Simone Louwhoff, photos by Ken Harris and Helga Binder was the graphic designer. The brochure is for sale in the Fungimapbookshop for $5 and proceeds go to Fungimap, South East Australian Naturalists’ Association Inc. (SEANNA), Latrobe Valley Field Naturalist Club Inc. and Friends of Morwell National Park Inc. We hope you enjoy using it!

The brochure is a culmination of fieldwork undertaken from 2007 to 2012 at Morwell National Park. The park is situated in the foothills of the Strzelecki Ranges, 8 km SE of Churchill in the Latrobe Valley, Gippsland (South-eastern Victoria). It was declared in 1967 and extended in 1987 and is now close to 500 hectares in size. Despite its small size, Morwell National Park contains a range of different habitats including wet fern gullies, dry eucalypt ridges and steep hillsides with tall eucalypt forest.

     Cladonia humilis (Ken Harris)   

The overall aim of the project was to identify and record all macrolichens and the more common and/or conspicuous microlichens and to publish this information. Thirteen tracks intersect the Park, which were divided into sections for ease of surveying. All vegetation, as well as rock and soil in each of these sections were examined for lichens and these were either identified on the spot or collected for identification with a microscope back at the laboratory. Lichens on trees were surveyed up to a height that was accessible (approx 2 m) and in addition any fallen trees in sections were examined to look for canopy lichens. 

Pertusaria pertractata (Ken Harris)

Lichens were recorded photographically for each section and entered into a database which is accessible via a website maintained by the Friends of MorwellNational Park. It is estimated that the surveying method has resulted in the recording of almost all macrolichens and up to 75% of microlichens occurring in the park. The latter are often inconspicuous and also more difficult to identify and hence it is likely that a number of these lichens will remain unidentified for now. 

          Peltigera dolichorhiza (Ken Harris)          

New Fungimap Patron - Prof. Tim Entwisle (Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria)

Fungimap is delighted that Professor Tim Entwisle, Director and Chief Executive of Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria has agreed to take up the role of Patron of the organisation.

Professor Tim Entwisle

Professor Entwisle is a highly respected scientist, scientific communicator and botanic gardens director. Tim's scientific expertise is in freshwater algae but he has broad interests across all plants and related life forms. During his time as Manager of the Plant Sciences Branch at RBGV in the 1990s, Tim actively supported fungi research at the Gardens. Since then he has held senior roles at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew and Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust in Sydney, before returning to Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria as Director in March 2013.

Tim's recent book Sprinter and Sprummer: Australia’s Changing Seasons, challenges the use of the traditional four seasons in Australia (and includes a section on the time of appearance of fungi, utilising data from Fungimap). Tim is a frequent guest on Australian radio and television, hosting ABC Radio National’s first gardening show, Talking Plants, and contributing regularly to RN’s Blueprint for Living.

Tim takes a very wide view of 'plants' in his informative and entertaining Talking Plants blog, including posts on algae and fungi from time to time, such as:

• Slime mold hardly dog vomit or scrambled egg 

• Fungal farm to wormy wood: the ambrosia story

• Sooty mould makes a killer honey

• Royal Mycologic Gardens, Kew

Tim presented a fascinating talk based on his fungi blog posts at the Rawson Fungimap VII Conference in 2013. We look forward to seeing him at future Fungimap events.

               Fungimap's first Patron, Professor Jim Ross            

We'd also like to pay tribute to Fungimap's first Patron, Professor Jim Ross, who commenced in the role when Fungimap was set up in 2005 as an incorporated association. Prof. Ross was a long-time Chief Botanist and Director of the Plant Sciences & Biodiversity Division at RBGV, and was invited to be the inaugural Patron in recognition of his steadfast support of Fungimap from the inception of the fungi mapping scheme in the mid-1990s to emergence as a national community group for Australian fungi. In particular, the establishment of the Fungimap office at RBGV was critical for the development of the organisation, and the national office is still hosted there today. At RBG Victoria, Prof. Ross was visionary in placing mycology firmly within the science program, recruiting not just one but two Mycologists (Dr Tom May and Dr Teresa Lebel). We thank Prof. Ross for all his efforts on behalf of Fungimap and wish him well in his retirement. 

Fungi infiltrate Landcare – a few Landcarers' impressions

by Alison Pouliot

            Fistulina hepatica. Image: Alison Pouliot            

Next year Landcare Australia celebrates its 30th birthday. Since the first Landcare group was founded by farmers near St Arnaud in Victoria in 1986, over 4000 Landcare groups have sprung up across the country. The concept has also caught on in over 20 other countries. During that time Landcarers have addressed various land degradation issues by fencing off waterways, eradicating weeds and feral animals, creating windbreaks for livestock protection, controlling erosion and planting hundreds of thousands of trees.

The Landcare website states 'Landcare is a grassroots movement that harnesses individuals and groups to protect, restore and sustainably manage Australia’s natural environment and its productivity...The keystones of Landcare are that it is community owned and driven, it is bi-partisan in nature, it encourages integrated management of environmental assets with productive farmland and a more sustainable approach to private land management'. Landcare is a great success story. However, despite the enormous efforts of Landcare to restore ecosystems, something is conspicuously missing from concepts of biodiversity. Fungi. A foray back through the history of Landcare reveals that fungi have been almost totally overlooked in efforts to understand ecosystem function and in the restoration of landscapes. That is, until now. It seems that things are gradually changing and fungi are slowly creeping into the Landcare paradigm.

This autumn, over 200 Landcarers participated in a series of fungal ecology workshops and forays across Victoria and NSW. Participants were keen to understand the role of fungi in maintaining soils and their relationships with plants. In particular, they were interested in understanding the ways in which they could actively incorporate fungi into their land restoration projects. Landcare members were especially interested in the Aboriginal use of the beefsteak fungus (see Fistulina hepatica above).

           Cordyceps robertsii. Image: Alison Pouliot         
     

At a workshop held in Stanley in northern Victoria, Regional Landcare Facilitator from the North East Catchment Management Authority, Kelly Behrens explained 'We want to expand people’s knowledge of the ecological importance of fungi, so they are better equipped to manage their properties in a more sustainable way that considers the complexity of ecosystems'. Workshop participants included farmers, horticulturalists, arborists, Landcarers and others who came from far and wide to learn about the significance of fungi in forest, woodland and agricultural ecosystems. Despite the dry start to autumn, various fungi were found on the field trip through Blue Gum Gully and Stanley Recreation Reserve. The old eucalypts around the oval sported various bracket fungi including the curry punk, Piptoporus australiensis and the beefsteak fungus Fistulina hepatica. The vermillion coloured scarlet bracket Pycnoporus coccineus was found on fallen wood. Several large Phlebopus marginatus and Phylloporus clelandii were also found among the eucalypts. Richard Ahearn from Albury Environmental Crown Lands commented, 'The workshop provided valuable understanding of the role of fungi in the natural environment. In my role as a Natural Resource Manager responsible for both the restoration and maintenance of habitat for threatened species in the Albury area, I will now look for opportunities to enhance habitat for fungi around valuable old trees as well for new plantings of trees and shrubs. The workshop opened my mind to a whole new field in environmental management.'

Following a well-attended fungus field day at Lankey's Creek last autumn, Kylie Durant from Holbrook Landcare organised two further fungal ecology workshops this autumn at Tumbarumba and Mullengandra, NSW. Participants viewed and handled various fungus specimens and learnt the basics of identifying fungi in the field. Participants were especially interested in various Cordyceps species including Cordyceps gunnii, C. robertsii and C. hawkesii.

Despite the dry conditions at Mullengandra, Landcare members
keenly spotted various wood-decay fungi. Image: Kylie Durant.

At the Mullengandra workshop, Stephanie Jakovic recalled collecting fungi in her homeland of Slovenia commenting that 'Collecting fungi is one way of getting back to nature. It includes walking through the forest and being in touch with nature.' This sentiment was shared by many and despite finding only a few fungi, all enjoyed the wander through the woodland thinking about and discussing the importance of fungi to ecosystem function. Sam Niedra from the Nature Conservation Trust of NSW said 'The workshop made me better appreciate the diversity of fungi and their ecological function, and made me realise how little attention I’d been paying to them.'  Despite the dry conditions at Mullengandra, Landcare members keenly spotted various wood-decay fungi including Pycnoporus coccineus, Trametes versicolor, Piptoporus australiensis and Schizophyllum commune.

Identifying Suillus granulatus in the Wagga Wagga Botanical  Gardens.
Image: Kimberley Beattie

Further north, landcarers at a workshop in Crowther organised by Young district Landcare and Mid Lachlan Landcare were keen to understand fungi in the context of their squirrel glider conservation project. Penny Gibson from Young district Landcare commented, 'It was the great variety of fungi that we have seen here over the last nearly three decades that prompted me to enrol in the Fungi Workshop. What I learned both shocked and thrilled me. What I heard about the beneficial role that fungi play in the overall health and vitality of the natural world may only be a tip of the iceberg'.

Favolaschia calocera - Orange Ping-pong Bats
This exotic species was recorded for the first time in the
 Otways on the recent Southern Otways Landcare foray.
Image: Alison Pouliot

The dryness didn't deter forayers attending a workshop run by Murrumbidgee Landcare at Bowning, NSW. Landcarer, Kathryn McGuirk said 'I often see white fungi branches when I hand dig a hole when planting a new tree - when I see this in the future I know that I am putting my new tree in a good growing environment'. Leslie Instone commented, 'I was particularly fascinated by the way fungus makes complex relations with trees, algae as well as humans and other animals, and the many beautiful and interesting forms it takes. The emphasis on the importance of fungi for biodiversity made me think about the hidden worlds just below the surface, and the importance of small things.'

Murrumbidgee Landcarers who participated in a foray in the Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens were excited to discover several specimens of Aseroe rubra growing among the woodchips. The Gardens presented a variety of native and exotic fungi including the introduced species Suillus granulatus and Leccinum scabrum. Sue Chittick-Dalton from the Murrumbidgee Field Naturalists said 'The workshop opened up a brand new world in my life. Being a bird watcher, my eyes have always been ‘upwards’, but the amazing new world will necessitate a change of head-axis. I had no idea of the network beneath our feet and the symbiotic nature of the plant...'.

For the seventh consecutive year Southern Otways Landcare ran a foray and survey, organised by coordinator Libby Riches. Despite having to wrangle two weddings, which descended on our field site at Paradise (but whose guests quickly got shy of the torrential rain) over 40 species were recorded including a first record for the introduced species, Favolaschia calocera. Other Fungimap target species recorded included: Cortinarius persplendidus, Cortinarius austrovenetus, Ascorcoryne sarcoides, Plectania campylospora, Cordyceps gunnii, C. hawkesii, Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, Tremella mesenterica group, T. fuciformis, Macrotyphula juncea, Stereum ostrea, Mycoacia subceracea, Hericium coralloides, Podoserpula pusio, Omphalotus nidiformis, Mycena interrupta, M. nargan and Marasmius elegans.

Cortinarius austrovenetus. Image: Alison Pouliot

Cortinarius persplendidus. Image: Alison Pouliot