A nearly fluorescent, candy pink fungus species has been discovered in New Caledonia. Its fruiting bodies are also very unusual in their architecture, producing up to half-a-dozen caps diminishing in size from bottom to top, all emanating from a central stem that can reach 10cm in height.
The "Barbie pagoda" fungus is an ectomycorrhizal symbiont forming sheaths around the roots of the oak gum, Arillastrum gummiferum. This remarkable fungus was studied by a team from the Institut de recherché pour le développement (IRD), Laboratoire des symbioses tropicales et méditerranéennes and the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. No closely related fungus species are known to be toxic, but the cotton-like fibrous structure and smell of radishes probably rule this out as an object of culinary attention.
New Caledonia is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots, with extremely large numbers of species, many of which are found nowhere else on Earth. Researchers speculate that the 300 fungus species known there represent less than 1% of its total fungus flora. A recently formed amateur organisation, the Société Mycologique de Nouvelle-Calédonie, was instrumental in discovering this species and is engaged in an active partnership with scientists exploring the mycological riches of the archipelago.
Quentin Wheeler is director of the International Institute for Species Exploration, Arizona State University
