Newcastle - AGM & talk: Fungi

The talk

Gregg Heathcote will describe how Australian native plants interact with, and relate to, fungi in our ecosystems. He summarises his talk thus: 'Fungi were pioneers of life on land. They effectively spun the soils from which terrestrial life arose. Fungi are vital symbionts, i.e. organisms living in a symbiotic relationship with others.  They are also saprophytic recyclers, i.e. they obtain food by absorbing dissolved organic material. Fungi today continue to be indispensable to complex life on land and especially so in the nutrient-poor soils of the Australian landmass. Moreover they do so in the most fascinating fashion, so prolific in their arrestingly beautiful forms'.