Have you seen this ballerina in the forest?
Look closely at the leaf litter in Dorrigo National Park, and you might spot a tiny troupe of dancers mid-performance.
Marasmius ballator is a newly described species of fungus, named for its uncanny resemblance to ballet dancers in tutus. Delicately pleated striped caps, impossibly slender stems — elegant, ephemeral, and easy to miss.
So far, it’s only been found in one small patch of forest. Is it rare? Endangered? Or simply overlooked?
We don’t know. And that’s the point.
The great fungal blind spot
Fungi are still largely missing from biodiversity surveys and conservation frameworks.
A handful of fungi are finally being assessed — but for most species in this vast kingdom of life, there’s little data, limited monitoring, and far more questions than answers.
Yet fungi like Marasmius ballator are essential recyclers — quietly breaking down leaf litter and keeping forests functioning.
Marasmius ballator was identified and named by Frances Guard, a retired General Practitioner now in her 80s and nearing completion of a PhD in Mycology. She is on a mission to rewrite the genus Marasmius in Australia — untangling look-alike species through careful observation and DNA analysis and revealing a hidden diversity most of us never notice.
“These fungi may look small and insignificant, but without them we’d be buried under leaf litter. They are part of the connected web of life,” said Frances Guard.
This discovery was made possible through collaboration between citizen scientists (K. Millichamp and C. Marciniak) and formally described by Frances E. Guard (PhD candidate) and Dr John Dearnaley of the University of Southern Queensland, and Dr Teresa Lebel of the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium of South Australia.
A faster way to name fungi
This species, along with two other new Australian Marasmius species, was published through the Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute Fungal Planet Description Sheets project as part of a growing shift in how new fungi are formally described. Journals such as Persoonia-Fungal Planet and initiatives like the Australian Journal of Taxonomy and Fungal Diversity Notes use a modern, DNA-based, open-access approach that helps remove bottlenecks in the publication
process.
With only around 6% of the world’s estimated fungi currently named, and only 10% of
them DNA-sequenced, this model enables new species to be recognised and shared in months rather than years — while the opportunity to study and protect them remains.
The power of citizen science
Many fungal discoveries begin the same way: someone stops, looks down, and wonders What have we got here?
So next time you’re in the forest, keep an eye on the ground.
You might just spot the next star of the fungal world.
Photograph courtesy of Stephen Axford @planet_fungi
If you want to read the full description it can be accessed here
Congratulations to all those involved