Believe it or not, not all fungi thrive in wet forest leaf litter or on living or dead trees or even in the company of poo.  Some fungi break out in the middle of summer 24 hours after a large fire has gone through a Karri or Jarrah forest where it has destroyed huge logs and vegetation.  Other fungi are adapted to grow in the following year when the conditions are right for that particular fungus.

I have found these fungi below growing on burnt logs. 

Yanchep Nation Park 28 July.  3.5cmw x 1.1cmh.  There were five of these tree fungi living off this burnt log.  They had gills the nearest trees were Banksia.  These fungi have also been seen at Bullcreek in Perth after fire.

Bullcreek Park Perth July 29.  5.5cmw.  This bracket fungus was growing in a burnt out tree.  The fire had gone through here last summer.  This was a hard bracket fungus with no gills.

Avon  National Park near Toodyay July 31.  These fungi were seen on the 'Drummond Walk' on a burnt log.  I couldn't measure them as I was fighting my way through prickly acacia bushes.

Warren National Park, Pemberton, south-west in July.  These fungi were all seen where there had been fire.  There were 12 of these fungi growing under a burnt Karri tree.  One measured 3cmw x 3cmh

There were a lot of these cup type fungi growing in the burnt trees.

Other fungi that comes up after fires are;

White spored Miscellany Oudemansiella radicata  found after a forest fire beneath a coastal wattle in July at Point Peron.  And Lyophyllum was found after a summer burn in July at Berry Reserve in open ground.

In an article called "Fruits of fire" by Richard Robinson Landscope magazine winter 2001 the following things were said about fungi.

"Fungi that are specifically adapted to fire are known as pyrophilous fungi."  Some wood decay fungi survive fire by forming underground structures that produce fruit bodies after a bushfire has destroyed the log that they had colonised.   

Click on the photographs to see them larger. 
 Permission has been sought from the photographer, Richard Robinson, to reproduce these photographs for this page only.    The following photographs are copyright Richard Robinson.

"The Stonemaker fungus colonises and rots fallen jarrah and possibly karri logs.  The underground structure can grow as large as 30 kilograms and looks like a large brown stone.  Within another 24 hours of a bushfire the mushroom that emerges from the stone can be as big as a dinner plate.  They quickly mature and produce spores from the pores on the underside of the mushroom."

"The Marblemaker fungus produces small mushrooms 2-5 cm beneath the soil surface.  It does not fruit straight after the fire but in the Autumn produces a small flat mushroom between 2-3cm in diameter.  It looks brown and velvety and has a white pore layer underneath."

"The hand or Finger fungus occurs in karri forests.  The underground structure can be a single finger-like mass or a multi-branched hand like structure that can weigh up to three kilograms.  The mushrooms that emerge have gills on the underside of the cap.  Western grey kangaroos may grazing on the fresh caps when there is little else to eat."

"Morels are found in the wetter karri and jarrah forest regions and fruit early in the next spring following a summer bushfire.  Morels do not rot wood or logs but like the other fungi mentioned they have underground fruiting structures.  Morels may produce abundant amounts of fruit bodies on a burnt site, but their fruiting behavior is unpredictable."

Photo by Rachel Martinovich.
Taken October 12th, in a  Jarrah forest near Nanga Mill.

Other Text used:

"A Field Guide To The Larger Fungi of the Darling Scarp and South West of Western Australia" by Kevin Griffiths.