December 2004 AUSTRALIA’S FUNGI MAPPING SCHEME conference) and to support the organisation. Inside this Edition: The membership form is included on the Contacting Fungimap ..................................2 conference registration form. Non-paid-up Interesting Groups.......................................2 members will continue to receive the Book Review: A Field Guide to the Fungi of Newsletter for a year, after which time, only Australia ......................................................3 older editions of the newsletter will be Fungimap – colour supplement II………….….4 available on the Fungimap website. Please Fungimap Incorporated ...............................5 be aware that you will not be required to be Draft Fungimap Constitution.......................8 a Fungimap member to submit records. Fungimap – colour supplement II cont.…..…..9 Also included in this newsletter are sections News from Regional Coordinators and of the proposed Fungimap Constitution. We Groups.........................................................9 hope many of you will cast a critical eye Forthcoming Events ..................................13 over this material and inform us of your Acknowledgments.....................................14 thoughts and concerns. This is your chance Founding Donations ..................................14 to have real input into deciding the direction Insert: Conference Information, Registration & of the new organisation, before we put the Fungimap Membership form constitution to a vote at the inaugural AGM, which will be held at the Fungimap Conference in Tasmania. Please contact NEWS FROM THE FUNGIMAP Cassia (at Fungimap Central) with your COORDINATOR comments or speak with your Regional Coordinator. It’s with great pleasure we bring you this colour edition of the Fungimap Newsletter, Cassia Read highlighting some of the beautiful, strange Fungimap Coordinator and fascinating photos of fungi that are sent in to Fungimap. I am frequently delighted by the photos that pass across my desk and welcome this opportunity to share a selection of these images with you. There will be further celebrations of the artistic talents of Fungimappers at next year’s Fungimap Conference. Details of the conference, the exhibition and the children’s day have now been finalised and a registration form with detailed information is included in this newsletter. It looks set to be a thoroughly enjoyable and informative four days. A big thank you to Sarah Lloyd (Tasmanian Fungimap Coordinator) for all her assistance with organising this big event. Within these pages is important information about payment of MEMBERSHIP FEES and incorporation of Fungimap for your comment. Please take the time to read the article by Tom May (page 7), explaining why we need to become an incorporated organisation and why we need to begin charging a membership fee in 2005. The membership fee is for those who Registration form & further information wish to continue to receive the newsletter, inside. discounts on books and events (such as the Fungimap Newsletter 23 December 2004 CONTACTING FUNGIMAP Fungimap Central Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne Telephone: (03) 9252 2374 Private Bag 2000 E-mail: [email protected] South Yarra VIC 3141 Website: http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/fungimap/ Regional Coordinators New South Wales Western Australia Tasmania Bettye Rees Katrina Syme Sarah Lloyd C/- 10 Lloyd Avenue C/- RMB 1020 C/- 999 Denmans Road Hunters Hill NSW 2110 South Coast Hwy Birralee Tas 7303 E-mail: [email protected] Denmark WA 6333 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] South Australia Pam Catcheside Australian Capital Territory Western Australia (Kimberley Region) C/- 72 Eve Road Heino Lepp Matt Barrett Bellevue Heights SA 5050 C/- PO Box 38 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: Belconnen ACT 2616 [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] INTERESTING GROUPS SA Adelaide Fungal Studies Group WA Naturalists’ Club, Fungi Group Monthly meetings and forays during the fungi season. Fungal forays, workshops, identification evenings and Convenor: Pam Catcheside talks, based in Perth. Ph: (08) 8222 9379 (w) Contact: WA Naturalists’ Club E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.wanats.iinet.net.au/ NSW William Bay National Parks Sydney Fungal Studies Group Association, Fungi Studies Group Fungi forays, talks and workshops in the Sydney area. Fungi forays around Denmark. Secretary: Donald Gover Contact: Katrina Syme. Ph: (02) 9661 4898 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Central Coast Fungi Group Tas Fungi forays in the Central Coast region of NSW. Fungi Lovers Adventure Group (FLAG) Contact: Pam O’Sullivan Ph: (02) 4362 1543, or Fungi activities in northern Tasmania. Nikki Bennetts Ph: (02) 4392 1782 Contact: Sarah Lloyd Ph: (03) 6396 1380 WA Email: [email protected] Vic Perth Urban Fungi Project Vic Fungi workshops, walks, surveys in Perth Urban bush areas. Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, Contact: Roz Hart at the WA Herbarium Fungi Group Ph: (08) 9334 0500. Forays, monthly meetings & presentations. Contact: Ed and Pat Grey, Ph: (03) 9435 9019 The following two groups in WA organise events both Or Paul George (03) 9830 1551ah separately and together. 2 Fungimap Newsletter 23 December 2004 A FIELD GUIDE TO THE FUNGI OF AUSTRALIA BY A.M. YOUNG, ILLUSTRATED BY KAY SMITH Publisher: University of New South Wales Press Ltd, Sydney, 2004. 240pp paperback, 23 watercolours, 36 colour photographs, 260 line drawings, ISBN 0-86840-742-9, RRP $29.95. A review by Paul George Tony Young’s new book is aimed at ‘all those The excellent watercolour illustrations and line enthusiasts and naturalists who find our Australian drawings by Kay Smith deserve special mention. Those fungal flora beautiful and fascinating’. I am sure the familiar with the rather basic drawings in Young’s attractive layout, beautiful illustrations and clear, previous book will be pleasantly surprised to see the informative text will not disappoint the target audience. quality and clarity of Kay Smith’s line drawings. Her Some readers may wonder whether this new book is watercolours (and Young’s colour photos) are not merely aids to identification, but skilfully convey the simply a beautiful repackaging of Young’s previous book on fungi (Common Australian Fungi: A beauty and elegance of the macrofungi that attract so Bushwalkers Guide, revised edition, 2000). After all, many enthusiasts to the field. Of course, one would always like to see colour illustrations and photos for all both books are targeted at the naturalist/bushwalker/enthusiast and over 80% of the the species, but for the most part, the line drawings are species are covered in the previous book. However, quite adequate for identification. closer reading reveals that this book has been Where the toxicity of a species is known, it is clearly completely redesigned and rewritten. Indeed, it is labelled, although for many species this remains interesting to compare the entries for the same species unknown. Young discusses the difficulty in in both books and notice the differences – the establishing the edibility of Australian species in the descriptions generally are more detailed, more readable section ‘Fungi on the Menu’. Unfortunately, much and possibly more accurate in this latest book. All remains to be learnt on this topic, and apart from the illustrations are new and original. mandatory warnings, Young is unable to lend much The book contains over 170 species, with advice to the would-be cook. representatives from most major groups found Guidelines for collecting and preserving material throughout Australia. destined for scientific collections are included in the introductory chapters. This is valuable for the amateur The picture-based key to the genera is a pleasing alternative to the traditional and often daunting, who would like to extend his or her interest in fungi. dichotomous text-based keys. I am sure the novice will However, if collecting in the wild is to be encouraged, perhaps it is desirable to include an appropriate code of welcome the ease of use and simplicity of this approach. Although the pictorial key is imperfect and conduct for responsible collecting, including may be of limited value for genera or species not information regarding the regulatory constraints for collecting in National Parks and other protected areas. covered in this book, it does allow the novice to quickly identify the major groups (e.g. jelly, polypores, For a sample code for fungal enthusiasts, see the article leathery, toothed, gilled, etc) and allows gilled fungi to ‘Treading Lightly’ by Sapphire McMullen-Fischer and Sarah Lloyd in Fungimap Newsletter 20. be classified according to substrate (wood, soil, grassland, dung, etc). In the preface, the author highlights the ‘contradiction’ Each species is given a page (more or less) of text with that despite the growing interest in Australian a simple fine line drawing to illustrate the fruiting body macrofungi over the last two decades, perhaps only a quarter of these have yet been described, and (illustrations of basidia and spore shapes have been omitted, but this should not be of concern to most professional macrofungal mycologists ‘have almost vanished from the Australian professional sphere’. His readers). The botanical name is followed by common name(s), description of the fruiting body, spores, hope is that not only will popular interest continue to habitat & notes and distribution.