Fungus Fact Friday

Tagged: agaric

#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...

#027: Mushroom Morphology: Gilled Mushrooms (“Agarics”) [Archived] 4

Archived

#027: Mushroom Morphology: Gilled Mushrooms (“Agarics”) [Archived]

Note: This is an archived post. You can find the current version of this post here. The gilled mushrooms, informally referred to as “agarics,” are the type of mushroom with which we are most familiar. The most common edible mushrooms (white/button/portabella mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, and shiitake mushrooms) are all gilled mushrooms.  Amanita muscaria, the most recognizable mushroom in the world and the inspiration for Mario-style mushroom art, and the “magic mushrooms” are also gilled mushrooms.  What all of these mushrooms have in common is a hymenium (spore-bearing surface) that is separate from the sterile, upper part of the fruiting body (the cap/pileus) and that forms “gills.”  Gills (known to mycologists as “lamellae”) are plates of spore-producing tissue that form perpendicular to the pileus and radiate out from a single point.  The shape of these plates of tissue is reminiscent of fish gills, resulting in the term “gills.”  This morphology has...

#021: Pleurotus ostreatus, The Oyster Mushroom [Archived] 6

Archived

#021: Pleurotus ostreatus, The Oyster Mushroom [Archived]

Note: This is an archived post. Read the current version of this post here. The oyster mushroom is one of the few species of mushroom that you can routinely find at a grocery store. This is due to the fact that it is saprobic (it degrades dead plant material) and is easy to cultivate across a range of substrates.  P. ostreatus will decompose pretty much anything with cellulose: from logs to sawdust to straw to toilet paper.  Oyster mushrooms are often sold in grow-at-home mushroom kits, usually with a substrate like sawdust.  In nature they are usually found on logs or standing dead trees.  Occasionally you will find them growing terrestrially from buried wood.  The Oyster prefers hardwoods, but can also be found on conifers.  The name “Oyster Mushroom” refers to their shape and color, rather than taste.  The fruiting bodies are semicircular to shell-shaped or fan-shaped, with a short or...

#001: Armillaria ostoyae, the Humongous Fungus 3

Fungus Fact

#001: Armillaria ostoyae, the Humongous Fungus

Welcome to Fungus Fact Friday! To start off this exciting new series I have chosen a simple yet amazing fungus fact: the largest known living, single organism on the planet is a fungus; Armillaria ostoyae to be specific!  The Armillaria genus contains good edibles and includes species commonly known as “honey mushrooms” or “shoestring fungi.”  The second name comes from the thick, black rhizomorphs that connect various areas of the fungus together.  These rhizomorphs form under the bark of trees that the fungus attacks parasitically and extend through the soil from tree to tree.  This infection causes the trees to die back, which makes the 2,385 acre area the fungus has colonized visible from the air.  DNA tests taken from ostoyae samples all around the infected area showed that this was one individual (for the moment I have put aside the “what is an individual?” debate, a very confusing subject...