Nuytsia
The journal of the Western Australian Herbarium

A small subgroup within the heterogeneous Styphelia Sm. Group X is recognised based on morphological and molecular data. A morphological synopsis of, and key to, the subgroup are provided, and all four member species are described and illustrated. Three of the four species are described as new, S. anomala Hislop, S. cylindrica Hislop and S. planiconvexa Hislop, while S. corynocarpa (Sond.) F.Muell. is given an updated description. Styphelia anomala has Western Australian conservation listing as Priority Two.

Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, Australia’s most productive botanist of the mid–late nineteenth century, was especially enamoured with the flora of Western Australia, and wrote about its ‘marvellous exuberance’, ‘typic singularity’ and ‘endemism’. He botanised in Western Australia on three occasions: in 1856 in the Sturt Creek area during Augustus Gregory’s North Australian Exploring Expedition; in 1867 in the Porongurup Range and Stirling Range and around Albany; and in 1877 with excursions from Champion Bay to Shark Bay and from Perth to Albany. Although he considered that most of Australia’s plant taxa had been described by the late 1870s, he remained attentive for novelties, especially those that were rare or from remote, under-botanised areas, especially in Western Australia. Many of Mueller’s later publications consolidated aspects of nomenclature, systematics, biogeography, economics, horticulture and utilisation of the flora of Western Australia.

A new and unusual species of Echinostelium de Bary appearing on samples of bark collected in Western Australia and placed in moist chamber cultures is described and illustrated. This new species is clearly distinct from all other species of Echinostelium as it differs in a number of morphological and colour characters. The dark colouration of the sporotheca, stalk and spores with distinct patches of closely arranged warts arranged in a loosely circular pattern, and a large bi-coloured petaloid collar are unusual for the genus.

Re-examination of vouchered specimens of pink-spored, volvate, agaricoid fungi held at the Western Australian Herbarium (PERTH) has revealed the first recorded occurrences in Western Australia of Volvopluteus earlei (Murrill) Vizzini, Contu & Justo and Volvariella taylorii (Berk. & Broome) Singer, and affirmed the regional prevalence of Volvopluteus gloiocephalus (DC.) Vizzini, Contu & Justo. The identities of the two Volvopluteus Vizzini, Contu & Justo taxa were confirmed with molecular data relative to extra-Australian samples validated in previous studies. Volvopluteus earlei had not been previously reported from Australia. Evidently Volvopluteus earlei and Volvariella taylorii are less common in Australia than the larger and more often encountered Common Rosegill, Volvopluteus gloiocephalus.