New journal article

Hibbertia fumana, a species rediscovered after over 210 years. Photo: A. Orme.

In a recent post we reported on State Herbarium research into the genus Hibbertia. One of the species, H. fumana Sieber ex Toelken, was described by Hon. Associate Dr Hellmut Toelken in 2012 (Toelken & Miller, J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 25 (2012) 71-96, 1.8mb PDF) and was only known from three herbarium collections made in the Sydney area in the early 19th Century. The species was presumed to be extinct. Late in 2016, a population of the plant was discovered during vegetation surveys, which lead to a reassessment of the species and its listing as critically endangered.

Now Hellmut and a team of botanist, lead by Marco Duretto from the New South Wales National Herbarium, have published a revised account of the species in the journal Telopea. The newly collected material and live plants enabled them to describe the species in more detail and to assess its ecology.

Duretto, M.F., Orme, A.E., Rodd, J., Stables, M. & Toelken, H. (2017). Hibbertia fumana (Dilleniaceae), a species presumed to be extinct rediscovered in the Sydney region, Australia. Telopea 20: 143–146 (1.6mb PDF).

The authors state: “This is the second significant discovery in Hibbertia made in the Sydney region recently and follows the discovery and description of H. spanantha (Toelken & Robinson, J. Adelaide Bot. Gard. 29 (2015) 11-14, 720kb PDF), a species endemic to the northern suburbs of Sydney. Further field studies, collections and research are required in the greater Sydney region to accurately ascertain the full diversity of the genus found in this region.”

Mushroom season can be deadly!

With the first autumn and winter rains, many underground fungi species respond by producing their fruiting bodies – the things we familiarly call mushrooms and toadstools.

Yellow Stainer, Agaricus xanthodermus, a poisonous fungus. Photo: P.S. Catcheside.

Australia has hundreds of native species of fungi, many of them yet to be discovered and described by mycologists (fungi scientists). As a result of European settlement there are also many introduced species, some of which we are familiar with from a culinary perspective, others are accidental introductions and definitely not edible at all.

A growing international interest in harvesting wild plants and fungi for food has seen this trend become popular in Australia. In places like Europe, knowledge around which species are edible and which species are not has been gathered and passed on for many generations.

In Australia however, it is a different story. While there is some knowledge about edibility of native fungi, there is much that is not known. Some of the introduced edible species look very much like native species about which nothing is known, and to make it more complicated, some of the poisonous introduced species can look similar to both introduced edible and native inedible species.

Deathcap, Amantia phalloides, a lethally poisonous fungus. Photo: D.E.A. Catcheside.

Because of this, the State Herbarium of South Australia has a strict policy of not encouraging anyone to eat any wild-found fungi, and does not provide public identifications for edibility. The only safe mushroom is one bought from a regulated grower or retailer.

In a poisoning emergency phone 13 11 26 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Australia-wide).

Today, three revised State Herbarium Factsheets, written by Hon. Research Associate Pam Catcheside, were released:

Edible and poisonous fungi (500kb PDF)
Yellow Stainer (630kb PDF)
Death Cap (600kb PDF)

SA Health has also recently released an alert about poisonous mushrooms, see below. Similar alerts were also issued elsewhere, for example in Victoria and the ACT.

Contributed by State Herbarium Manager Peter Canty.

Meet Lucy Sutherland

Lucy Sutherland in the field, collecting seeds.

Recently, the Director of Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium, Dr Lucy Sutherland, was interviewed by The Weekly, the staff newsletter of the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR).

Read here about Lucy’s career and her first eight months as Director. Before her appointment in Adelaide, she was national coordinator of the Australian Seed Bank Partnership and has previously worked as Acting Director of the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. She holds a Visiting Professorship at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina in Peru.

New Journal articles: June 2017

The State Herbarium‘s journal was renamed from Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens to Swainsona this year, as we announced a few months ago. The journal’s web-site has now been changed and updated to reflect this name change. It can be accessed using the new web-address flora.sa.gov.au/swainsona.

The Volume numbering will continue. This year, it is planned to publish two volumes of Swainsona: Vol. 30 of the renamed journal will contain the Proceedings of the Botany Symposium at the 2016 NRM Science Conference and will be published later this year. Regular papers are published in Vol. 31.

Papers are published electronically as soon as they are reviewed, edited and typeset. A hardcopy volume is printed at the end of the calendar year or beginning of the next year, collating all articles published during this time. Printed volumes are distributed to botanical libraries around the world and are also available for purchase. The journal is also available through JSTOR.

Leptecophylla pogonocalyx subsp. decipiens, a newly described subspecies from Tasmania. Photo: J.A. Jarman.

Today, the State Herbarium published four regular papers in the online version of Vol. 31 of Swainsona.

S.J. Jarman & G. Kantvilas, Leptecophylla in Tasmania: a reassessment of four species. (12.5mb PDF)

In this article, the occurrence of Leptecophylla juniperina in Tasmania is reviewed by two botanist from the Tasmanian Herbarium. Two subspecies of this taxon are re-instated to specific rank and the new combinations published: L. oxycedrus and L. parvifolia. Leptecophylla juniperina itself is excluded from the Tasmanian flora. Tasmanian plants previously identified as L. juniperina are mostly either L. oxycedrus or the newly described L. pogonocalyx subsp. decipiens. An identification key is provided for Tasmanian species of Leptecophylla.

P.S. Catcheside, S. Qaraghuli & D.E.A. Catcheside, A new species of small black disc fungi, Smardaea australis (Pezizales, Pyronemataceae), is described from Australia. (1.8mb PDF)

Smardaea australis, a new small black disc fungus from Kangaroo Island. Photo: D.E.A. Catcheside.

The authors from the State Herbarium and Flinders University describe a new species, Smardaea australis. This small black fungus is known from five collections made between 2001 and 2014 in South Australia and one older specimen from Victoria. This is the first record of the genus Smardaea in Australia. The phylogeny of Smardaea and Marcelleina, both genera of violaceous-black discomycetes having similar morphological traits, is also analysed and discussed.

G. Kantvilas & J.A. Elix, Tephromela baudiniana sp. nov. (lichenised Ascomycetes) from Kangaroo Island. (1.5mb PDF)

Lichenologists from the Tasmanian Herbarium and the Australian National University describe a new species of the genus Tephromela, which contains very unusual chemical substances. Many species of the genus are characterised by their metabolites. Alternariol and 9-O-methylalternariol occur very rarely as major metabolites in lichens and are known as such only in the unrelated species Pertusaria praecipua from Papua New Guinea.

G. Kantvilas, Two species of Bacidia De Not. with pruinose apothecia from Kangaroo Island. (2.4mb PDF)

Bacidia brigitteae, a new lichen species from Kangaroo Island. Photo: G. Kantvilas.

The author continues his research on lichens from Kangaroo Island with this paper reviewing two species of Bacidia, one of which is described as new. Both belong to a group in the genus with pruinose apothecia.

To access content of all volumes of Swainsona and the Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens since Vol. 1 (1976), please visit the journal’s web-site at flora.sa.gov.au/swainsona.