Bracket fungus

Today it was up to the top end of Belair National Park so that Paladian could look for and blip the hyacinth orchid, seen here. I went off looking for birds, but it must have been their siesta time.

However as I was scanning the trees, I spotted this amazingly large fungus, the size of a very large dinner plate, growing out of a gum tree, about 15m above ground. No way to see what the top of the fungus looks like, so the rather interesting bottom view will be the blip for today.

Fungi of Australia form an enormous and phenomenally diverse group, occupying a huge range of freshwater, marine and terrestrial habitats with many ecological roles. Where plants produce, and animals consume, the fungi recycle, and as such they ensure the sustainability of ecosystems.
Knowledge about fungi of Australia is meagre.

I could not find an image or description of this fungus on the internet. The exact number of fungal species recorded from Australia is not known, but is likely to be about 13,000. The CSIRO has published three volumes providing a bibliography of all Australian fungal species described.

The total number of fungi which actually occur in Australia, including those not yet discovered, has been estimated at around 250,000 fungal species, including about 5000 mushrooms, of which roughly 5% have been described.

Larger spores.

For my fungus clip, I chose "Shrooms: A trip experience", or more a visual insight into a psilocybin trip, for Cathaber's Sound Illustration Challenge. Do not watch this if you suffer from migraines!

Adelaide’s own John Burton Cleland conducted the first systematic review of Australian fungi in a landmark monograph of fungal specimens at the South Australian Herbarium. Comprising some 16000 specimens, this included fungi from elsewhere in the country as well as South Australia. Cleland Conservation Park at Mt. Lofty is named after him.