Battarraea stevenii (Lib.)Fr. Syst. Mycol. 3: 7 (1829)

Image © Bruce Fuhrer Reproduced by permission

This is a species of the desert country which often comes up after rain. Common Name: Drumstick Fungus

• Peridium
  Up to 60mm dia. and 20-30mm high, pulvinate or depressed globose, at the disc-like apex of the stipe; base white or off-white. The peridium has an outer layer, the exoperidium, which falls off in flakes or pieces,and an inner layer, the endoperidium, which opens around its 'equator'and usually falls away as one piece.

• Lamellae
  None.

• Stipe
  Stipe dun to brown, up to 35 cm long and about 1.5 cm in diameter, emerging from a non-gelatinous volva at its base. The surface of the stipe is covered with fine brown scales, which are eventually shed. The interior of the stipe is filled with silky fibres.

• Gleba
  Pulverulent, with a capillitium of two types: single hyaline threads which are predominantly vertically arranged and elaters which are fusiform or cylindrical bodies with annular or spiral thickenings.

• Spores
  5.6-8.8 x 4.6-7.6 µm globose to subglobose, on short pedicels, finely verrucose, very pale brown.

• Habitat
  Usually solitary, occasionally in groups, in dry sandy soil. In Victoria Battarrea stevenii occurs almost exclusively in desert areas.

• Comments
  This is a distinctive species which is easy to recognise even from a moving car.

  [details from C.A. Grgurinovic (1997) Larger Fungi of South Australia]

Distribution map

Last modified on 26 June 2002

Maintained by Gudrun Arnold

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