Fungi of Australia Volume 2a: Catalogue and Bibliography of Australian Macrofungi 1. Basidiomycota P.p. - Tapa dura

"The authors have done a highly commendable job collecting ... information from diverse sources and presenting it effectively. This volume is a critical reference for any scientist working on the taxonomy and systematics of Australian macrofungi." -- Michael Castellano, Mycologia 90: 738 "This volume ... will provide an invaluable aid to all future monographers ... The authors are to be congratulated for this basic aid to fungal systematists, which will extend far beyond the shorelines of Australia. How this reviewer would have welcomed such a compendium in the past during his vain attempts at seeking a name for an Australian fungus!" -- David Pegler, Mycologist 11: 997-998 "I have found this book extremely useful ... For anyone working in the Southern Hemisphere ... I cannot recommend this book too fervently" -- G.S. Ridley, Mycotaxon 66: 515-516 "This book is, therefore, a very useful and scholarly document for students of the larger fungi in Australia and New Zealand ... will serve as essential reference texts for those producing subsequent volumes in the series, and for others generally interested in the larger fungi of the region." --Ian Hood, New Zealand Journal of Botany 36, 1998 "carefully done!" -- W. Gams, Nova Hedwigia 66: 281 "The species listed can be found very easily ... [and] the information is provided in an open and critical manner. I am very pleased to see the series progressing so well." -- Liliane Petrini, Sydowia 49: 199-200

The fungi are among the least known of the major Australian biota. While the number of species likely to occur in Australia has been estimated to be as high as 250 000, only a small proportion have been formally described and fewer still can be considered well-known in terms of their distribution, ecology and general biology. The most conspicuous group, the macrofungi, comprise taxa across both the Basidiomycota and Ascomyctoa. The names for the estimated 3000 species in Australia are scattered through the literature leading to confusion and uncertainty. Moreover, many names currently in use are misapplied or synonyms. The last catalogue of the Australian macrofungi were produced over 100 years ago, and an up -to-date reassessment is long overdue. Volume 2A and its companion 2B will be essential in the preparation of modern taxonomic treatments of the Australian macrofungi. They provide a guide to the names that have been used in Australia for the mushroom, toadstools, bracket fungi, puffballs and other taxa with large conspicuous fruiting bodies. For each name the catalogue provides place and date of publication, taxonomic synonyms, and a comprehensive list of all works in which the name has been used in an Australian context. The catalogue covers approximately 3200 accepted, synonymous and misapplied names in Agaricales, Boletales, Cantharellales, Gauteriales, Hymenogastrales, Melanogastrales, Phallales p.p, Podaxales, Russulales, Aphyllophorales p.p., and taxa associated with Eucalyptus outside of Australia. Volume 2B will be complete the catalogue with the balance of the Basidiomycata, and the Ascomycata.