Family: Cyttariaceae

Common Name: Myrtle Beech Orange

Distribution: Tasmania, Victoria

Fruiting period: October - January

General Information: A parasitic fungus that only grows only on Myrtle Beech (Nothofagus gunnii) trees in cool temperate rainforests. Diameter to 40mm, looks like a golf ball - spherical with cavities forming upon maturity like a honeycomb. According to the Australian National Botanic Gardens website, they were consumed by indigenous Australians. George Robinson, in the first European account of the use of this fungus, in 1833 stated that it contained a fluid that was of "pleasant taste". Interestingly, Cyttaria gunnii shares Gondwanan ancestory with the species Cyttaria darwinii. It grows on the Evergreen Beech in the Tierra del Fuego in South America, and is consumed by the indigineous people there.

Specimen: 15.1.09 Myrtle Beech forest, Cradle Mountain National Park, TAS.

Sources: ANBG 2011, Aboriginal Use of Fungi, Australian Fungi Website, Australian National Botanic Gardens.

Grey, P & Grey E, 2005, Fungi Down Under, Fungimap.

Ramsbottom,J, 1941 Edible Fungi, Penguin Books, Middlesex, England.

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