The smell of tuber melanosporum – the prized Périgord truffle – has been described as being somewhere ‘between sex and death’.

This fungus vies with Iranian caviar as one of the most expensive foods in the world but Périgord truffles prefer symbiotic partners that don't naturally occur in Australia.

But did you know that Australia has a vast number of native truffles?

Almost every eucalyptus lives in association with native truffles.

Australia potentially has the most megadiverse mycota in the world (with an order of magnitude more truffle species than Europe) yet biodiversity conservation seldom considers fungi.

Fungi are more often listed under Australia’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act as environmental threats than as organisms worthy of conservation.

Ms Pouliot will explore the irony that, in a land where wild nature is highly valued, in the case of fungi, the local organisms are absent from biodiversity protocols, while their imported counterparts are the subject of expensive programs for growth.

As debate intensifies about the dangers of species translocation, it might be time to look a little closer at what's growing beneath the backyard gum tree.

‘Between sex and death - unearthing Australia's charismatic fungi’, a CSU Explorations series lecture will be presented by Alison Pouliot at CSU Orange on Thursday, March 9 from 6pm in building 1004, room 120.

Please RSVP to hocorange@csu.edu.au.