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Posts tagged edible Australian fungi

In search of Woorda

May 9, 2021 · Filed under Edible but untried, Edible Fungi · Tagged Australian edible mushrooms, Ebile blue staining bolete Australia, edible Australian fungi

There is not a lot of information around on the fungi eaten by indigenous people in Australia before the arrival of Europeans. One of the few references on the topic is by James Drummond who arrived in the Swan River Colony in the year it was founded, 1829.

He was a botanist and a keen observer and recorder of the local flora as well as the diet of the original inhabitants. The following is a snippet from a letter he wrote to the Perth Enquirer in May 1842.

I have often wondered if it might be possible to identify the blue staining bolete that he describes as Woorda. There are many blue staining boletes in Western Australia and I know of several that people have eaten but none of them fit the description he gives. I had long suspected that it might be a Gyroporus since members of that genus are eaten elsewhere on the globe and with one exception they appear to all be edible.

A paper published in 2019 gives us some some useful information about Gyroporus in Australia. It is titled “Three New Species of Gyroporus (Boletales, Basidiomycota) from Australia”. In it is a description of Gyroporus occidentalis with an explanation that it is the only rapidly blue staining member of the genus from WA.

I was fortunate enough to spot one of these on a friend’s property this year and it is shown in the following video and photographs. It is recorded as growing from sandy soil (well, that’s most of the coastal plain!) and it’s range includes Perth. I think that there is a some chance that this is Woorda but see below for further possibilities.

The rapid blueing reaction in real time

In situ view showing cap surface and pores

Some of the features of this mushroom match the description in the paper closely. The cap is described as “dry, floccose to matted woolly to heavily appressed tomentose, yellow-white to yellow buff to dirty yellow, cyanescent, with slightly extended margin”. This close-up of the cap surface seems to match that description. I couldn’s see that the cap margin was extended though.

The pores are yellow and cyanescent and approximately 0.3mm in diameter with a typically pentagonal outline.

Anther interesting aspect of this is the name Woorda. Of course transcriptions of language are subject to errors and interpretations and so forth but the records of Daisy Bates provide for some interesting reading. These are available in digital form here. The many words recorded as meaning mushroom are provided on the site as a map. shown below. It triggers the question of whether the diversity of names matches the diversity of species that were part of the diet.

Map of words for mushroom from digital Daisy Bates site

The term Woorda appears in a dictionary of Balardong Noongar language as meaning fungus. It is difficult to know if this is a generic word or refers to the specific fungus that Drummond mentions. He does seem to infer that it is specific. It is notable that, at the time he wrote to the Enquirer, he had been farming at Toodjay (Duidgee) which is in Balardong country. That would imply that the range of the fungus includes Balardong country. I am not sure if Gyroporus occidentalis extends out this far but it will be interesting to find out.

Noongar groups. Attribute John D. Croft, English Wikipedia

The situation is complicated by the fact that there are other, rather similar looking blue staining boletes within Balardong country. One of these is documented by Doug Sawkins in his excellent record of the fungi of Foxes Lair at Narrogin. His very large blue staining bolete is similar in some ways to Gyroporus occidentalis but it lacks the chambered stem and has red tones where it has been attacked but insects. It matches one of Daisy Bates’ records of Woorda meaning ‘large mushroom’.

It is interesting to note that there is another record of the consumption of blue-staining boletes, in this case from Gippsland in Victoria It was made by the Silesian naturalist Lothar Becker who visited Australia in two trips in the period 1849-1865. This record is reported in a paper by May and Darragh in Historical Records of Australian Science, 2019, 30, 130-137, titled “The significance of mycological contributions by Lother Becker”.. A snippet from this is reproduced below.

Once again there is no information to identify this mushroom and there are many boletes that share this blue-staining property. I am not sure if there are any species that are common to Gippsland and Western Australia. We can rule out Phlebopus from Drummond’s comments and in any case they don’t always display blue staining. From time to time people report eating blue-staining mushrooms from various locations in Australia but sadly there is scant information regarding the actual identity of them. In some cases they have been eaten by people of European origin who have perhaps mistaken them for species from their home region. In one case in Western Australia consumption is recorded in a YouTube video and it was on the basis that boletes are generally non-toxic. This assumption has some statistical support but it remains the case that one of the few cases of fatal mushroom poisoning in Australia was from consumption of a bolete.

Laetiporus portentosus -White punk, poor tucker indeed

August 3, 2016 · Filed under Edible Fungi, Fungi, Potential edibles, Uncategorized · Tagged Australian edible fungi, Australian edible mushrooms, Australian mushrooms, bush tucker, edible Australian fungi, Laetiporus portentosus

There have been many reports from the times of early European settlement, all from Tasmania, of the Aboriginal people eating a white’ punk’ growing on trees. It has been widely assumed that this is Laetiporus portentosus, formerly known as Piptoporus portentosus.

This June I chanced upon a specimen of this lying on the ground in Bridgetown. It was quite a massive thing, weighing several kilos and it was saturated with water. That is why I assume was on the ground, having fallen from its position because of its weight. Here it is sitting on my dining room table.

Fallen Laetiporus portentosus on table

Here is another shot of it, this time showing the inside after I had cut it open with great difficulty. I don’t think this would have been possible with primitive tools.

Laetiporus portentosus cut open

You can see that the inside looks sort of cottony. In fact it more closely resembles polystyrene in texture. An attempt to eat a small piece of it revealed that it was about as edible as polystyrene too. Not even in an emergency could anyone possibly eat and digest this fungus. Perhaps the story is different with very small specimens but I am doubtful.

It is quite difficult to get a picture of one of these in-situ on a tree because they tend to grow quite high up. I was lucky enough to spot one by a road cutting near Donnybrook that enabled me to scramble up and take a picture with my phone. Here it is.

Laetiporus portentosus in situ

The fact that these are relatively few and far between and so high up on the trees is further evidence against them being used as food.

It is however widely reported that they were used as tinder and to carry fire. Some experiments revealed that a dried specimen could be ignited very readily and that it would smolder for a long time. By judicious control of the fire front on a smoldering specimen it could easily be kept aglow for hours. Uncontrolled burning of half a specimen lasted about 40 minutes. I made a short video of a small piece smoldering after it had been ignited. A still from that video is shown below.

A piece of Laetiporus portentosus smoldering

Leucoagaricus leucothites -with caution

April 27, 2016 · Filed under Edible Fungi · Tagged Australian edible fungi, Australian edible mushrooms, edible Australian fungi, Edible fungi Perth, edible mushrooms

Leucoagaricus leucothites

Leucoagaricus leucothites was formerly called Leucoagaricus naucinus and with the state of flux in taxonomy at present, it might have another name next year. It is a mushroom of worldwide distribution, widely known as an edible species but often recommended as a species to be avoided because it shares so many features with a couple of deadly Amanitas. For this reason nobody should attempt to eat these unless they are completely confident in being able to distinguish an Amanita.

I spotted the specimens above by the side of the road, which is a common place to find them. The caps are bright white with a satin texture. The shape of the large specimen in the picture is characteristic of this species. The underside features a hollow stem that widens a little at the base, but does not have a sac or volva like Amanita or Volvopluteus. The gills are at first white but darken a little at maturity. The spore print is bright white.

It is always a little scary eating something new but even more so when it is something with white gills and a white spore print. Nevertheless, after much checking and re-checking I fried some up and did a taste test. From descriptions elsewhere I had expected something more; it tasted just like Volvopluteus gloiocephalus. The mature specimen even looks a little like Volvopluteus.

One can only wonder how species like this manage to spread so far and wide. Apparently the spores of this one germinate very readily in a wide range of media so perhaps that has something to do with it. Anyway, another of our introduced species that is edible for what it is worth.

July 2022

This mushroom has had a few different names. One is Lepiota naucina. It was described as an edible species way back in 1901 in an excellent book by American Professor of Botany, George Francis Atkinson, called “Studies of American Fungi, Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous etc.” available on Project Gutenberg.

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Volvopluteus gloiocephalus – a common roadside species

January 19, 2016 · Filed under Edible Fungi, Fungi · Tagged Australian edible fungi, Australian edible mushrooms, bush tucker, edible Australian fungi, edible mushrooms, Volvariella speciosa

I was doing some research and maintenance today when I realised that I didn’t have a blog entry for this mushroom, though it is a very common one that I have been eating for 30 years. Perhaps I accidentally deleted it. It used to be known as Volvariella speciosa until quite recently when some DNA studies indicated that it should be placed in a new grouping.

If you are driving around Perth in wintertime, you will see this everywhere growing on roadside woodchip mulch. It also occurs on waste ground. It is not generally a good idea to eat mushrooms that grow by roadsides as they can accumulate various toxins. However, these are so widespread that it should be possible locate some that are growing in a safe spot.

One of the important things to know about this species is that it looks very similar to an Amanita. On the east coast, people have died after picking and eating the deadly Amanita phalloides, mistaking them for Volvariella volvaceae, the paddy straw mushroom of Southeast Asia and Queensland. It would be very easy to make a similar fatal mistake here in the West, confusing Volvopluteus with other species of Amanita. I have seen the two growing very close together and they are nearly impossible to tell apart. It is only when the mushroom reaches maturity and the rusty orange gills become evident that Volvopluteus becomes easy to identify.

Now for some pictures. I had to recover these from an old computer in the shed that I first bought in 2003. That was an interesting exercise in itself, requiring removal of the hard drive and taking it to the computer shop.

This first picture shows the mushroom just as it is emerging. It looks just like the hard boiled egg that I have placed beside it.

Emerging mushroom beside a boiled egg

As it grows, it begins to take on some shape. You can clearly see the sac or volva at the base.

Beginning to grow, showing volva

At maturity, it takes on a classic shape.

Typical Volvopluteus gloiocephala at maturity

The gills, which are white at first, take on a rusty orange colour at maturity. It is at this stage that identification is most accurate.

Mature specimens, showing gills

This mushroom has an unusual and distinctive taste. I often cook it in a sauce that I add to silverbeet and serve it with roast chicken.

All of my numerous attempts to cultivate this mushroom have failed, resulting in a slimy bacterial looking mess. It is possible, as others have done it, so I will give it another go next time I find it, with my more recently installed laminar flow hood.

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Fistulina spiculifera- Beefsteak in name only

June 16, 2013 · Filed under Edible Fungi · Tagged Australian edible mushrooms, edible Australian fungi

Fistulina hepatica is a cosmopolitan fungus that is known in Europe as growing on oak trees. In Western Australia the local equivalent is Fistulina spiculifera and it favours Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata), though I have one next to my house that grows on a Blackbutt (Eucalyptus patens or Yarri). The same species grows in the other southern states on different substates. The name Fistulina tasmanica appears to be an equivalent. Another undescribed species has been reported from the tropical north. Though it could not be classed as common, it is widespread. I have seen it growing in Kings Park in Perth. It probably grows right throughout the range of the Jarrah tree. As a young fungus, it is quite soft and dense, but as it ages it can become quite tough, like many other bracket fungi. Here is a small specimen that is around 120 mm across.

Fistulina spiculifera

Here is a much older image from the days before digital cameras. I spotted this large cluster on a roadside tree in Kings Park.

Fistulina spiculifera cluster

Note the ribbed upper surface. The underside is yellow pores and it has a yellow spore print when viewed as a dense mass.

Fistulina spiculifera spore print

There really isn’t anything else that you could confuse this with unless you really tried. Though the specimens I have seen do show signs of insect attack, they do seem to be quite resistant to that attack and the fungus makes it through to old age without being reduced to a mush, if I may use that term

When cut into slices, it displays quite a pleasant pattern:

Fistulina slices

With some exposure to the air, the cut surfaces can take on a liver red colour, which is where the ‘hepatica’ part of the name comes from. This colour may be due to the phenolic compounds that are reported to occur in it. It is also reported to contain vitamin C, which is unusual for a fungus in my experience.

The name ‘Beefsteak fungus’ is perhaps unfortunate as it tends to make one think that it should be treated like a piece of meat. The taste, however is nothing like meat, or any of the mushrooms that you might normally serve with meat. Raw, it is rather bland, but with a light frying it takes on a slightly acidic taste that most closely resembles some sort of fruit. So much so that I think it might reasonably be incorporated into a sweet dish. I have given a sample to a friend who is a cooking guru to see what she comes up with. In the meantime, I have left some in the fridge while I wait for a response.

This fungus has been brought into culture and I will see if I can persuade any of my friends with expertise in that field to attempt the same.

I will add to this post when I have investigated further.

19 June 2013

I cut the mushroom into thin slices and poached them in a sugar solution. The resultant pieces were similar to apple which has undergone the same treatment. With enough of these, one could perhaps make a sweet mushroom pie.

23 June 2013

Thus fungus is responsible for an effect known as black fleck in jarrah timber. I have been told by a local tree faller that timber with black fleck does not bend and warp in the same way that normal timber does.

8 July 2021

There are several mentions of this fungus in old records and I will try to list some of these here. The first is a mention by James Drummond in a letter to the Perth Enquirer in May 1842. An extract is shown below.

A decade earlier than this, May 1832, Alexander Collie went on an exploration to the land north of Menang country with a man named Manyat. He wrote;

I did not require Manyat’s services as an interpreter, for I did not meet with any Aboriginal people during the whole of my march of ten days, to the distance of 65 miles from King George’s Sound.[Collie doesn’t mention the direction he went in, but I expect it was to the west of the Stirling Ranges to somewhere in the region of Tambellup

Manyat performed the service of fire starter and carrier. This he did with the barren spikes of the banksia serrata (or mungat), the seeded cones of the banksia grandis, or the bark of the jarrah tree. The first and last require no preparation, but the second is placed in the fire till the outer surface is little burnt, then buried in a hole scraped in the earth with the pointed handle of the knife (taap), or of the axe (koit). The excursion seemed to make him very happy; it certainly supplied him with abundance of food, as he had the same rations as the other people travelling with us and whatever he could obtain through hunting.

The animal kingdom chiefly supplied him with kangaroo rats (wo-ail), bandicoots, possums and crows. One of the bandicoot species found is possibly a new species and has no tail. The vegetable kingdom occasionally furnished light and highly relished morsels in two sorts of fungus totally different from our mushroom or the French truffle. They are species of boletus; the one growing out of trees, of a beautiful crimson colour above. Its Aboriginal name is numar. The other grows out of the ground, of a greyish colour, and globular form: it is named mord. They are both eaten raw, are very juicy, and have a slight flavour of the chestnut.

There are other mentions of Numar in various dictionaries. An example is shown below.

It is interesting to note the spelling in this last case as I was fortunate enough today to speak with George Walley, a Noongar man from Mandurah who not only runs a business showing people about traditional culture (Mandjoogoordap Dreaming) but who was introduced to this mushroom by his grandparents. He advised me that the correct pronunciation is with the ‘u’ pronounced as in the word ‘book’. He also said that as a child he had eaten it cooked on a fire. That is different from what Collie described and shows that it was prepared in different ways.

The image below shows the spores of this species. In this case I used Quink ink as a simple substitute for lactophenol cotton blue as the stain. Seems to have worked ok. I haven’t got a scale for this at this stage. These spores are in-situ within the tissue.

The spores seem to match the description given by Reid given below. I found the colour of the spore print to be quite bright yellow however.

The pore surface is composed of a series of tubes of circular cross-section. As the fungus ages, the tubes break apart from each other.

***Fistulina spiculifera*** tube surface

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Dictyophora indusiata (Phallus indusiatus)- an edible stinkhorn

February 24, 2013 · Filed under Edible Fungi · Tagged Australian edible fungi, Australian edible mushrooms, edible Australian fungi, edible mushrooms

There are quite a few mushrooms that are classified as stinkhorns. Many of these are said to be edible in the egg stage. Dictyophora indusiata is however edible as the mature mushroom and it is cultivated in significant quantities in China. It is an attractive looking mushroom as shown below.

Dictyophora indusiata, Cairns, Queensland, by Steve Fitzgerald

The name refers to the net-like skirt or indusium which is a transient feature, soon falling away to reveal the stem. The mushroom is also known as Phallus indusiatus, for obvious reasons but for the purposes of this post I have retained the earlier name. This is a mushroom of tropical areas. I have not encountered it in the wild personally, though I have seen the very similar Dictyophora multicolor in Cairns. I have however encountered it in canned form in an Asian food shop in Perth.

Can of Dictyophora indusiata

When opened up, the contents of the can were almost pure white, odourless and contained the entire mushroom, including the cap, cut into pieces, in brine.

Pieces of Dictyophora indusiata from can

Like other stinkhorns, when encountered in the wild, it has a disgusting smell. Rather remarkably, this repulsive smell has been claimed to cause spontaneous female orgasms in the case of a Hawaian species! Whether that is the case or not (and I have my doubts) the canned product does not have any hint of this smell. From what I have been able to determine, the fungus is washed to remove the spore material that contains the odour components.

I cooked up some of the pieces, which contained quite a lot of water, in a frying pan with a little olive oil and then added them to an omlette. I found that the taste was best in the pieces that had been slightly browned. This may be due to the considerable amount of glucose contained in the structure of the cell walls.

I should note that one Chinese site (that is a translation) indicates that species that have a yellow veil (indusium) are toxic. That would include Dictyophora multicolor.

I report this mushroom because it does occur in Australia and it is edible. However, it might be an adventurous person who attempts to eat it. I would be interested if anyone finds this or any of the other stinkhorns, and can let me know if the smell can be removed by washing. Meanwhile, it is readily available in canned form. And if you want a genuine Chinese recipe, you might like to try this one from the site above:

“Casserole in disposable full of water and put it into the old hen, add ginger fluff block a, a teaspoon of cooking wine first and bring to a boil over high heat, low heat slowly stew. 炖鸡时，为了防止汤水溢出，可以在砂锅上架两根竹筷，再盖上锅盖。 Stewed chicken, in order to prevent the soup overflow in the casserole shelves two bamboo chopsticks, then cover the pot. 大约三小时后，鸡汤已经呈现金黄色。 After about three hours, the chicken soup has a golden yellow. 这时可以将已经用水发过的竹荪切段，投入鸡汤中，再炖，等竹荪充分浸润了鸡汤的味道后，根据个人口味加盐，关火，撒一点点葱花增香，就可上桌了。 Then you can the segment of the water has hair Dictyophora cut, put into chicken soup, then boiled, etc. Dictyophora fully infiltrating the taste of chicken soup, according to personal taste with salt, and turn off the heat, sprinkle a little chopped green onion flavoring, can be serve.

【要点】给鸡焯水时不要弄破鸡皮；水发竹荪要多浸泡一会儿，才会去除那股怪味儿，竹荪不要放多，否则会夺鸡汤的鲜味；如果老母鸡肚子里油很多，要挖出来扔掉一点，尤其是在夏天对于喜欢清淡的人来讲。 [Points to the chicken boiled water not to break the chicken skin; The the water hair Dictyophora to soak for a while, before removal of the sense of smell children Dictyophora Do not put too much, otherwise it will seize the flavor of the chicken soup; old hen stomach where oil is a lot to be dug up and threw it away a bit, especially in the summer for people like light.].

–

(I think that was written by the person who did the instructions for my portable router table 🙂

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Ramaria ochraceosalmonicolor – angst and confusion

July 18, 2012 · Filed under Inedibles and look-alikes · Tagged edible Australian fungi, Ramaria

I first became interested in Ramaria ochraceosalmonicolor after the eminent Naturalist J. H. Willis mentioned that he had eaten it in his 1957 publication ‘Victorian Toadstools and Mushrooms’. Ramaria are not easy to identify and any perusal of the internet will find various illustrations with this name but looking nothing like the picture below. There is even a paper in the Australian Journal of Mycology (2007) which goes into much detail about the naming of the species.

For my purposes, however, the important thing was to establish what Willis had eaten. The paper linked above mentions that Willis as well as Bougher and Syme show illustrations of a coralloid structure for this fungus. Though the Bougher and Syme illustration is clear and matches the photograph, I was puzzled by the reference to Willis until I noticed that he had an illustration of three species of Ramaria as a fronticepiece in his book. I had previously overlooked these illustrations. Comparison with his images left me in little doubt that this is the form of Ramaria that he was referring to.

This being the case, I set some aside for a sampling. Ramaria can be risky, with a tendency to cause diahorrea according to Arora, so I decided to set them aside in the fridge and try them in the morning, rather than risk and uncomfortable night.

To be continued….

Ramaria ochraceosalmonicolor

So, I fried up the sample that I had collected and consumed about 2 tablespoons full at 10:30 in the morning. It is now 6:45 in the evening and I have had no reaction. But what an anxious time it has been. After consuming the fungus, I began googling and came up with Ramaria flavo-brunnescens. It grows exclusively under Eucalyptus in Brazil and other places in South America, and has been responsible for the death of cattle. There is a report with gruesome histological details. I am at a loss however to understand why there are not similar reports from Australia, given that there must be many cattle grazed on Eucalypt forest.

There is, futhermore, a report of human poisoning and death from this fungus (the same one as in Brazil), although admittedly in combination with an Amanita, from China.

The images from the Brazilian report are disturbingly similar to my image above. Certainly enough to be within the general area, and the reference to Eucalyptus is especially unsettling. The poison is unidentified. It is reported to affect the incorporation of sulphur-containing amino acids such as cysteine. It is also most likely volatile, as toxicity is not present in dried samples.

The books in my library vary in their assessment of this fungus. Willis says he has eaten it. Kevn Griffiths says it upsets some people, Bougher and Syme declare it poisonous.

In the balance, I suggest that this fungus is far too difficult to identify to consider it edible and there is some potential for it to be lethal. Despite my experience of consuming a small portion of a cooked specimen and surviving, I suggest that it be considered an inedible species.

While there is a tantalising morcel about the toxin in google books, the key information is an orphan on an invisible page and I am loathe to spend the $137 necessary to purchase the entire book online. It simply is not worth the bother. The reward is not worth the cost. I post this report so that there is at least some documentation on the internet regarding this genera. I cannot find a single report of the progress of poisoning by this genus in humans on its own available on the internet. Neither do my books on poisonous fungi describe the progression of the syndrome.

30 April 2015

There are more Ramaria out at the moment with a wide variety of colours and forms. It prompted me to have another look for references and I found this one with some images that clearly show the ‘cauliflower’ form that is supposed to be a characteristic of this species. Note however the slight difference in nomenclature.

I haven’t seen any specimens this compact, but I have consumed one of the local species with a local man of Italian descent. I have made a video of him with it that I will process and upload when I have time.

If anyone has a link or relevant experience, I would appreciate hearing about it.

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Laccaria proxima – an abundant species

July 2, 2012 · Filed under Edible Fungi · Tagged Australian edible fungi, Australian edible mushrooms, edible Australian fungi, edible mushrooms, Laccaria proxima, pine plantations

Laccaria proxima is known from both Europe and North America. In my area it is strictly associated with pine plantations. I believe that the pine species is the Maritime Pine, Pinus pinaster. The occurrence of L. proxima is variable, but it appears to be extremely common in well established plantations with trees of a diameter of around 300 mm.

In June in these forests there is a wide variety of fungi, including several small mushrooms with brown caps. Laccaria proxima is distinctive in that it has pale salmon pink gills that are not crowded. This distinguishes it from another abundant species with yellow gills that are crowded as shown below. Laccaria proxima has a white spore print. This should be checked.

Laccaria proxima, with pink gills on the right.

L. proxima varies in size from about 20 mm to 80mm in diameter. The stems can be up to 100mm long and they emerge from the pine needle mat. Underneath the mat, one can see the white mycelium in a layer on the top of the soil. As the mushrooms grow, they move from having slightly inrolled margins to curling up so that the gills are exposed. Below are pictures of the different stages.

A young specimen

Mature specimens

A distinctive feature is the striations on the stem. These stems are quite tough. A small white mite was present on the specimens that I picked in late June. They are a long lasting mushroom that does not suffer gross attack by insects or slugs. In the sandy soils of WA pine plantations, these mushrooms are sometimes contaminated by sand that splashes up as a result of falling raindrops.

I prepared some of these by washing them and then frying in a pan with oil. I had to decant some of the water during cooking as it had caught up in the gills. I added some ham to the mixture in the pan and ate them on toast. The taste resembled Volvariella slightly, though it was not as intense. I found that it left a pleasant after-taste when I had finished the meal and this lingered for some time.

There is a smaller abundant native species, Laccaria lateritia. It is very similar in general appearance, but it is smaller and the stems do not display the same striations as in L. proxima. It is probably edible as well but I have not tried it at this stage. It is interesting that various early documents refer to a red, juicy mushroom being eaten by indigenous people. Laccaria lateritia is possible candidate for this, given it’s abundance, as is some species of Hygrocybe, though they are less abundant these days. There is insufficient information to be able to identify the mushroom in question.

This is an interesting mushroom because of its abundance and well established edibility from overseas experience. Though it is not considered to be a choice edible, it is quite palatable and the pleasant after taste makes it interesting. I suspect that it has a flavour-enhancing quality to it.

11 January 2021

Recent chemical analyses have revealed the presence of a couple of unique alkaloids in this species. These are called proxamidines and the molecules contain and 8-membered ring that includes two nitrogen atoms. One of these is shown in the figure below. The two blue nitrogen atoms can be seen in the structure. The compounds were tested for biological activity but the only thing that was found was a weak herbicidal effect on a cress specimen using a standard technique. It has been suggested that these alkaloids may be responsible for the lack of insect attack that I mentioned above.

There are another couple of interesting features of Laccaria. The genome of Laccaria bicolor was published in 2007 at which time it was the largest fungal genome yet published at 65 megabases. In an article in Nature, some features of this rather large genome are discussed. One feature that is noted is the coding of multiple genes that give it the ability to utilise nitrogen sources, particularly ammonia. I have read this somewhere else where it was compared with Hebeloma aminophilum in this regard. I have actually tried to test this out by spreading some urea on a patch of pine duff but the only thing that was apparent was a greater than normal amount of Amanita muscaria in that patch.

Yet another feature of Laccaria is that it has been found to be stimulated by electrical impulses so as to produce a greater number of fruiting bodies. This has been found both in field tests and in nursery pots. Many other mushrooms respond to the same treatment, notably Shiitake.

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Xerula australis – edible and medicinal

June 25, 2012 · Filed under Edible but untried · Tagged Australian edible fungi, Australian edible mushrooms, edible Australian fungi, edible mushrooms

Xerula australis has synonyms Xerula radicata var. australis and Oudemansiella radicata var. australis. (ref: Bougher and Syme) There are several closely related species that are difficult to distinguish even with a microscope.

While this species is reported to be edible, it does not find too many rave reviews, although one variety of Xerula radicata is being sold in kit form in China and they describe it as delicious (I suppose they would!).

It has been suggested that they might make a colourful addition to a stir fry. You would need to find a few of them though, as they are only a small mushroom with a cap 20-40 mm across and a tough inedible stem. They have quite a distinctive appearance as shown in this image kindly provided by sunphlo.

An interesting feature of Xerula radicata and most probably this variety is that it contains an anti-hypertensive agent known as oudenone. (who’d have known?) The cultivation of the fungus in liquid medium and extraction of the active ingredient is the subject of US patent 3835170. The information in that patent suggests that the active ingredient is reasonably heat stable and should survive a mild cooking process at least. Whether this is a good thing or not might depend on the individual.

I have set up a new category for fungi that I have not had any personal experience with, or reports of, other than that they are mentioned in the literature as being edible. If anyone has experience with eating these, I would like hear about it.

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Laetiporus sulphureus – an exciting prospect

July 8, 2011 · Filed under Edible but untried · Tagged Australian edible fungi, Australian edible mushrooms, chicken of the woods, edible Australian fungi, edible mushrooms

In other parts of the world Laetiporus sulphureus is known as chicken of the woods and is considered a good edible mushroom. I had not heard of any occurence in Australia, but Ray Palmer of north Queensland has reported it growing on Eucalyptus near his home. You can see Ray’s pictures on his Flickr site, here.

I would emphasise that I have not eaten this mushroom, and I am not aware that Ray or anyone else has either. So it is in the ‘potential’ category for the moment. But an exciting prospect!

Note 26/2/2013. Since it is reported as edible in the comments below, I have upgraded this to the ‘edible but untried’ category.

If should be noted that the edibility of L. sulphureus depends on the substrate. On this page, they recommend that you don’t eat it if it is growing on Eucalyptus.

If anyone has any further information on this, I would be most interested to hear about it.

Footnote:

As noted in the comments below, Forthferalz has drawn my attention to some other references to this fungus in Australia. This picture is provided by blueswami.

I am not sure what angle this was taken at, but in comparison with other pictures, it seems to be upside down. I think it looks more realistic like this:

There appears to be quite a wide variety of morphologies and colours for this genus. Even in North America, where it is widely consumed, there appears to be differences between the east and west coast experiences, as well as some confusion about which species is being consumed.

Update 16/04/2016

I have recently had the chance to observe this mushroom first hand in the Dorrigo/Bellingen area of NSW. It was growing on fallen logs and on the base of a living tree which was also host to Omphalotus nidiformis. These observations were made in March of a dryish year and I was able to see examples of it over a range of forests. Here is a picture of one on an exposed lateral root of a rainforest tree along with Omphalotus.

Laetiporus sp. together with Omphalotus nidiformis

I haven’t shown a picture of the pores, but they were white . This isn’t the right colour for Laetiporus sulphureus. It is interesting also that this species appears to be restricted to the warmer regions of the country, while L. sulphureus grows in places like England.

Some light is thrown on this subject by Michael Kuo, the Mushroom Expert. His comments can be found at this link.

It seems that there are numerous closely related species of Laetiporus in the US. It is entirely possible that the species here in Australia is yet another one. The fact that the ones I have observed grow at ground level indicates that they are not L. sulphureus. To my knowledge it has not been formally named yet. Neither has it’s edibility been established. Given that there have been numerous cases of people experiencing gastro-intestinal distress from eating various forms of this mushroom in America, it is entirely possible that our local species will cause the same problems. So there it stands. At first exciting, but in the end an enigma.

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