​Last July I was excited to find my first false truffle (a Rossbeevera species) at Candy Block, which resembled a small half-submerged, blue-tinted potato. False truffles (also known as false puffballs) differ from true truffles in being basidiomycetes rather than ascomycetes.
The smell of the false truffle after cutting was legendary. Think Eau de Dead Roo with a hint of turpentine! This type of fungi sits below soil level, or sometimes at soil level buried under leaf litter. They don’t have a cap that opens up to release spores, but instead, the spores are formed inside the body of the fungus. False truffles resemble puffballs which don’t release their spores. They rely on birds and animals to eat them, the spores passing through the animal’s digestive tract and deposited in their scats.
The woylie has a largely fungivorous diet and will dig for a wide variety of their fruiting bodies.  Although it may eat tubers, seeds, insects the bulk of its nutrients are derived from underground fungi, which it digs out with its strong fore-claws. The fungi can only be digested indirectly. They are consumed by bacteria in a portion of its stomach. The bacteria produce the nutrients that are digested in the rest of the animal's stomach and small intestine. Before white settlement woylies were abundant so there are lots of false truffles around. We neither see nor smell them because they are usually just beneath the ground or leaf litter

A few weeks later I discovered lots of little yellow Rhizopogon species false truffles on the ground adjoining pine trees in the arboretum. Nearly all false truffle species are mycorrhizal fungi, and Rhizopogon was deliberately introduced into pine plantations with slippery Jacks (Suillus luteus) to improve tree growth. These also resembled tiny yellow potatoes, which eventually collapsed into an unbelievably horrible smelling mush (due to them getting wet through borer holes).

​Early fungi classification was very logical with above-ground capped fungi such as agarics and boletes being in a different group to puffballs, earthballs and false truffles. Alas DNA analysis reveals  more complicated relationships with puffballs and earthballs and false truffles spread across groups. One would think that there is a big difference between  capped and ball type fungi, but one overseas agaric rarely fails to open due to a single recessive gene. I can imagine a gradation in the images below.

The very simplified chart below shows that puffballs, earthballs and false truffles have evolved from/with a range of cap fungi. 
Further reading

​Greetings fellow Foxies,
In the fungus world, punks are large showy, bracket sporophores (fungal fruiting bodies) that usually occur on their own on the upper trunks of large eucalypts. You can download factsheets on Laetiporus portentosus /white punk and Piptoporus australiensis/curry punk (and other fungi) on this great DBCA website. These fungi cause heartwood rot and may occur on live or dead trees.

​​​White punk forms large pale to light brown, spongy brackets, often up to 30cm diameter. The underside is a pore layer, light yellow to citrus yellow in colour. Images show a range of colours and forms that I have encountered. The brackets form in late autumn. They are long-lasting, often looking fresh for several months.
Over spring and early summer, they dry out and become quite light with a chalky texture. They are usually seen in this state at the foot of the tree on which they were growing. If conditions are right, a new bracket will develop in the same place the following autumn.

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Curry punks are similar size, but less common. When fresh the bracket is bright orange, smooth or greasy on the upper surface, with a layer of pores on the underside.
The flesh is rubbery, but very juicy making the brackets quite heavy. Curry punk juice is a good dye and will stain your skin or clothing yellow.
​Brackets persist for some months, but rain tends to wash them out and they fade to a whitish colour as they age. When dry they have a distinctive curry odour, hence the common name of curry punk.

White punk shells were used by Noongars to transport fire. I did an experiment and discovered that they are ideal for this purpose. A lit punk barely smoulders when unattended. but ignites when blown.  

I understood that curry punks aged similarly to white punks until I found what I thought was an old and an ancient curry punk on a dead marri. Unlike white punks the sporophore was woody. 

Greetings fellow Foxies,
​​Yilliminning was once a railway community, but there is little left apart from a few ruins, a great story, and a nature reserve in pristine condition.
I have long wondered why the (defunct) Yilliminning Hall, the relocated Lutheran church, and townsite were so separated. The answer lies in a tale of two townsites, which with details of settlers in the district are described in the book The Way Through: The Story of Narrogin. O.E. Pustkuchen 1981 (from page 346).
Settlement in the district began in the early 1900s. Many settlers were immigrants that included German farmers from South Australia. The Lange family established a large farm at Wardering (now Ockley siding) and invited their South Australian friends, the Bacon family to join them. Contact between The newly arrived Bacons and local Noongars at Wardering is shown below.
The first hub of public activity was a survey of the tiny Wardering townsite and a public hall, which was built in 1907.  soon after the Narrogin-Merredin railway was built. Mr Schoolar, the first teacher  in the district,taught half the week at the rear of the hall, and the other half at the Yilliminning Rock school. The hall was also a place for church services by the various denominations.
In 1914 a Lutheran church was built, mainly by the Lange’s on their property adjoining today’s Ockley siding site. When the Lange’s left the farm, Bert Lange could not bear to see his beloved family church neglected. On his instigation, the church was removed brick by brick and rebuilt in its present location in Lock Street Narrogin.

​In 1914 Yilliminning became a junction when a train track to Kondinin was built. To cater for workers at this junction, the Yilliminning townsite was surveyed and primary school built (1914-1946). I have draped the survey diagram over an aerial photograph. Interestingly, road names reflect those in Narrogin.
My colleague Greg Durell recalls a time when there were still houses there and the school building was intact. There was also a small Noongar community. Gregs’ father told him that at one time every Thursday, Yilliminning community members would push an old car on to the road, hop in and the car was towed into Narrogin so they could do their shopping. At the end of the day, they were towed back to Yilliminning. Apparently, police were more tolerant in those days.
Today only plaques and the ruined station masters house remain.
Soil salinity has crept into the townsite, and the dam in the reserve has become saline. In 1993 as part of the Hawke government’s Decade of Landcare, the Yilliminning River Catchment Group ripped these areas and planted 5,000 salt tolerant trees and shrubs, which have thrived. This is one example of the huge amount of conservation and tree planting  done by farmers and community members with the assistance of government and industry, which has been largely forgotten.

Yilliminning Nature Reserve is in excellent condition. There are no walk trails but it is easy and very pleasant country to walk through.
The upland plain on the western end is a remarkably diverse kwongan plain, which has a wealth of flowering plants. Of particular note are a few rare coloured flower variants of Hakea prostrata near the northern side of Boundain Road

To view more wildflowers at this reserve click HERE

There is significant variation between Cortinarius species particularly with the stem and stem base. ​

Distinguishing factors for the Cortinarius genus are:-
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1. All Cortinarius have rusty brown to brown spores. Don't be fooled by gill colour, which often darkens with age.
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2. The name Cortinarius refers to a cortina (meaning curtain) of slimy webby tissue that covers the developing gills from the cap to the stem (a partial veil). As the toadstool expands this dries and collapses on to the stem to form a webby ring zone that is often stained with spores and may disappear entirely.

3. ​Developing toadstools have a slimy cap and some also have a slimy stalk. Both dry as the cap expands.
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4 The caps also fade as they expand and become dry (hygrophanous).
Cortinarius rotundisporus (elegant blue webcap) below and on the left shows this well. The sticky cap often traps tiny arthropods that crawl around eating organic matter and fungal spores.

5. Cortinarius are mycorrhizal fungi that emerge around their host trees. Cortinarius archerii occurs every winter near peg 144. Cortinarius multisporus is common around moist rocky soil under rock sheoaks, and Cortinarius erythraeus popped up in yellow sand near Eucalyptus aspersa mallees this year.

Cortinarius archeri (Archers webcap) below is a large toadstool, which varies in the presence of a cortina and ring zone.

Three less common species are shown below.
the large Cortinarius australiensus (skirt webcap) has an unusual stem ring, like a sock fitted over the lower stem. This is called a volva and is the residue from a universal veil that covers the entire toadstool before the cap expands.​​
Small Cortinarius austrovenetus is rare, and will be another highlight when I find it.

For more information see this web page.