One indication that a disease is prevalent in the general population is when it appears in literary offerings, is depicted in paintings by the old masters, and when it is given a colloquial name that bears no resemblance to the causative organism. Dermatophyte or ringworm infections have achieved this notoriety with the ignominious epithets of ‘athlete's foot’ and ‘jock itch’ being applied to infection of various body parts. Although not life-threatening, superficial mycoses due to dermatophyte fungi have been amongst the most communicable diseases in the population since antiquity and have considerable social and health-economic implications.

Free-living nematodes, commonly known as eelworms, eat bacteria in the soil and may succumb to infection by delicate endoparasitic fungi. In the wild these fungi are host-dependent and infect nematodes with small unicellular spores that either lodge inside the nematode following ingestion, or adhere to the nematode cuticle. Some endoparasites, such as Drechmeria coniospora and Harposporium leptospira, are readily isolated, ubiquitous species, infecting common soil nematodes in a variety of substrates. Others, like the elusive Plesiospora globosa, are seldom seen because they are host-specific for rarer species of nematode occurring in specific habitats.

Fungi can be found in almost any environment, and play important roles in ecosystem processes such as nutrient cycling and degradation. Despite their importance, the vast majority of fungi have not yet been isolated and identified. Due to the difficulties inherent in culture-based methods, fungal ecologists have turned to community fingerprinting techniques, which utilise signal molecules to profile the fungal members of an environmental sample without culturing. Commonly used signal molecules include chitin, ergosterol, membrane lipids and nucleic acids. Several DNA-based fingerprinting methods have been successfully applied to fungal communities, including D/TGGE (denaturing/temperature gradient gel electrophoresis), SSCP (single-stranded conformational polymorphism), RISA (ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis), and T-RFLP (terminal restriction length fragment polymorphism). These techniques allow the fungal ecologist to rapidly profile fungal populations in an ecosystem, without the need for laborious culturing or cloning.

The study of filamentous fungi can be difficult through experimental means alone due to the complexity of their natural growth habitat (e.g. soils) and the microscopic scale of growth (e.g. tip vesicle translocation and hyphal tip extension). Mathematical modelling provides a complimentary, powerful and efficient method of investigation. In this article, earlier mathematical models are briefly reviewed, before an overview of the construction and resultant predictions of a new model for fungal growth and function is given. Model predictions are compared to experimentally obtained data, giving new insight into the complex interaction between the developing mycelium and its environment.

Morels and truffles differ widely in their form and behaviour. The morels resemble mushrooms to the extent that they have a cap borne upon a central stem, whilst the truffles form solid, round balls, which grow underground. These are the edible ascomycetes. Both morels and truffles represent some of the most highly prized edible mushrooms in the world.

The morels are sometimes referred to as the ‘truffles of the north’, but other popular names include ‘sponge’, ‘pine cone’, ‘corncob’, and ‘honeycomb mushroom’. They are the most popular of the springtime, edible fungi, usually occurring from late March through to mid-June, although each crop will survive only for a several days. Morels have a delicate flavour that can be overwhelmed during cooking, but delicious when eaten alone. They are normally prepared by frying in butter and can be preserved, with drying being the most popular method.

A magnificent set of fungal stamps was issued in New Zealand as a miniature sheet (Fig 1) and as individual stamps on 6th March 2002. They illustrate, with six colourful examples, some of the diversity of the basidiomycetes. These are the first stamps about fungi to be issued in New Zealand, although a set of health stamps issued in 1977 showed drawings of children studying a bird, a frog and a butterfly with a few fruit bodies of fly agarics in the foreground. In 1988, the 40c value of a set of stamps depicting native birds shows a brown kiwi apparently looking at some small fungal fruitbodies. These stamps are illustrated and described in McKenzie (1997). Details of the species depicted in this recent set are given below.