Aboriginal Use of Fungi PDF

Omphalotus nidiformis • • • • • Also known as the ‘ghost fungi’ Bright green glow in low-light Toxic Aboriginal people appeared to be afraid of it Avoided because it had bad spirits associated with it ( 'chinga' is the name for a spirit) Cyttaria gunnii • • • • • Aboriginal people ate it Contai...

Omphalotus nidiformis • • • • • Also known as the ‘ghost fungi’ Bright green glow in low-light Toxic Aboriginal people appeared to be afraid of it Avoided because it had bad spirits associated with it ( 'chinga' is the name for a spirit) Cyttaria gunnii • • • • • Aboriginal people ate it Contains a fluid that tastes pleasant Only grows on Nothofagus trees in Tasmania and southern Victoria Yellow and orange colour Shaped like a golfball Choiromyces aboriginum • • • • • • • Truffle-like fungus Traditional native food eaten raw or cooked Used as a source of water Grows in dry areas of Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory Spherical in shape and grows to about 7cm in diameter Cooked in hot sand and ashes for longer than one hour Soft consistency and bland taste but reheated leftovers taste like baked cheese Podaxis pistillaris Also called ‘stalked puffball’ Powdery spores Desert fungus used by many desert Indigenous people Used to hide signs of aging because it would darken the white hair in elderly men's whiskers • Used for body painting • Used as a fly repellent • • • • Laccocephalum mylittae • Aboriginal people found it by smell. They would push a stick into the ground, pull it out and then smell the stick. • Also known as native bread • Originally described as Polyporus mylittae • Eaten raw or roasted • Tastes like boiled rice • Firm consistency • Produces a large (could be as big as a football) underground sclerotium Pycnoporus sp. • Bright reddish-orange brackets • Found on dead wood • Used by desert Aboriginal people as a teething ring and for treating oral thrush in babies. • Rubbed on sore lips and sucked to help sore mouths • Two antibiotic compounds have been found in the Pycnoporus coccineus species Mycoclelandia bulundari • • • • • • • Truffle-like fungus Cooked in hot sand and ashes Strong mushroom flavour From the Northern Territory and Western Australia desert areas 10cm in diameter Fluid used on body sores and sore eyes Rubbed onto armpits and hair to stop it from growing Phellinus sp. • • • • Hard, woody bracket fungi, mostly coloured brown to black Top can look cracked Smoke from burning them was inhaled for sore throats Slightly burnt scrapings were mixed with water to drink as treatment for coughing, sore throats, fevers and diarrhea Pisolithus sp. • Eaten when young as an emergency food • When mature it produces lots of powdery spores • Younger pisolithus have a tarry consistency that were used on wounds Laetiporus portentosus • • • • Was also called Piptoporus portentosus Eaten by Aboriginal people in Tasmania An emergency food Used as a tinder and to help carry fire as it would smoulder all day Did you Know? Some Aboriginal people (the Arunta) did not eat mushrooms and toadstools because they believed they were fallen stars. They associated them with evil magic (arungquiltha).