News: 

• Fungi surveys at Kings Park continue.

• Second paper published about fungi at Kings Park (see below)

• Fungi reports now posted on the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority website at: http://www.bgpa.wa.gov.au/kings-park/biodiversity/fungi

The Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority has contracted annual surveys of fungi in 2009, 2010 and 2011 to develop a better assessment of fungal biodiversity at Kings Park. To set the scene for this work, a historical account was published:
Bougher, N.L. (2010). History of the study of fungi at Kings Park, Western Australia. Western Australian Naturalist 27: 61-90.In  2011 a second paper was published:Bougher, N.L. (2011). New records of fungi and slime moulds at Kings Park, Perth, Western Australia. Western Australian Naturalist 28: 24–42.

The Park

Kings Park is an icon bushland and Botanic Garden close to the central business district of Perth, Western Australia. The park incorporates nearly 300 hectares of eucalypt and banksia bushland in addition to botanic gardens and recreation/tourist areas. No coordinated inventory surveys of fungi diversity had been undertaken at Kings Park before 2009.

Kings Park Fungi

Up until 2009 a total of 285 unique scientific names of fungi (many not identified to species level) were recorded from Kings Park (see list in Bougher 2010). 145 of the 285 names are not based on specimens retained at a herbarium and therefore cannot be verified. To date, including the survey in 2011, a total of 206 fungi identified and named to species level have been recorded at Kings Park.

How to contribute

Further surveys and observations may add to the list and help verify identity of the fungi, however PLEASE NOTE - you MUST be a registered collector with a licence obtained from the Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority before you collect any specimens in Kings Park.