Fungimap

08/09/2026

🍄 WOULD YOU DO THIS?

In an Australian first, a woman has been laid to rest in the Blue Mountains in a coffin grown from mycelium and h**p fibres.

Rather than remaining underground for decades, the coffin is designed to biodegrade and become part of the soil in around 45 days. (The Guardian⁠)

It’s another fascinating example of people exploring the extraordinary properties of fungal mycelium — this time as part of the cycle of life, death and decomposition.

As the woman’s husband explained, the choice reflected her wish to give something back to nature.

So, what do you think — would you choose a mushroom coffin? 🍄🌱

Read the story in The Guardian:
Woman laid to rest in coffin made from mushrooms in Australian first⁠

The casket, grown from mycelium and h**p fibres, takes just 45 days to break down, enriching the soil in the process

08/09/2026

First detected in Dorrigo National Park on the north coast, this newly described species is also known as the ballerina fungus 🍄🩰

PhD researcher Frances Guard officially described and named this magnificent mushroom after it was first spotted by some amazing citizen scientists. Since its naming, a few eagle-eyed people have spotted it further north in Nightcap National Park!

It's an amazing reminder of the magic of our national parks and the power of citizen science. If you look a little closer, you might spy something no one's ever seen before 🔍✨

Help us protect these beauties by sticking to walking tracks and cleaning your boots before a bushwalk to prevent the spread of pathogens. Never pick or consume fungi in national parks – take some pretty pictures instead.

📷Steve Axford, Planet Fungi

01/09/2026

Here's your chance to HAVE A SAY IN BIODIVERSITY POLICY — and we encourage you to be a voice for the fungi. 🍄
https://yoursay.sa.gov.au/biodiversity-act-statutory-bodies

These extraordinary photos of Australia's Ghost Fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis) in a pine forest in South Australia.

And there's something particularly interesting here. This Australian fungus is fruiting from the stump of an introduced European pine. We look at that and think — how clever is this fungus?

But the truth is, there is still so much we don't know.

We don't know what many of Australia's fungi are. We don't fully understand the roles they play in our forests and ecosystems. And for the vast majority, we don't even have enough information to know whether they are common, rare or threatened.

That's one reason fungal expertise matters when decisions are being made about biodiversity.

South Australia is currently consulting on regulations for its new Biodiversity Act, including the expertise represented on the state’s Biodiversity Committee.

Fungimap is asking people to add their voices to YOUR SAY and support the explicit inclusion of the fungal kingdom as essential expertise on the Biodiversity Committee, alongside expertise related to plants and animals.

Because biodiversity isn't just flora and fauna.

It's flora, fauna and funga. 🌱 🐾 🍄

Give fungi a seat at the biodiversity table. Have your say — and be a voice for the fungi.
https://yoursay.sa.gov.au/biodiversity-act-statutory-bodies

Consultation closes on Tuesday 15 September.

Thanks, Stephen Axford and Catherine Marciniak, for sharing these images with the Fungimap community.

29/08/2026

🍄 The latest Fungimap newsletter is out.
https://mailchi.mp/dc09cd5d1713/fungimap-enews-august-2026

Gracing this issue is the magnificent Salmon Gum Mushroom, Phlebopus marginatus, photographed by in the Dandenongs, Victoria — one of the research-grade observations identified during this year's Great Aussie Fungi Hunt.

Make yourself a cuppa and have a read.

In this issue:
• Changing of the guard at Fungimap
• Great Aussie Fungi Hunt roundup
• ALP recognises fungi in its policies
• Fungi for Function project surveys complete
• City of Marion Great Aussie Fungi Hunt results
• Welcome Alison

27/08/2026

And the fungi survey equivalent of a balloon drop is a...pin throw! 🎊🎈🎉

After 3 years and 28,800 search minutes, citizen scientists in South Australia have completed the Fungi for Function field surveys! 👏

A huge congratulations to the 219 citizen scientists who have been involved, searching and recording fungi in such a joyful and diligent way!

We've loved every minute of it and hope you have too! We now move on to formal analysis of the data.

Big thanks also to our partner organisations and contractors on this project .webcap .mcfish

This project is supported by a grant from the South Australian Government's Citizen Science Fund.

🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌 🙌

18/08/2026

The recognition of fungi in Environmental Policy is the result of decades of lobbying by the Fungimap Committee and our members, mycologists, and taxonomists of all political persuasions for greater recognition, research, and taxonomy. Until now, it has been challenging to convince policymakers and even conservation organisations that fungi are critical to life as we know it, rather than simply incidental. This recognition of fungi is a crucial first step and we are very excited about the possibilities for legislation, research, taxonomy and conservation ....

The Australian Labor Party's national platform now explicitly recognises fungi alongside flora and fauna.

10/08/2026

🍄 A BIG WIN FOR AUSTRALIA’S FUNGI 🍄

For far too long, we’ve talked about Australia’s biodiversity as flora and fauna.

Something rather important has been missing.

FUNGA.

The Australian Labor Party has become the first major Australian political party to explicitly recognise fungi alongside flora and fauna in its National Platform.

It might look like the addition of one small word.

It is much bigger than that.

Fungi are a whole kingdom of life. They recycle nutrients, build soils, partner with around 90% of plants, help forests withstand environmental stress and contribute to long-term carbon storage. Yet they have historically been largely invisible in the language of conservation.

And language matters.

By putting fungi into the language of its National Platform, Labor has taken an important first step towards a future where fungi are considered alongside plants and animals in biodiversity assessments, conservation, restoration, threatened species programs, environmental planning, research and monitoring.

As Senator Murray Watt said:

“Fungi are vital to our ecosystem, and it is crucial that our environmental and biodiversity frameworks reflect this.”

FAUNA • FLORA • FUNGA
.sheldrake.02

10/08/2026

🍄 A BIG WIN FOR AUSTRALIA’S FUNGI 🍄

For far too long, we’ve talked about Australia’s biodiversity as flora and fauna.

Something rather important has been missing.

FUNGA.

The Australian Labor Party has become the first major Australian political party to explicitly recognise fungi alongside flora and fauna in its National Platform.

It might look like the addition of one small word.

It is much bigger than that.

Fungi are a whole kingdom of life. They recycle nutrients, build soils, partner with around 90% of plants, help forests withstand environmental stress and contribute to long-term carbon storage. Yet they have historically been largely invisible in the language of conservation.

And language matters.

By putting fungi into the language of its National Platform, Labor has taken an important first step towards a future where fungi are considered alongside plants and animals in biodiversity assessments, conservation, restoration, threatened species programs, environmental planning, research and monitoring.

As Senator Murray Watt said:

“Fungi are vital to our ecosystem, and it is crucial that our environmental and biodiversity frameworks reflect this.”

This is part of a growing global movement to recognise the 3Fs — Fauna, Flora and Funga — and correct a historic omission from the way we understand and protect the living world.

There is still a long way to go. The goal is for fungi to be explicitly recognised wherever plants and animals are named in Australia’s biodiversity legislation, environmental frameworks and planning.

But change has to begin somewhere.

One word has been added.
An entire kingdom has become visible. 🍄

A huge thank you to everyone in the Australian mycological community, Fungimap, the Chief Botanist of South Australia, the grassroots Labor members who championed this change, and Senator Murray Watt for helping take this important first step.

FAUNA • FLORA • FUNGA
Fungi Foundation

Thanks to Stephen Axford Planet Fungi for allowing us to use his photos for our advocacy work.