Fungus Fact Friday

Category: Fungus Fact

#056: Artomyces pyxidatus, The Crown-Tipped Coral Fungus 0

Fungus Fact

#056: Artomyces pyxidatus, The Crown-Tipped Coral Fungus

This beautiful coral mushroom is easily distinguished by its distinctive tips. The tip of each branch sports a number of small points that surround a bowl-like, central depression.  It is this crown-like arrangement that earned the Crown-Tipped Coral its common name.  No other coral fungi in North America have this distinctive crown pattern, so pyxidatus is easy to identify.  The fruiting body is a medium-sized to large, branching structure, like other coral fungi.  Each branch develops from one of the tips at the end of another branch.  Older branches at the base of the mushroom are thicker to support the rest of the structure.  The coral fungus varies in color from white to yellowish to tan, with the newly-formed branches at the top lighter than the old branches at the base.

#055: The Old Man of the Woods, Strobilomyces floccopus 1

Fungus Fact

#055: The Old Man of the Woods, Strobilomyces floccopus

This bolete is easily distinguished by the prominent tufts of black “hair” that cover the otherwise greyish cap and stipe. Despite the old man imagery, floccopus is probably one of the most beautiful mushrooms.  It at least deserves to be counted among the best dressed mushrooms due to its showy scales.  The scales are the most striking feature of the Old Man of the Woods.  They are soft, black, and wooly, which makes them stand out from the whitish to grayish pileus.  The wooly fibers are long and often hang over the edge of the convex pileus, giving the mushroom an unkempt appearance.  On top of that, the cap’s margin often sports the remnants of a whitish to grayish partial veil.  The stipe is similarly covered with dense, black fibers, which obscure the whitish to grayish color of the stipe surface.  When you flip the mushroom over, you will notice...

#054: Oomycota (Water Molds and Downy Mildews) 1

Fungus Fact / That's Not A Fungus!

#054: Oomycota (Water Molds and Downy Mildews)

The Oomycota (literally “egg fungi”) are remarkable organisms because they mimic fungi on a cellular level. They are heterotrophic (get energy from their surroundings) organisms, exhibit filamentous growth, digest their substrate before absorbing it, and produce sexual and asexual spores.  For these reasons, the Oomycota were once classified as fungi.  They have since been removed from Kingdom Fungi and placed in Kingdom Protista, Chromista, Straminopila, or whatever name it’s going by today.  That means it is most closely related to diatoms and brown algae (like kelp).  At first this does not seem like a logical grouping because most of these organisms are autotrophic (make their own food).  However, there are a few characteristics of the Oomycota that make them more similar to protists than to fungi.  For one, the Oomycota have cell walls composed of cellulose, glycan, and similar molecules.  Second, they primarily live as diploids (two copies of each...

#053: Slime Molds 6

Fungus Fact / That's Not A Fungus!

#053: Slime Molds

On this first anniversary of Fungus Fact Friday, I would like to introduce a new topic which I have labeled, “That’s Not a Fungus!” Kingdom Fungi has gone through a lot of changes over the years.  Many organisms that were once included in the kingdom have since been exiled.  There are two reasons why I think these organisms are worth discussing in FFF.  First, they were once studied by mycologists, in some cases contributing more to our understanding of fungi than the fungi themselves.  Second, it is important to know what a fungus is as well as what a fungus is not.  Slime molds are no longer considered fungi because really the only things those two groups have in common are a similar life cycle and “strange” fruiting bodies.  Slime molds do not have cell walls and grow as neither hyphae nor yeast.  They also engulf (phagocytose) their food before...

#052: The Indigo Milk Mushroom, Lactarius indigo 1

Fungus Fact

#052: The Indigo Milk Mushroom, Lactarius indigo

After discussing a few mushrooms you should avoid, I thought you deserved to hear about one of my favorite edible mushrooms. Lactarius indigo has a good flavor, but what really makes this mushroom enjoyable is its color.  As you can guess from its name, indigo is blue.  Blue mushrooms are fairly rare, so they are always fun to find.  This beautiful mushroom is also edible, making it one of the few naturally blue foods.  Most bluish foods – such as blueberries – are actually reddish-purple.  I have enjoyed this mushroom grilled with some seasoning, but there are other ways prepare it.  One of the more festive options is to cook it with scrambled eggs.  This, as you may guess, gives you green eggs (without needing any food coloring*)!

#051: The Death Cap, Amanita phalloides 3

Fungus Fact

#051: The Death Cap, Amanita phalloides

NEVER EAT AN AMANITA. Please keep reading if you don’t know what that sentence means.  Amanita phalloides is perhaps the leading cause of deaths due to mushroom poisoning in the United States.  The danger with the Death Cap is that it is often mistaken for an edible look-alike.  Avoiding the Death Cap is not difficult once you learn to identify Amanita  Although some Amanitas are edible, it is much safer to pass up every mushroom in that genus.  The following list will help you identify A. phalloides:

#050: The Destroying Angels, Amanita virosa Species Group 6

Fungus Fact

#050: The Destroying Angels, Amanita virosa Species Group

NEVER EAT ANY PURE WHITE MUSHROOM. If that first sentence is as far as you read in this post, it should help you avoid ingesting the deadly poisonous mushrooms in this species group.  One of the first questions you get asked when you tell someone you are interested in mushrooms is, “How can you tell whether or not a mushroom is poisonous?”  Unfortunately, poisonous mushrooms come in all shapes and sizes, so you really need to learn how to avoid each of them individually.  The Destroying Angels (a.k.a. Death Angels) are some of the most deadly mushrooms in the world, so every amateur mushroom hunter must be able to identify them.  Luckily, they are fairly easy to recognize.  Here are six things you should check for to identify a Destroying Angel: WHITE COLOR: The first thing you notice about these mushrooms when you see them is that they are pure...

#048: Mushroom Morphology: Jelly Fungi 0

Fungus Fact

#048: Mushroom Morphology: Jelly Fungi

As you might guess, jelly fungi are distinguished by their gelatinous consistency. Their external appearance varies widely, so their texture is the only macroscopic feature that defines this group.  These fungi are placed within the phylum Basidiomycota, but they produce basidia (spore-bearing structures) unlike those of most other basidiomycetes (for more on basidia see FFF#013).  Because of this, they are often placed in the artificial group of fungi called heterobasidiomycetes.  The heterobasidiomycetes also include rusts and smuts, which do not form mushrooms.  Jelly fungi produce three different variations on the normal basidium (holobasidium) morphology.  Holobasidia have a bulbous, undivided base topped with spore-bearing steritmata.  The first variaition on this model is the cruciate basidium.  Cruciate basidia have a bulbous base divided into four cells by septa (cell walls).  The septa are at right angles to one another, making a cross shape when the basidium is viewed from above.  A good...

#047: Mushroom Morphology: Truffles 1

Fungus Fact

#047: Mushroom Morphology: Truffles

Truffles are ascomycetes that form below-ground (hypogeous) fruiting bodies. These mushrooms look like small, lumpy potatoes on the outside.  When cut open, truffles have a marbled appearance.  Like the false truffles and sequestrate basidiomycetes, true truffles have evolved to retain moisture in arid climates or other harsh conditions.  Truffles evolved from cup-shaped ascomycetes with a spore surface exposed to the air.  To keep the spores moist, the cup became closed.  Eventually, the interior surface became wrinkled and condensed, creating the marbled interior.  There are a number of truffle species that exhibit various stages along this evolutionary path.  Many of these truffles are hollow on the inside, as the gleba (interior, spore-producing tissue) has not fully become compacted.  All truffles rely on animals – usually small mammals – to dig up the fruiting bodies and eat them.  Truffles attract these animals by producing various scents.  These scents are what give edible...

#046: Mushroom Morphology: False Truffles 1

Fungus Fact

#046: Mushroom Morphology: False Truffles

False truffles are basidiomycetes that produce fruiting bodies at or below the soil surface (hypogeous). These mushrooms are included in the gasteromycetes because they develop their spores internally and have lost the ability to forcibly discharge their spores.  Like the true truffles, false truffles disperse their spores by attracting animals like insects, rodents, and deer.  False truffles secrete scents to attract these animals, which eat the mushrooms and spread the spores around in their feces.  Most false truffles have a gleba (the internal, spore-producing tissue) that is divided up into small chambers called locules.  Many false truffles also have a short stipe at the base or a stipe-columella that extends into the gleba as a branching structure.  Aside from the stipe-columella, the gleba of false truffles is fairly regular in appearance.  This easily separates them from true truffles, which appear marbled when sliced in half.