NOVELTY - An isolated culture (I) of a fungal isolate belonging to the class Basidiomycetes, having one or more of the identifying characteristics of one of the isolates nominally identified as B101 (AGAL accession no. NM03/33520) and B102 (AGAL accession no. NMO3/33521), and is effective in degrading hydrocarbon contaminants in contaminated material, is new.    USE - (I) is useful for degrading hydrocarbon contaminants in contaminated material which involves applying (I) to a lignocellulosic substrate, incubating the inoculated lignocellulosic substrate for a period of time and at a temperature sufficient to allow growth of the culture, and applying the inoculated lignocellulosic substrate to the contaminated material. The above method further involves aerating and/or hydrating the contaminated material to promote degradation of the hydrocarbon contaminants. The contaminated material contains boron or solid material. The material is soil, sludge, sediment, or debris from the processing of timber or lumber such as wood chips, shavings and sawdust, preferably soil. The hydrocarbon contaminants are one or more polycyclic hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons or halogenated hydrocarbons. The contaminants are halogenated aromatic hydrocarbons (HACs). The contaminants are one or more of polychlorophenols, dithiothreitol (DDT), polychlorinated biphenyls, and polybrominated biphenyls. The initial concentration of dioxin in the material is less than 60 or 20 ppb. (I) is not conditioned prior to its application to the solid material. The percentage decrease in concentration of one or more of the hydrocarbon contaminants is greater than 60%, 70%, 80% or 90% of the initial concentration of the hydrocarbon contaminant (all claimed). To detect the effective degradation of hydrocarbon contaminants (e.g., 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-heptachlorodibenzo furan (HpCDF), 1,2,3,4,6,7.8-heptachlorodibenzo dioxin (HpCDD) and octachlorodibenzo dioxin (OCDD)) in contaminated material by (I), the following test was done. Soil samples were obtained from Whakatane, Brookside and Kinleith sites. (I) and emulsified vegetable oil was added to the soil sample. The sample mixture was aerated. The concentration of the contaminants was evaluated on the following days: 0, 14, 28 and 56. The results showed that (I) efficiently degraded HpCDF, HpCDD and OCDD present in soil.    ADVANTAGE - (I) is effective in degrading hydrocarbon contaminants present in contaminated material.    DESCRIPTION OF DRAWING(S) - The figure is a graph that represents bioremediation of 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-heptachlorodibenzo furan (HpCDF) in Kinleith and Brookside soil by isolates B101 and B102.