8 fascinating Australian native fungi to look for in your garden
Australian fungi do essential work in a garden; decomposing woody material, cycling nutrients, forming mycorrhizal partnerships with native plant roots. In many cases, their fruiting bodies are so bizarre that first-time encounters are startling.
All of these fungi are indicators of healthy soil ecology and a functioning garden ecosystem. If the situation is right, they arrive without planting or cultivation, fruit briefly and disappear, with the bulk of their biology happening out of sight. But look closely and you might stumble across some of these amazing specimens.
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What fungi actually are
Fungi belong to their own kingdom. They digest food externally by secreting enzymes into their substrate, then absorbing the resulting nutrients. What we call a mushroom or fruiting body is only the reproductive structure — equivalent to a flower or fruit. The organism itself is the mycelium: a network of fine threads (hyphae) that can extend for metres through soil or decaying wood.
1. Starfish fungus (Aseroe rubra)
Eastern and southeastern Australia · Mulched and wooded gardens
SE QLD · NSW · VIC · TAS · SE SA · Found in mulched garden beds and high-altitude grasslands
Aseroe rubra holds the distinction of being the first native Australian fungus formally described by science, collected in southern Tasmania in 1792. It is unmistakeable: a hollow white stalk topped by a wheel of bright red forked arms, each coated in a dark, sticky, foul-smelling spore mass called gleba.
The structure begins as a pale grey-white egg, sitting at or just below the soil surface. In warm, humid weather following rain, this egg splits and the fruiting body emerges and expands within hours. The whole above-ground display lasts only one to two days before collapsing back into the leaf litter.
The smell, which mimics rotting meat, attracts blowflies and carrion beetles whose bodies pick up the sticky spores and carry them to new locations. They arrive expecting a food source and leave as unwitting dispersal agents. See our soil care guide for more on the role of decomposers in native garden ecology.
2. Ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis)
Eastern and southwestern Australia · Wooded gardens and parks
SE QLD · NSW · VIC · TAS · SE SA · SW WA · On eucalypts and other native and exotic trees
The ghost fungus is Australia's most well-known bioluminescent organism. The gills produce a faint but unmistakeable yellow-green glow in total darkness. The glow is consistent across the gills of living specimens and is visible to the naked eye in complete darkness, though it is too faint to illuminate surroundings.
By day, the fruiting body is a funnel-shaped cap ranging in colour from cream and pale grey to smoky brown. Caps can reach 30cm in diameter in large specimens. They grow in clusters on the base of living and dead wood, most commonly eucalypts, and may also emerge from the soil where wood is buried underground.
Despite the resemblance in shape to oyster mushrooms, the ghost fungus has a distinctive acrid taste and causes severe gastrointestinal symptoms. No part of it should be consumed. In the garden, it is a decomposer of dead heartwood and causes no harm to healthy trees.
3. Pixie's parasol (Mycena interrupta)
Southeastern Australia · Shaded gardens with rotting logs or stumps
VIC · TAS · NSW · SA · SE QLD (Lamington NP) · On moist decaying eucalypt and rainforest wood
Mycena interrupta has caps that are a brilliant translucent cyan-blue. The pigment is consistent across the whole cap and deepens toward the centre. Fruiting bodies emerge in clusters on the surface of rotting, moist wood, each on a thin white stipe.
Caps begin as tiny globes before flattening to a slightly depressed parasol shape up to 20mm across. The whole fruiting body is delicate and easily damaged and is found in cool, dim and wet conditions in the garden.
Look for it from autumn through winter on decaying logs or stumps. A cluster of blue caps on a wet log in a shaded Melbourne or Tasmanian garden in June or July is a great little discovery.
4. White punk (Laetiporus portentosus)
Eastern Australia · Gardens and bushland with established eucalypts
QLD · NSW · VIC · TAS · SA · WA · On living and dead eucalypts across a wide range
White punk grows as large, soft, pale brackets on the trunks and branches of living eucalypts. The flesh is soft and spongy when fresh. As the fungus ages and dries, it takes on a biscuit-brown colour and becomes progressively harder and more sponge-like, riddled with tunnels from insect larvae that feed on the soft tissue.
claire, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
It causes white heart-rot in its host tree, while leaving the sapwood largely intact. A eucalypt carrying white punk brackets may continue to grow and look healthy on the exterior while the heartwood decays.
Third Silence Nature Photography, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In the garden, white punk is most visible on mature eucalypts in winter and spring, when fresh brackets are most likely to appear. It is harmless to handle and requires no management beyond monitoring the tree's overall health.
Mycorrhizal fungi and native plant roots
Many native Australian plants form mycorrhizal associations with soil fungi. This is partnership in which the fungal mycelium extends the plant's root system far beyond what the roots alone could reach, accessing water and nutrients in exchange for carbohydrates from the plant. Banksias, grevilleas, hakeas and wattles all form these associations. Healthy native garden soil, with its existing fungal networks, is one reason established native plants often struggle when transplanted into heavily disturbed or sterilised ground: the network is absent and must be rebuilt from scratch.
5. Dead man's fingers (Pisolithus arhizosus)
Widespread · All mainland states · Particularly common in dry woodland and arid gardens
All mainland states · Dry woodland · Sandy and gravelly soils · Often near eucalypts
Pisolithus arhizosus has an extraordinary ecological role. It pushes up through the soil with no cap or gills and at maturity the outer skin ruptures to release a dense cloud of powdery spores. Before this stage, the interior has a distinctive tarry, dark consistency.
Pisolithus species are among the most effective mycorrhizal partners for native trees in nutrient-poor and disturbed soils. The mycelium colonises the root tips of eucalypts and extends through the surrounding soil, dramatically increasing the root system's effective surface area and improving the tree's ability to access phosphorus, water and other nutrients in soils.
It is used commercially in revegetation projects across Australia, where inoculating eucalypt seedlings with Pisolithus spores before planting into degraded soil significantly improves establishment rates. Finding it in a garden setting is a sign that the existing soil biology is functioning well and that any eucalypts growing nearby have access to the mycorrhizal network they depend on.
6. Southern bracket (Ganoderma australe)
Widespread · All states · Wooded gardens and parks
All states · On dead and dying native hardwoods including eucalypts and acacias
Ganoderma australe is the most common large bracket fungus in Australian gardens and one of the most impressive. The upper surface is a warm red-brown to chocolate brown with a varnished or lacquered appearance. The underside is white to cream when fresh, browning with age, and covered in fine pores. Large mature brackets can reach 50cm across and weigh several kilograms.
Like white punk, it colonises heartwood that is already dead and plays a decomposition role rather than causing primary damage to healthy trees. Encountering it on a garden tree warrants checking the structural integrity of that tree, as significant heartwood decay may have occurred — the pruning guide covers what to look for in a structurally compromised tree.
In gardens, they are most visible on old stumps, exposed roots and the lower trunks of mature trees. They are harmless to handle and the tough, woody texture makes them interesting objects in their own right.
7. Giant bolete (Phlebopus marginatus)
Eastern and northern Australia · Gardens, parks and woodland
QLD · NSW · VIC · NT · WA · Most commonly encountered in eastern states · Often near exotic or native trees
Phlebopus marginatus is possibly Australia's largest mushroom. A fully mature cap can reach 30cm across, sitting on a stout, solid stem. The flesh is firm and pale, bruising slightly on cutting. Fruiting bodies are substantial objects — visually more comparable to a plate than a mushroom.
Ian Sutton from Collinsville and Oberon, Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Phlebopus marginatus breaks down organic material in the soil rather than forming mycorrhizal partnerships. It fruits in summer and autumn, often after significant rainfall, and is most commonly found in eastern Australian gardens and parks.
Casliber, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
It has been eaten but is not widely recommended as an edible species and can cause gastrointestinal upset in some people. In the garden it causes no harm and its appearance — particularly in large specimens — is striking enough to attract attention.
8. Scarlet bracket (Trametes coccinea)
Eastern and northern Australia · Gardens with dead timber, logs or stumps
QLD · NSW · VIC · NT · WA · On dead native hardwood including eucalypts and acacias
Trametes coccinea upper surface displays vivid bands of red, orange and yellow in alternating zones. The underside is white to cream with fine pores. Individual brackets are modest in size, rarely exceeding 6cm across, but they typically occur in dense clusters and the combined effect can cover a substantial section of log or stump.
Atsushi Nakajima, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
It grows on dead native hardwood, most commonly eucalypts and acacias, where it functions to break down the woody tissue and return the nutrients contained within to the surrounding soil. It is one of the fastest-working decomposers of dead timber in warm and humid Australian conditions.
Hilton and Melva Ward, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Incorporating logs and woody debris into native garden beds — a practice that benefits a wide range of invertebrates and small reptiles as well — provides the substrate these fungi need to establish. See our guide to soil care in native gardens for more on using woody material as a habitat and soil-building resource.
What fungi in your garden are telling you
The presence of native fungi in a garden is consistently a positive indicator. Decomposer species signal that your soil contains sufficient organic matter for fungal activity. Mycorrhizal species signal that native plant roots have access to the fungal networks they depend on for optimal nutrient uptake.
The conditions that support native fungi are the same conditions that support a healthy native garden generally: organic mulch and leaf litter left undisturbed, woody debris retained where safe to do so, next to no use of synthetic fertilisers and fungicides and soil that is not repeatedly dug or turned.
See our soil care guide and planting guide for more on building and maintaining the soil conditions that support a thriving native garden ecosystem.
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A Guide to Australian Native Gardening
How to plan, plant and care for a thriving native garden, whatever your experience level.
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