Dr Laurton McGurk, Chemical Safety Officer at University of Western Australia and enthusiastic mycophile, took us on a rollicking romp around the UWA campus to look for mushrooms and other fungi. This was the subject of the Main Branch’s June talk. Her inspiration was the general, often voiced opinion that fungi are uncommon; Laurton was on a mission to show that this is wrong. All it needs is knowledge of what to look for, where to look, and sufficient athleticism to peer under steps or logs.

Laurton started by explaining that fungi were now recognised as being in their own kingdom, more closely related to animals than plants. There are believed to be over 1.5 million species of fungi. Unlike green plants, they do not contain chlorophyll and they cannot make their own food; consequently they are important in nutrient recycling, as mycorrhizal symbionts of plants, and as parasites of both plants and animals. They are also important as items of food, and in the food industry. Their classification is based on macroscopic and microscopic traits, but DNA sequencing is becoming very important to clarify relationships.

Once this technical stuff was out of the way, Laurton took us on a magical mushroom tour of the UWA campus. And there were lots to see, because not only did she talk about what she had found, she had a magnificent display of specimens that she had collected that day. There were ink caps, the academic inocybe, earthstars, bird’s nests, amanitas, morels and many more.

Laurton gave such an enthusiastic presentation that I’m sure the audience was out and about at the weekend checking out their local fungal flora.

Elaine Davison