Fungus Fact Friday

Author: Thomas Roehl

#116: Scorias spongiosa 1

Fungus Fact

#116: Scorias spongiosa

This bizarre fungus forms a fuzzy mat of tan to black tissue on the branches, trunks, and ground underneath American Beech trees. Scorias spongiosa belongs to a group of fungi called “sooty molds.”  Sooty molds digest the honeydew (essentially sugar-rich aphid poop) dropped by aphids in the process of feeding on plants.  There are many kinds of sooty molds and if you’ve ever had an aphid (or other insect) infestation on trees in your garden, they you’ve probably seen sooty molds.  Normally, sooty molds form a thin, black film on leaves and branches under places where the aphids are feeding.  spongiosa differs from normal sooty molds because it forms films that can be as thick as a football!

#115: Neotyphodium coenophialum, Tall Fescue Endophyte 1

Fungus Fact

#115: Neotyphodium coenophialum, Tall Fescue Endophyte

This fungus spends its entire life inside Tall Fescue, a common livestock feed grass. While it is beneficial to the plant, it makes animals that feed on the grass sick.  In the United States, the fungus costs the beef industry from $600 million to $1 billion or more every year.

#113: Moniliophthora perniciosa, Witches’ Broom Disease of Cacao Trees 1

Fungus Fact

#113: Moniliophthora perniciosa, Witches’ Broom Disease of Cacao Trees

Witches might not be real, but witches’ brooms certainly are – and they’re destroying chocolate! Yes, Halloween’s favorite treat (chocolate) is suffering at the hands of a disease with a Halloween-themed name: Witches’ Broom Disease.  Witches’ brooms are actually fairly common and occur on many different plants.  In chocolate trees (Cacao trees, Theobroma cacao, whose genus name literally means “food of the gods”), witches’ brooms are caused by the fungal pathogen Moniliophthora perniciosa and have an enormous economic impact on chocolate production in Central and South America.

#112: Monotropa uniflora, Ghost Plant, Indian Pipe, or Corpse Plant 0

Fungus Fact / Literature Connection / That's Not A Fungus!

#112: Monotropa uniflora, Ghost Plant, Indian Pipe, or Corpse Plant

On September 30, 1882, Emily Dickinson wrote the following in a letter to Mabel Loomis Todd: That without suspecting it you should send me the preferred flower of life, seems almost supernatural, and the sweet glee that I felt at meeting it, I could confide to none—I still cherish the clutch with which I bore it from the ground when a wondering child, an unearthly booty, and maturity only enhances mystery, never decreases it— The previous week, she had received a gift from Mabel Todd: a painting of Monotropa uniflora.  These ethereal plants happened to rank among Emily Dickinson’s favorite wildflowers, thus prompting the response above.  In the same letter, Dickinson gave Todd the poem “A Route of Evanescence” in return for the painting with a note explaining, “I cannot make an Indian Pipe but please accept a Humming Bird.”  Many people have likened the Ghost Plant to the reclusive...

#111: Stemonitis spp., Chocolate Tube Slime Molds or Tree Hair 0

Fungus Fact / That's Not A Fungus!

#111: Stemonitis spp., Chocolate Tube Slime Molds or Tree Hair

“Hair Growing on Wood – Believe it or Not” proclaimed one of the exhibits at the Ripley’s Believe it or Not pavilion during the 1933 World’s Fair in Chicago. The curious organism on display was Stemonitis fusca, which belongs to a group of organisms commonly known as “Chocolate Tube Slime Molds” or “Pipe Cleaner Slime Molds.”  However, thanks to its moment of fame 82 years ago, “Tree Hair” is also an acceptable common name for these species.

#110: Alectoria sarmentosa, Witch’s Hair 0

Fungus Fact

#110: Alectoria sarmentosa, Witch’s Hair

This lichen can be found hanging from trees in conifer forests of the Pacific Northwest (Oregon to Alaska). Alectoria sarmentosa is light green, highly branched, and drapes over tree branches like tinsel.  This resembles bushy, green hair such as that a witch might have.

#109: Rubroboletus satanas, Satan’s Bolete or Devil’s Mushroom 0

Fungus Fact

#109: Rubroboletus satanas, Satan’s Bolete or Devil’s Mushroom

If you need a mushroom centerpiece for your Halloween party, then this is it. This large mushroom has a bulbous, bright red, reticulated base that easily invokes demonic fires (hence its common and scientific names).  As a bonus, Satan’s Bolete has a fetid odor – quite fitting, don’t you think?  Unfortunately, this mushroom is rather rare.

#108: Heimioporus betula, the Shaggy-Stalked Bolete 1

Fungus Fact

#108: Heimioporus betula, the Shaggy-Stalked Bolete

Noting what decorations a bolete has on its stem can be very helpful in identifying that bolete. One type of decoration you may find on a bolete’s stipe is reticulation.  Reticulation is a net-like pattern of ridges that extend partially or all the way down the stipe.  These ridges are actually an extension of the pore surface, much like decurrent gills in agarics.  The reticulum does produce spores, but is not as efficient at discharging spores because it is oriented parallel to the ground.  Heimioporus betula is hands-down the best example of reticulation in any bolote.

#107: The Banana and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense 2

Fungus Fact

#107: The Banana and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense

The banana that you know and love may soon be a thing of the past. I know, you probably think that I’m exaggerating the threat to this ubiquitous crop, but the possibility of bananas disappearing from grocery shelves forever is very real.  In fact, it nearly happened once before.  Here is a brief history of the modern banana: in the 1950’s, bananas were wiped out by a disease called Panama Disease.  To save the crop, a resistant variety was discovered.  Today, Panama Disease has evolved to attack the resistant variety, thus threatening to decimate banana production for a second time.  This time, however, there is not a fallback option.