Agaricus in our backyard

Online talk

Agaricus, also known as the field mushroom genus, is one of the more iconic fungi genera. It’s easy to recognise, and readily found on supermarket shelves, or growing wild in parks, gardens, paddocks, and even out in the bush. Agaricus mushrooms conjure memories of mushrooming in paddocks as a child- or even foraging today as an adult! You may have vividly queasy recollections of becoming unwell after accidentally ingesting the infamous Yellow Stainer, Agaricus xanthodermus.

But what do we really know about the Agaricus growing in our backyard?

We estimate that there are >500 species of Agaricus all over the world, but Australian Agaricus remain virtually unknown in the global understanding of the genus. Of the 37 species listed as occurring in Australia, only 13 are fully described native species. That number is likely only a small fraction of Australia’s Agaricus biodiversity. In this talk, Grace will discuss her research on Agaricus to date- including the results of her recent publication on Agaricus xanthodermus toxicity, and the research she is currently undertaking on Australasian Agaricus diversity and evolution.

Grace Boxshall is a young, Australian mycologist whose main interest is the taxonomy and the evolutionary history of Australasian fungi. Grace started off her journey with a Bachelor of Science (Plant Science) from the University of Melbourne but was inoculated with a fungi fascination during her final semester internship with Dr Teresa Lebel at the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria in 2018. From that internship, Grace embarked upon a Master of Science (BioSciences) at the University of Melbourne supervised by Drs T. Lebel and Joanne Birch. For her research project, she employed both chemical and phylogenetic analyses to investigate the toxicity variation in a poisonous species Agaricus xanthodermus, the Yellow Stainer, which closely resembles edible field- and button mushrooms. During this time, Grace founded FungiSight, the then-Facebook page (www.facebook.com/fungisight) dedicated to sharing her research and helping her locate her target species as it popped up. FungiSight now spans Instagram, iNaturalist, and Facebook with a following of >1900. 

Now in 2021, Grace has returned once again to the University of Melbourne and is one year into her PhD studying the evolutionary history, biogeography, and taxonomy of the field mushroom genus Agaricus in New Zealand and east coast Australia. Grace has also recently published the results of her master’s research in international journal Mycologia (available free here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354452380_A_field-based_investigation_of_simple_phenol_variation_in_Australian_Agaricus_xanthodermus). Grace is currently seeking observations of Agaricus mushrooms particularly in native bush or non-urban east coast Australia.
 

All profits go to the Wild Fungi DNA Project