iNaturalist helps track potential weeds and conservation status, with new data being included to indicate where species come from and if they have conservation status. iNaturalist and the Atlas of Living Australia data is improving our understanding of species by providing information about natural distributions and indicating when species are introduced to areas.

Records on iNaturalist are largely based on images – you submit one or more photos of each observation, along with location and date (which can be extracted from the image metadata, or directly when you use the smartphone app). If you want to help record fungi and get the Fungimap identification community to help verifiy your records please join our project in iNaturalist ‘Fungimap Australia‘.

For example we can now see that weedy fungus Orange Ping-pong Bats (Favolaschia calocera) is introduced in Australia. This fungus currently has hot spots in SEQ, Central Victoria, the Otways and Southwest WA.  This species has airborne spores and we know from the New Zealand experience that it moves rapidly into environments.

Remember humans are the main movers of species around the world. So please go with clean clothes, including hats and equipment when you enter bushlands, particularly areas that it has not been spread to. Unfortunately some weedy fungi are now naturalised in our local areas and you can pick up spores easily and spread them unknowingly. We probably can’t stop it’s spread in busy, often visited places but we can take better care of our conservation reserves. To read more about likely weedy fungi here.

There is now information about the conservation status of different species. For example there is now information that the Truffle-like Stinkhorn Claustula fischeri is endangered (see the status profile). iNaturalist depends on volunteers updating information like this so if there is something missing find a reputable reference and then update the information.