The numbers are in!
Fungimap is just completing its review of the National Australian Fungimap Database, which stores over 42,000 observational records of fungi from around Australia. In 2012, 3,166 new records were submitted by Fungimappers, every one of them checked and entered into the database by one of our amazing volunteers. This is a 27% increase on the records submitted and entered in 2011.
Close to 15% of these records were supported by a photograph - a number we hope will increase to 25% over the next couple of years. (It is difficult to assess whether a fungus has been correctly identified without a photograph - and even then it may not be possible as some species can only be determined through microscopic or spore print analysis.)
Here are the 25 Most Common Fungi Reported from Australia in 2012*
1 Amanita xanthocephala
2 Omphalotus nidiformis
3 Oudemansiella radicata
4 Amanita muscaria
5 Tremella mesenterica (and group)
6 Mycena interrupta
7 Schizophyllum commune
8 Dictyopanus pusillus
9 Stereum ostrea
10 Amauroderma rude
11 Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa
12 Omphalina chromacea
13 Anthracophyllum archeri
14 Tremella fuciformis
15 Mycena viscidocruenta
16 Marasmius elegans
17 Mycoacia subceracea
18 Plectania campylospora
19 Stereum hirsutum group
20 Armillaria luteobubalina
21 Gymnopilus junonius
22 Leotia lubrica
23 Piptoporus australiensis
24 Poronia erici
25 Cortinarius rotundisporus
Except for #11 Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa (a native slime mould found on woods reported in 2012 predominantly from New South Wales and Tasmania, and which looks a bit like small white icicles) all of these species are featured in Fungimap's field guide to Australian fungi, Fungi Down Under.
*Some links provided are to species pages in the Fungimap Online Field Guide (in development), and others link to the species information on the Atlas of Living Australia; because the ALA sources contextual information about species from across the internet, Fungimap can make no comment about the reliability or accuracy of the information found on external sites.
