BOUGHER, NEALE, & INEZ TOMMERUP.
CSIRO Forestry and Forest Products, Private Bag P.O. Wembley WA 6014 AUSTRALIA.
The Wheatbelt region of Western Australia has a dry, warm mediterranean climate with 300-650 mm of rainfall and 7-8 dry months annually. The region lies inland from the wetter tall forest region of south-west Australia. In the Wheatbelt, over 90% of the land has been cleared for agriculture and only scattered remnant patches of indigenous vegetation remain. The region has a range of geographically fragmented vegetation types including eucalypt woodland dominated by species such as Eucalyptus capillosa, E. loxophleba and E. salmonophloia. Few fungi of this region had been documented prior to our recent studies on the fungi of remnant patches of indigenous woodland. The studies have yielded a large spectrum of mycorrhizal and saprotrophic species, indicating that fungal diversity in the Wheatbelt vegetation may equal that of wetter eucalypt forests in Australia. Like many other parts of Australia, soils of Wheatbelt woodlands are nutrient-poor. Diversity among mycorrhizal and saproptrophic fungi which are involved in crucial nutrient cycling processes is likely to have contributed to sustainability of the woodlands in the past. Although many Wheatbelt fungal species also occur outside the region, some putatively ectomycorrhizal fungi such as two recently discovered new species of Torrendia are currently only known from a few remnant patches of Wheatbelt woodland. The discovery of such fungi adds to the conservation significance of the remnant woodland.