Swainsona formosa. Photo: H. Owens.

This year, the State Herbarium of South Australia‘s journal changed its name to Swainsona.

When browsing the new journal web-site, you might have noticed that there are changing banners at the top of the page. Each showing a different species of Swainsona. The journal was named after South Australia’s floral emblem, the Sturt desert pea (Swainsona formosa (G.Don) Joy Thomps., but there are about 85 species in the genus (see Joy Thompson’s revision of the genus, 17.7mb PDF). Some of these plants feature on Swainsona‘s web-site.

Below you can find a gallery of the banners that are used at the moment. If you click on the image, you will get more information from the SA Seedbank web-site. More images will be added in the future.

More information on the Australian states’ floral emblems can be found in an article by Sophie Ducker (1999, 930kb PDF) and on the Australian National Botanic Gardens web-site.

Swainsona canescens. Photo: SA Seed Conservation Centre.

Swainsona fuscoviridis & S. fissimontana. Photo: SA Seed Conservation Centre.

Swainsona fuscoviridis. Photo: SA Seed Conservation Centre.

Swainsona leeana. Photo: P.J. Lang.

Swainsona microphylla. Photo: R.J. Bates.

Swainsona oligophylla. Photo: R.J. Bates.

Swainsona pyrophila. Photo: SA Seed Conservation Centre.

Swainsona tenuis. Photo: SA Seed Conservation Centre.

Swainsona tephrotricha. Photo: D.N. Kraehenbuehl.

Swainsona stipularis. Photo: P.J. Lang.

Note that Natural Resources Kangaroo Island have also published an illustrated leaflet on native fungi of Kangaroo Island, explaining 18 common fungi of the island (670 kb PDF).

Part 2. Truffles and truffle-like fungi

Three specimens of “Amylotrama”. Photo: D. Catcheside.

In 2017, the main foci of the annual survey of fungi on Kangaroo Island (22-29 June 2017) were not only on continuing with making lists of fungi at the different sites visited, but also on disc fungi, truffles and truffle-like fungi (2.6mb PDF) on collecting data for a project on the evolution of truffles.

The truffle-like Stephanospora (top) and an unknown species from the Cortinariales. Photo: D. Catcheside.

Truffle expert Teresa Lebel (National Herbarium of Victoria) made over fifty collections of truffles, some of which are very likely to be new species. These included three distinct species in the undescribed truffle-like genus “Amylotrama”. One was brightly coloured chrome yellow with red and blue staining, the other two were rather nondescript.

Amongst other interesting finds was a new species of the truffle-like genus Stephanospora and a strange little translucent pearlescent parachute-shaped fruit-body with dark chocolate spore bearing tissue. This last taxon was collected during last year’s survey on Kangaroo Island and preliminary DNA work on this collection gave a hint that it fitted in the Cortinariales. This is a very large order, and further work is needed to narrow down likely affinities.

A new species of truffle-like Amanita (previously known as Torrendia) was close to a species known from Western Australia, Amanita grandis, but does not conform completely to this taxon. It is a very fragile little white fungus, whose fruit-bodies were buried up to 3-4 cm and were very difficult to dig out of the ground intact as the volva and veils were stuck to the encasing soil and broke off easily.

A species of Amantia, possibly related to A. grandis. Photo: D Catcheside.

Four further collections were made for a project investigating the molecular basis of how truffle-like fungi, which fruit underground, have evolved from mushroom-like fungi. In Australia alone, this has happened at least 58 times in different genera over the past few million years.

The truffle-like habit reduces desiccation of fruit bodies and thus increases spore survival in arid conditions. Most such fungi are in a tripartite symbiotic association. They provide trees with water and minerals and small mammals, that find them by smell, with food. In turn the trees supply them with sugars and the small mammals disperse their spores. The genomes of twelve pairs of related fungi, one a truffle the other a mushroom, will be sequenced and the genes active during development of the fruiting body identified.  The project is supported by the US Department of Energy through the Joint Genome Institute and is conducted by an international team of mycologists led by David Catcheside (Flinders University).

Part 1 of this blog article can be accessed here.

Mycologist Teresa Lebel collecting data and specimens for the “truffle project”. Photo D. Catcheside

Contributed by State Herbarium Hon. Associate Pam Catcheside.

Mike Crisp in the herbarium. Photo: S. Hay (ANU).

Earlier in the year, Australian National University’s Emeritus Prof. Mike Crisp made headlines, when he named two new species of Daviesia (egg and bacon peas) after Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The monograph, published in the journal Phytotaxa, is the culmination of over 40 years of research into the genus. It is the first comprehensive account since Bentham‘s treatment in Flora Australiensis (1864), which included 55 species. Crisp and co-authors now recognise 131 species and several subspecies.

Among the newly described species that occur in South Australia are Daviesia schwarzenegger and D. devito. These have now been added to the South Australian Census of plants, algae & fungi.

While variation with in Daviesia was known for a long time, only modern DNA sequence analyses made the recognition of the two taxa possible, by showing that D. benthamii subsp. humilis comprised two cryptic species that are more closely related to other species than to D. benthamii. The two species were named after the actors, as they are “unlikely twins“, similar to the two characters Schwarzenegger and DeVito play in the movie Twins (1988).

Daviesia Schwarzenegger occurs from the “southern Flinders Ranges in South Australia, through northern Victoria and as far north as Condoblin in New South Wales”. Photo: M. Crisp.

Daviesia schwarzenegger is also named after Arnold Schwarzenegger, in recognition of his “leadership (as governor of California) in pioneering the reduction of carbon emissions, and for advising the Australian government to do the same“. It is the larger and more robust of the two species, whereas D. devito “is the less vigorous of the two cryptic species“.

Sirdavidia solannona, a monotypic genus in Annonaceae. Photo: T.L.P. Couvreur (CC-BY).

Watch Mike Crisp talking about the new taxa in this video.

Plants are often named after persons, for example the collector of plant specimens, an explorer or important naturalist. While early botanists also named species after benefactors or royalty, in modern times, celebrities and politicians have been used. Recent examples include:

• The lichen Caloplaca obamae after Barak Obama
• the lichen Japewiella dollypartoniana after Dolly Parton
• the fern genus Gaga after Lady Gaga (2.6mb PDF)
• Sir David Attenborough is honoured by three plant species (Nepenthes attenboroughii, Hieracium attenboroughianum, Blakea attenboroughii) and the genus Sirdavidia.

The University of Adelaide, Barr Smith Library in the foreground. Photo: M. Seyfang (CC-BY).

The joint meeting of the Australasian Systematic Botany Society (ASBS) and the Society of Australian Systematic Biologists (SASB), and including the biennial Invertebrate Biodiversity and Conservation Meeting, will be held in Adelaide later this year, co-organised by staff from the State Herbarium of South Australia, the South Australian Museum, The University of Adelaide and Flinders University.

Systematics 2017 — Integrating Systematics for Conservation and Ecology

The conference will be held at The University of Adelaide from 26 to 29 Nov. 2017. The theme of the meeting, “Integrating Systematics for Conservation and Ecology“, aims to provide a globally relevant application of the work that the study of systematics, and the application of taxonomy, has to a broader scientific community and society. This meeting which will be an excellent opportunity to see cutting edge research presentations, network with members of societies from affiliated groups and meet with colleagues and friends.

Plenary speakers will include Johnathan Coddington (Smithonian Institution), Gonzalo Giribet (Harvard University), Judy West (Parks Australia) and Nerida Wilson (Western Australian Museum). More program items will be released shortly.

Registration is now open. Please visit the Conference web-site for more information.

Part I. Above-ground fungi

Entoloma ravinense, a new species described in 2016. Photo: D. Catcheside.

The annual surveys of fungi were carried out in the last week of June 2017 by Pam Catcheside (State Herbarium of South Australia), Teresa Lebel (National Herbarium of Victoria), Helen Vonow (Herbarium Collection Manager, State Herbarium of South Australia) and David Catcheside (Flinders University). The group was joined for a few days by Fungimap Co-ordinator Sapphire McMullan-Fisher (National Herbarium of Victoria).

Mutinus cartilaginous (top) and an undescribed species of Leucoagaricus (bottom). Photo: D. Catcheside.

Pam and David Catcheside have been surveying the fungi in Flinders Chase National Park since 2002. Reports on the larger fungi of Kangaroo Island were prepared for the Wildlife Conservation Fund. The fund provided grants to study fungi from South Australia from 1999 to 2005 and specifically to collect data on fungi after fires on Kangaroo Island in 2008 and 2009 (unpublished data). Pam and David have a number of sites in the Chase which are revisited each year. They now have data at these sites for six years before the devastating bushfires of December 2007 and for eight years after those fires.

A dry lead-up to the fieldwork meant that the fungi were not fruiting as much as in previous years. However, some interesting collections were made and some good field photos of some difficult species were taken.

In 2017, the main foci were not only on continuing with making lists of fungi at the different sites visited, but also on disc fungi, truffles and on collecting data for a project on the evolution of truffles. Over 80 specimens were collected, quite a few of which are potentially new or species previously unknown for Kangaroo Island. Details of truffles will be reported in the second part of this blog.

The survey team at work. Photo: H. Vonow.

Over the years, a number of rare and under-collected species of fungi have been found including a new species of a small, white, shell-shaped gilled fungus Entoloma ravinensis P.S.Catches., Vonow & D.E.A.Catches. (1.8mb PDF) This species has previously been collected from one site only in the Ravine des Casoars. A collection was made at a second site at Rocky River, Flinders Chase National Park. The millionth specimen to be databased at the State Herbarium of South Australia was one of this fungus so it has special significance for AD.

Spores of Plicaria species under the light microscope: spiny (left) and alveolate spores (right). Photo: P. Catcheside.

One of the interesting results for this year was a new discovery for South Australia of Mutinus cartilagineus J.H. Willis, one of the Stinkhorns. Stinkhorns produce a mass of evil-smelling, slimy spores on the top of a club-like structure. Flies are attracted by the smell, hence spreading the spores. This collection seems to be the first from the State, though the fungus is relatively common in Victoria and Tasmania.

Two unknown species of Peziza. Photo: D. Catcheside.

A good collection was made of an undescribed species of Leucoagaricus, a lovely delicate pale yellow cap with pale apricot coloured lamellae. Further material will be examined from the herbaria in Melbourne and Adelaide in order to make a formal description, and get a better idea of distribution.

A number of small, black disc fungi were collected including three species of Plicaria, two of them probably new and at least two species of Peziza. Most species of Plicaria are early colonisers after fire but one, with spores ornamented with a fine network, known as alveolate spores, was at an unburnt site. Another, with spores ornamented with long spines (see image above) was in vegetation burnt in 2016. One species of was fruiting in long strands in the centre and along the sides of the track leading to Sanderson Bay. The track was of sand and quarried limestone, obviously a suitable substrate for the fungus. Fruit bodies of these disc fungi are very similar in appearance and so microscopic examination of spores and other structures is imperative. Molecular sequencing is often necessary, too.

Part 2 of this blog article can be accessed here.

Peziza growing on a track near Sanderson Bay . Photo: D. Catcheside.

Contributed by State Herbarium Hon. Associate Pam Catcheside.