Research on marine fungi in Australia is relatively new. The first record was by Cribb and Herbert (1954) in Tasmania, followed by further work in Queensland (Cribb and Cribb 1955, 1956, 1960, 1969). A checklist in 2020 showed that there were only 120 species of marine fungi recorded in Australia http://www.mycotaxon.com/resources/checklists/fryar-v135-2-checklist.pdf. Subsequently our study of marine fungal distributions around South Australia increased the number of marine fungi recorded in Australia to 141, with another 12 species which were unable to be identified and are likely to be new species (Fryar et al. 2020). This study also increased the recorded number of marine fungal species recorded in South Australia from 11 to 53. There are now 54 marine fungal species recorded from South Australia and 142 from Australia after our description and publication of a Polychaetomyces verrucosus from the Coorong (Crous et al. 2024)

List of marine fungal species in Australia

References

Cotton, A.D. (1909). Notes on marine Pyrenomycetes. Trans. Br. Mycol. Soc. 31: 92–99.

Cribb, A. and Cribb, J. (1955). Marine fungi from Queensland. 1. Pap. Univ. Qd. Dept. Bot. 3: 77–81.

Cribb, A. and Cribb, J. (1956). Marine fungi from Queensland. 2. Pap. Univ. Qd. Dept. Bot. 3: 97–105.

Cribb, A.B. and Cribb, J.W. (1960). Marine fungi from Queensland. 3. Pap. Univ. Qd. Dept. Bot. 4: 45–48.

Cribb, A.B. and Cribb, J.W. (1969). Some marine fungi from the Great Barrier Reef area. Queensl. Nat. 19: 118–120.

Cribb, A.B. and Herbert, J.W. (1954). Three species of fungi parasitic on marine algae in Tasmania. Pap. Univ. Qd. Dept. Bot. 3: 9–13.

Crous PW, Wingfield MJ, Balashov S, Lucchini G, Chen J, Moreno G, Faraoni M, Zhao RL, Borovička J, Jansen GM, Shivas RG, Tan YP, Alfenas AC, Alfenas RF, Altés A, Avchar R, Barreto RW, Catcheside DEA, Chi TY, Esteve-Raventós F, Hanh LTM, Larsbrink J, Oberlies NH, Olsson L, Pancorbo F, Raja HA, Thanh VN, Thuy NT, Ajithkumar K, et al. 2024. Fungal Planet description sheets: 1697–1780. Fungal Systematics and Evolution 14:325–577.

Fryar SC, Hyde KD, Catcheside DEA. (2020). A survey of marine fungi on wood in South Australia. Botanica Marina. 63:469–478.