WA Forest and Woodland Fungi

About WA Forest and Woodland Fungi

Western Australia's southwest is known as one of the most botanically diverse regions in the world. It is particularly renowned for its wildflowers and soaring karri trees and each year people flock to the region to see them. An even more diverse flora exists within the fungi. The jarrah and the towering karri and tingle forests are home to an amazing range of fungi, found in a variety of forms and colours. 

Scarlet bracket

Despite their importance, knowledge of Australian fungi is limited. There are at least ten times as many fungi as plants in Australia, and few of them have been formally described and named. There are very few records of indigenous peoples utilizing fungi and they were regarded suspiciously by the early European settlers. As a result very few Australian fungi have common names and for many of those that do, the names have been taken from European or North American cultures and their original reference is to a different species.

In autumn, a vast number of species can be found along roadsides and walking tracks in forests and woodlands and coastal communities of the southwest of WA.