July’s Park of the Month, Cleland Conservation Park, commemorates renowned naturalist and mycologist Professor Sir John Burton Cleland, Professor of Pathology at the University of Adelaide. The “Plant” of the Month is not a plant but a fungus, Cortinarius austrovenetus, and is an appropriate choice since it was described by Cleland.

Cortinarius austrovenetus. Photo: David Catcheside.

Cortinarius austrovenetus is a handsome, medium-sized agaric, a gilled fungus. Its green, yellowish-green to bluish-green cap (pileus) may reach 80 mm diameter, is slightly domed but may become flattened. The surface is dry with a silky sheen giving it its common name of green skinhead. The gills (lamellae) on which the spores are produced are initially yellowish but become rusty-brown as the spores mature. The stem (stipe) is yellow to yellow ochre, dry and rather stout, measuring up to 80 mm in height and to 15 mm in diameter. On the upper part of the stem the remains of a cobwebby veil may have a dusting of rusty spores. The cobwebby veil is called the cortina, hence the generic name Cortinarius. It initially protects the developing gills until the spores are mature. The specific epithet is derived from the Latin auster, southern, i.e. Australasian, and venetus meaning sea-coloured. The spores are ellipsoid, measure 9 to 12 µm by 5 to 7 µm and the surface varies from warty-rough to almost smooth.

Cortinarius austrovenetus. Photo: David Catcheside.

Cortinarius austrovenetus is mycorrhizal with many species of Eucalyptus and grows on the ground in native forests and woodlands. It occurs in the southern States: Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales, Western Australia, as well as South Australia.

J.B. Cleland collected C. austrovenetus at a number of locations in South Australia: Belair National Park, Kuitpo and Lobethal. The lectotype is from Mount Lofty. The fungus has a wide distribution in South Australia, having been found from parks on Kangaroo Island, the South-east and Northern and Southern Lofty regions, including Cleland Conservation Park.

The State Herbarium of South Australia (AD) houses J.B. Cleland’s approximately 16,000 fungal collections, over 200 of which were new species described by him.

J.B. Cleland in 1966. Photo: Murray Fagg (ANBG).

J.B. Cleland Kt., C.B.E., M.D., Ch.M., F.R.A.C.P. was born at Norwood, South Australia in 1878. He developed a love of natural history at an early age, an interest which continued throughout his long life. He died in 1971 at the age 93.

Cleland was a polymath, knowledgeable about botany, geology, ornithology, anthropology, as well as mycology. He decided to study medicine, but, because of problems in administration of medicine at the University of Adelaide, completed his medical training at the University of Sydney. He graduated in 1900, then travelled as a ship’s surgeon to northern Australia and the Far East, went on to train in the United Kingdom in pathology, bacteriology and tropical medicine. He returned to Australia in 1905, initially to Perth, then to Sydney in 1909. While in Sydney he made many collections of fungi and collaborated with Edwin Cheel, a staff member at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney. Together, they described a number of new species of fungi. Cleland returned to South Australia and was appointed Marks Professor of Pathology in 1920, a position he held until his retirement at the age of 70 in 1949.

J.B. Cleland at Adelaide Railway Station with his collecting gear, 1934. Photo: State Herbarium collection.

In spite of his responsible position, Cleland devoted much time to collecting, especially to the collecting of fungi. He corresponded with mycologists around the world including E.M. Wakefield at Kew, G.H. Cunningham in New Zealand and C.G. Lloyd in the U.S.A. Most of his collections from South Australia were made from 1920 to 1935. His Handbook, Toadstools and Mushrooms and other Larger Fungi of South Australia, published in two parts in 1934 and 1935, is a major monograph on Australian fungi and the first work covering the larger fungi in this country since M.C. Cooke’s Handbook of Australian Fungi, published in 1892.

Cleland played a large part in the establishment of the Handbooks of the Flora and Fauna of South Australia and was instrumental in the publication of J.M. Black’s Flora of South Australia. He served on many semi-government committees, advising the government on matters of wildlife conservation about which he was passionate. It was largely due to his efforts that National Parks and reserves such as Belair and Flinders Chase National Parks were established.

Professor Cleland was a remarkable mycologist, naturalist, promoter of natural history and his work has enriched our knowledge and understanding not only of the mycology but of the whole South Australian biota.

Important references to S.A. fungi

1. Cleland, J.B. (1928). Australian fungi: notes and descriptions. No. 7. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia 52: 217-222.
2. Cleland, J.B. (1934-1935). Toadstools and Mushrooms and Other Larger Fungi of South Australia, Parts I and II. Government Printer, Adelaide (Reprint 1976).
3. Fuhrer, B. (2005). A field guide to Australian Fungi. (Bloomings Books: Melbourne).
4. Gates, G., Ratkowsky, D. (2014). Field Guide to Tasmanian Fungi. Tasmanian Field Naturalists Club.
5. Grey. P., Grey. E. (2005). Fungi down Under. Fungimap.
6. Grgurinovic, C.A. (1997). Larger Fungi of South Australia. The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium & The Flora and Fauna of South Australia Handbooks Committee. [An up-date of Clelands handbook].
7. Shepherd, C.J. and Totterdell C.J. (1988). Mushrooms and Toadstools of Australia. Inkata Press.
8. Young AM (2005). A Field Guide to the Fungi of Australia. Sydney, UNSW Press.

The State Herbarium of South Australia’s Plant of the Month for June 2016 is Spyridium phlebophyllum (F.Muell.) F.Muell. (inland spyridium; plant family Rhamnaceae), which occurs in Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, DEWNR’s Park of the Month.

Mt Aleck (Elders Ranges) with Wilpena Pound in the background. Photo: P.J. Canty.

Spyridium phlebophyllum is a South Australian endemic shrub, around 1.5 m high, growing on rocky ridges and upper slopes of the southern and northern Flinders Ranges, including Mt Remarkable, the Elder and Gammon Ranges, between Lake Torrens and Lake Frome. The species is associated with quartzite rocks and outcrops. Characteristic are the round leaves with conspicuously raised net-like venation on the upper leaf surface. The lower surface is covered in dense white-grey to rusty hairs. The species received its name on account of its distinctive venation, derived from the Greek words phlebs = vein and phyllon = leaf.

The plant was first described as Trymalium phlebophyllum by Ferdinand von Mueller from specimens he collected during his arduous, lone 6-week-long trip to the Flinders Ranges in spring 1851. Mueller organised this expedition himself, after unsuccessfully lobbying to be included as botanist in several government inland expeditions. He describes the species’ habit as “stately” and writes that it is growing in the “rocky summits of the Elders Ranges and other mountains near Lake Torrens“. The type collection was made in October 1851 from near Kanyaka (rendered “Cudnaka” in Mueller’s time).

Spyridium phebophyllum at Warren Gorge. Inflorescence surrounded by white floral leaves, vegetative leaves with raised veins. Photo: P.J. Lang.

While the scientific description was not published until 1855, Mueller mentions the species name already in his account of the flora and vegetation of the Lake Torrens area, which was published in April 1853 in Hooker‘s Journal of Botany and Kew Garden Miscellany (also republished in German in August 1853). Interestingly, the world-authority on Rhamnaceae, Siegfried Reissek at the Natural History Museum in Vienna, examined Mueller’s collections and described the plant in detail in 1857, noting that it was cultivated in the Vienna Botanic Gardens from seeds sent by Mueller and that it first flowered in 1855, after three years of cultivation, i.e. Mueller must have sent seeds to Vienna in 1852, shortly after his trip.

Since at that time the generic limits of Australian Rhamnaceae had not been finalised, Trymalium phlebophylum was (like many other species in the family) transferred from Trymalium to Spyridium and then to Cryptandra, before being accepted in the current genus. The confusion regarding generic placement of Rhamnaceae species was described in more detail in this journal article (2.3MB PDF).

Spyridium phlebophyllum, large shrub covered with inflorescences surrounded by conspicuous, white floral leaves. Photo: J. Kellermann.

Shrubs of Spyridium phlebophyllum near Wangara Lookout. View into Wilpena Pound. Photo: J. Kellermann.

In its native habitat, Spyridium phlebophyllum is susceptible to browsing by goats, similar to other species of the family, such as Stenanthemum arens in the western Gawler Ranges (as described in this Bushblitz report; 5.8MB PDF).

When you visit the Flinders Ranges next time, why not look out for the species. For example, it can be found near Wanagara Lookout, on the Boom and Bust Hike or on Mount Ohlsen Baggage.

Aseroe rubra. Photo: B. Baldock.

A diminutive, but spectacular fungus has emerged from the leaf and bark litter in the Australian Forest section of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens. It is Aseroe rubra Labill., with 6 to 8 bright red arms spreading like forked spokes of a wheel. It has several common names that aptly describe an observer’s first response when they encounter it: sea anemone fungus, starfish fungus or …stinkhorn fungus.

Usually several, inconspicuous, partly buried “eggs” about 30 mm across are first to emerge. Each then splits and spreads its red arms (see time-lapse video at this link) to expose a central, slimy, stinking mass of spores. Flies find this irresistible, and, walking over the surface, pick up and disperse spores on their bodies. Perhaps the colour, shape and smell remind them of an open anus of a larger animal, complete with remnant droppings and worth a visit! Disgusting? Well, evidently successful for the continued existence of the fungus.

Aseroe rubra “eggs” and expanded fungus. Photo: B. Baldock.

It was originally described by the French botanist Jacques-Julien Houton de Labillardière from Tasmania, when the French were racing with Flinders to explore Australia in the 1800s. We now know it can be found across Australia and New Zealand, and has also popped up in Europe and North America.

If you are quick, you can see them growing in the mulch on the edge of the paths to the west of the Bicentennial Conservatory, while the favourable conditions last.

Hovea purpurea, State Herbarium of South Australia specimen AD96413149

A Remarkable occurrence

The Plant of the Month for May, Hovea purpurea, alpine hovea or rusty pods (formerly known as H. longifolia & H. beckleri), is an attractive violet-flowered shrubby pea with a disjunct outlying occurrence in the State that is truly remarkable.

Alpine hovea has its principal occurrences in eastern NSW and north-eastern Victoria (see AVH map) but re-appears over 1000 km to west on a few of the taller peaks in the Southern Flinders Ranges, which provide a refuge of cooler and moister conditions. The largest population here occurs on the rocky slopes of Mt Remarkable in DEWNR‘s Park of the Month for May 2016: Mt Remarkable National Park.

As well as Mt Remarkable and its northerly extension, the species occurs on the upper slopes of Mt Brown, The Dutchman’s Stern and Mt Aleck (in the Elder Range). There is also a Tate herbarium collection from the Gladstone area (probably from the late 19th century) and a single collection made in 1960 from St Mary’s Peak on the rim of Wilpena Pound. It would be good to have confirmation for these locations on the southern and northern extremes of its SA range, but the absence of recent records for such a striking plant suggests that it is no longer extant there.

Hovea purpurea specimen, detail with flowers

Being restricted to such a small zone on only the highest peaks of the southern Flinders Ranges, alpine hovea in SA is likely to be highly susceptible to climate change: there is no higher zone that it can shift up to as conditions become progressively warmer and drier.

The AD herbarium specimen shown here illustrates the species’ erect habit and distinctive leathery leaves that are smooth above and rusty-velvet below. It was collected by H.M. Cooper on Mt Remarkable in 1963 and still retains much of the original flower colour 53 years on.

H.M. Cooper (1886-1970) worked as an anthropologist with the South Australian Museum and, like many people of his time, had wide-ranging interests in natural history. Cooper contributed thousands of items, mainly aboriginal stone artefacts to the Museum’s collection, but also made important collections of fish, insects, land snails and plants. The latter collections are represented by over 3680 records in the State Herbarium database.

Hovea purpurea is listed as a Rare species in SA under Schedule 9 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act. Although its range is localised, alpine hovea is a prominent plant on the upper slopes of Mt Remarkable and hard to overlook when it is flowering in early spring.

Hovea purpurea, flowers & immature fruit, Mt Remarkable National Park. Photo: SA Seed Conservation Centre.

The State Herbarium has chosen Choretrum glomeratum R. Br. (common sour bush), as Plant of the Month for April 2016. It is found across southern South Australia and in Lincoln National Park, the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources‘ Park of the Month.

Type specimen of Choretrum glomeratum, collected by Robert Brown (Natural History Museum, London)

Choretrum glomeratum was first collected at Memory Cove by Robert Brown, between the 22–25 of February 1802. This became the type collection of the species and was made just after Matthew Flinders’ voyage had lost a cutter and its crew. This collection was later illustrated by Ferdinand Bauer for Endlicher‘s Iconographia generum plantarum (plate 45). Acacia alcockii was also collected at the same time and was annotated by Brown as “Mimosa no. 2”, but this collection did not become a type and was later mistakenly identified as Acacia retinodes.

The botanical legacy of Flinders’ expedition is discussed in detail in this article (28MB PDF) by State Herbarium Hon. Research Associate Robyn Barker.

Choretrum glomeratum grows into a many stemmed shrub 1–2 m high. Its erect branches with winged leaf bases and small leaves up to 3 mm long have a distinct pale yellow/green colour. The small white flowers occur throughout the year but are most obvious in late summer and autumn, fruit is a round ridged fleshy drupe that would probably benefit from passage through a gut for germination.

Choretrum glomeratum, branch with flowers & fruits and close-up of flower (Photo: SA Seed Conservation Centre)

A member of Santalaceae (3.6MB Flora of South Australia PDF), the 7 species of Choretrum restricted to Australia are parasitic on the roots of other plants, much like the better known quondong (Santalum acuminatum), sandalwood (Santalum spicatum) and native cherry (Exocarpos cupressiformis).

Choretrum glomeratum and some of its close relatives are part of a fascinating interaction between Camponotus ants (see Guide to Camponotus ants of Australia published by the SA Museum) and Ogyris otanes butterflies. Chewed branch ends on the shrub indicate the presence of the butterfly’s caterpillars that live in the ant’s nest and are escorted to and from the plant by the ants. Similar associations also occur with this group of blue butterflies and ants on mistletoes. The decline of plant numbers through habitat fragmentation and inappropriate fire regimes also impacts the butterfly population.