Adelaide shores have recently been battered by high winds and waves, and we generally concentrate on the damage they cause to landscape and property. But storms may also wash in the unusual and unexpected. A volunteer from North Haven, who works in the State Herbarium of South Australia‘s Phycology Unit, brought in a brown alga, Sargassum decurrens (R.Br. […]
In late March 2016, Danielle Calabro, a Ranger at Flinders Chase National Park, Kangaroo Island, was digging up Bridal Creeper (Asparagus asparagoides) when she came across a dark brownish-black, monstrous lump approx. 0.5 m underground. Danielle dug it up and contacted Pam Catcheside, Hon. Research Associate at the State Herbarium of South Australia, who works on […]
A diminutive turf-like red alga, Lomentaria monochlamydea (J.Agardh) Kylin, has been found growing as a band of turf on the concrete wall of the West Beach boat marina, Adelaide. This species has been known previously from asexual spore plants, but female and male plants have now been found for the first time in South Australia […]
State Herbarium Hon. Research Associates Pam Catcheside and Bob Baldock report another cryptic and appealing fungus. It has appeared in the Botanic Gardens, this time amongst bark chips associated with recent plantings of pistachio saplings adjacent to the Old Tram Barn. A previous BLOG article described the coral fungus, Aseroe rubra Labill. It is a birds […]
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 […]