Resupinate fungi (Basidiomycetes, Aphyllophoraies) of Macquarie Island, Australia

Abstract

Fourteen collections of resupinate higher fungi in the order Aphyllophorales (Basidiomycetes) were made on Subantarctic Macquarie Island (54°30'S, 158°57' E) in 1995. Of the 14, three proved to lack species-determining characteristic basidiospores and 12 were determined to belong to three species in two genera; Athelopsis lembospora (Bourdot)Oberwinkler, Athelopsis subinconspicua (Lirschauer) Julich, the first report of this species from the Southern Hemisphere, and Epithele galzinii Bres., the first reportr of E. galzinii from an Australian territory and also representing a southern range extension by several hundred kilometers. None are endemic and all are suspected to have reached the Island by long-distance transoceanic wind dispersal from other southern continental sources. Their habitats are restricted to old and clustered culms, frond bracts, and leaf petioles of the fern Polystichum vestitum (G. Forst.) C. Presl, the raised pedestals of old giant russock grass stem bases of Poa foliosa (Hook. f-) Hook. f., and the woody, but thin, stems of Acaena magellanica (Lam.) Vahl (Rosaceae) and Coprosma perpusilla Colenso ssp. subantarcrica Orchard (Rubiaceae).

Citation

Laursen, Gary A.; Burdsall, Harold H.; Seppelt, Rodney D. 2002. Resupinate fungi (Basidiomycetes, Aphyllophoraies) of Macquarie Island, Australia. Hikobia. Vol. 13 (2002): pages 745-750