Medium to large agaric, growing on wood or stumps (sometimes on buried wood and then appearing terrestrial), with a white to cream spore print. Pileus yellow, brown, greenish or grey, dry, moist, viscid or rarely glutinous, smooth or in the most widespread species (Armillaria luteobubalina) with the feel of sandpaper. Lamellae sinuate, subdecurrent or decurrent, rarely adnate. Stipe central, rarely excentric. Partial veil remnants a ring zone or a membranous annulus. Spores hyaline or pale, or sometimes yellow-brown, non-amyloid, smooth or sometimes faintly warty; germ pore absent. Cheilocystidia present. Lamellar trama regular, interwoven or bilateral. Pileipellis a cutis or a trichoderm. Clamp connections present or absent.

Gymnopilus pampeanus forms large clusters of fruit-bodies at the base of trees, similar to A. luteobubalina, but it has an ochre spore print. Among the white-spored, annulate agarics with attached (not free) lamellae that are not decurrent: Cystoderma can share the finely roughened pileus surface such as found in A. luteobubalina, but it is generally smaller, non-caespitose, grows among mosses and has amyloid spores; Tricholoma does not grow on wood, often forms very robust fruit-bodies and lacks clamp connections; Amanita has free lamellae, usually a distinct volva at the base of the stipe, and often amyloid spores; and Limacella has a viscid pileus surface.

Armillaria (Fr.) Staude, Schwämme Mitteldeutschl. xxvii, 130 (1857).

Armillariella (P.Karst.) P.Karst.

Five species: Armillaria fumosa, A. hinnulea, A. luteobubalina, A. novaezelandiae and A. pallidula. Old records of Australian material are often erroneously as A. mellea. Records of A. fuscipes (as A. elegans) from Australia require confirmation.

W.A., S.A., Qld, N.S.W., Vic. and Tas. (and probably also N.T.).

Native forests (including cool-temperate rainforest), and also gardens with native and exotic trees (such as fruit trees).

Individual mycelia of A. luteobubalina can occupy areas of up to several hectares (Kile, 1983).

On wood and around stumps, or at the base of trees and along buried roots.

Parasitic and saprotrophic (white rot).

Bougher, N.L. (2009a), Fungi of the Perth region and beyond: a self-managed field book, Western Australian Naturalists' Club (Inc.), Perth. [Description and Illustration of A. luteobubalina]

Bougher, N.L. & Syme, K. (1998), Fungi of Southern Australia. University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands. [Description, Illustration and Microcharacters of A. luteobubalina]

Coetzee, M.P.A., Wingfield, B.D., Bloomer, P., Ridley, G.S., Kile, G.A. & Wingfield, M.J. (2001), Phylogenetic relationships of Australian and New Zealand Armillaria species, Mycologia 93: 887–896.

Fuhrer, B. (2005), A Field Guide to Australian Fungi. Bloomings Books, Hawthorn. [Description and Illustration of A. fumosa, A. hinnulea, A. luteobubalina, A. novaezelandiae and A. pallidula]

Fuhrer, B. & Robinson, R. (1992), Rainforest Fungi of Tasmania and South-east Australia. CSIRO Press, East Melbourne. [Illustration of A. novae-zelandiae]

Grey, P. & Grey, E. (2005), Fungi Down Under. Fungimap, South Yarra. [Description, Illustration and Map for A. luteobubalina]

Grgurinovic, C.A. (1997a), Larger Fungi of South Australia. The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide and State Herbarium and The Flora and Fauna of South Australia Handbooks Committee, Adelaide. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of A. luteobubalina]

Grgurinovic, C.A. & Mallett, K. (eds) (1996), Fungi of Australia, Volume 1A. Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra. [Illustration of A. luteobubalina]

Hood, I.A. (2003), An Introduction to Fungi on Wood in Queensland. University of New England, School of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resources Management, Armidale. [Description, Illustration and B&W Illustration of A. luteobubalina]

Kile, G.A. (1983), Identification of genotypes and the clonal development of Armillaria luteobubalina Watling & Kile in eucalypt forests, Austral. J. Bot. 31: 657–671.

Kile, G.A. & Watling, R. (1981), An expanded concept of Armillaria luteobubalina, Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc. 77: 75–83. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of A. luteobubalina]

Kile, G.A. & Watling, R. (1983), Armillaria species from south-eastern Australia, Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc. 81: 129–140. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of A. fumosa, A. hinnulea and A. novaezelandiae]

Kile, G.A. & Watling, R. (1988), Identification and occurrence of Australian Armillaria species, including A. pallidula sp. nov. and comparative studies between them and non-Australian tropical and Indian Armillaria, Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc. 91: 305–315. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of A. pallidula]

Kile, G.A. & Whalley, A.J.S. (1990), Profiles of fungi 30. Armillaria novae-zelandiae (Stev.) Boesewinkel, Mycologist 4: 147. [Description and Illustration of A. novae-zelandiae]

Marks, G.C., Fuhrer, B.A. & Walters, N.E.M. (Huebner, M.L., ed.) (1982), Tree Diseases in Victoria. Forests Commission Victoria, Melbourne.[Illustration of A. luteobubalina and Armillaria sp.]

McCann, I.R. (2003), Australian Fungi Illustrated. Macdown Productions, Vermont. [Illustration of A. hinnulea, A. luteobubalina (also as Armillaria sp., p. 42) and A. novaezelandiae]

Podger, F.D., Kile, G.A., Watling, R. & Fryer, J. (1978), Spread and effects of Armillaria luteobubalina sp. nov. in an Australian Eucalyptus regnans plantation, Trans. Brit. Mycol. Soc. 71: 77–87. [Description, B&W Illustration and Microcharacters of A. luteobubalina]

Shaw, C.G., III & Kile, G.A. (eds) (1991), Armillaria Root Disease. Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Washington. [Illustration of A. fumosa, A. luteobubalina and A. pallidula]

Smith-White, J., Summerell, B.A., Gunn, L.V., Rinzin, C., Porter, C. & Burgess, L. (2002), Molecular detection and differentiation of Australian Armillaria species, Australas. Pl. Pathol. 31: 75–79.

Young, A.M. (2005b), A Field Guide to the Fungi of Australia. University of New South Wales Press, Sydney. [Description and Illustration of A. luteobubalina, and Description and B&W Illustration of A. novaezelandiae]