Her weapon of choice? Knowledge.

A conjoint at the University of Newcastle, Ms O’Sullivan is a fungi fanatic soon to speak at a Landcare event in Braidwood.

She wants to raise community awareness of the importance of fungi, and engage the community to learn more about local specimens.

Over 90% of plants have some sort of symbiotic relationships with fungi, she says. These associations can help the plant gain nutrients to grow more vigorously.

This ecological linchpin is however, often overlooked, or even actively destroyed, as people react in fear to cultural tropes, Ms O’Sullivan says.

However, only a small proportion of fungi are dangerous. It is the lack of knowledge about the kingdom that leads people to worry about fungi.

“Fear comes from ignorance,” Ms O’Sullivan said.

“So many of those fungi are so necessary and beneficial to the environment they're in.”

In educating communities about the kingdom, Ms O’Sullivan hopes to tap into what she sees as the most important resource: the community.

Where a professional mycologist might study a location for two weeks, the community sees fungus year round, for year, after year, after year.

With possibly over 500 million types fungi worldwide, scientists frequently come across undescribed species – as little as 10 percent have been described.

No in-depth surveys of the Braidwood region have been done, says Ms O’Sullivan, so she is looking to engage with the community to build the level of knowledge.

“It’s so absolutely critical to try and raise awareness,” she said.

“I would just love to work with a group down there to help them to build up the skills, the capacity building.”

After speaking at the Landcare event, Ms O’Sullivan will also lead a mushroom identification walk with co-presenter Peter Wenzel.

Mr Wenzel will focus on growing mushrooms and fungi in his presentation.