Favolaschia calocera at Uralla

Since moving to West Gippsland about ten years ago, Uralla Reserve at Trafalgar has been one of my favourite places to go for fungi. From memory, Uralla was the first place where I’d seen Orange Pore Fungus at one, perhaps two sites.

It now seems to be on every second dead log, branch or stick beside the tracks in Uralla. It is also present in other West Gippsland locations.

Orange Pore looks like little orange ping-pong bats.

 Instead of gills, it has pores on the fertile underside of the cap, giving it a honeycomb appearance.

Favolaschia calocera is a saprotrophic fungus that inhabits dead wood.

Many references refer to this fungus as an imported weed-fungus from Madagascar which first appeared in New Zealand in the 1950s. Most records suggest it first appeared in Victoria in 2005. The main concern with this invasive species is that it displaces native fungi that have evolved to have beneficial symbiotic relationships with many native plants.