Fungus Fact Friday

Tagged: asco

#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...

#037: Mushroom Morphology: Earth Tongue Look-Alikes 2

Fungus Fact

#037: Mushroom Morphology: Earth Tongue Look-Alikes

The earth tongue look-alikes include a myriad of mushroom-forming ascomycetes that do not look like cups, morels, false morels, elfin saddles, or truffles. These mushrooms have a stipe and a variously-shaped head.  The heads can be bulb-shaped to club-shaped to paddle/spatula-shaped and may be lobed.  These mushrooms are for the most part unbranched, which sets them apart from the basidiomycete corals.  A few earth tongue look-alikes, like the Candlesnuff Fungus (Xylaria spp.) have minimal branching.  What sets the earth tongue look-alikes apart from the basidiomycete corals and clubs is that the earth tongue look-alikes have a clearly-defined, sterile stipe.  The clubs and corals tend to produce spores all over the fruiting body.  However, in some earth tongues look-alikes, like the Dead Man’s Fingers (Xylaria polymorpha), the stipe is not very well defined.  That being the case, the earth tongue look-alikes are often lumped together with the corals and clubs.  If...

#036: Mushroom Morphology: Earth Tongues 1

Fungus Fact

#036: Mushroom Morphology: Earth Tongues

The term “Earth Tongue” refers to the tongue-shaped mushrooms in a few select genera: Geoglossum (literally “earth-tongue”), Trichoglossum, and Microglossum. These fungi all have tongue-shaped heads on a sterile stipe.  The heads usually have a groove running down the center and two similarly-shaped lobes on either side.  This morphology is somewhat reminiscent of a tongue, thus the name of the group.  You’ll need a microscope for accurate identification of your earth tongue collection.  If you have access to one, see the “Beginners Guide to Earth Tongues” (linked below*) for tips on microscopic examination.  The key provided at the end of that article, however, was written for people in England and therefore may not be useful for American mushroom hunters.  If you’re satisfied with identification down to genus only, then there are a couple things you can look for when sorting your collection.  First, Geoglossum and Trichoglossum produce black mushrooms, while...

#035: Mushroom Morphology: Elfin Saddles 1

Fungus Fact

#035: Mushroom Morphology: Elfin Saddles

These odd-looking ascomycete mushrooms are all found in the genus Helvella. The mushrooms have a smooth to highly wrinkled stipe and a head that is cup-shaped to saddle-shaped to lobed to irregular.  Some elfin saddles have a small stipe and look like large cup mushrooms but have ribs that extend up the stipe and onto the base of the cup.  Other elfin saddles with cup-shaped heads have long stipes but are smooth.  There are also some with heads that really do look like a saddle for a horse.  Elvin saddles with lobed or irregular heads often have large, fluted (wrinkled to grooved) stipes.  Sometimes the stipes are so deeply grooved that there are holes going completely through the stipe.  I like to think of these mushrooms as mushroom ghosts.  To me, they look like shriveled-up, ghost versions of false morels.  Most elfin saddles come in various shades of brown, but...

#034: Mushroom Morphology: False Morels 10

Fungus Fact

#034: Mushroom Morphology: False Morels

False Morels, despite their name, are easily distinguished from true morels simply by simply looking at them. If you are new to identifying false morels, there are three factors that set them apart from true morels: 1) false morels have a head that is wrinkled, rather than consisting of ridges and pits; 2) false morels have a head that is attached only at the top of the stipe; 3) and false morels have a stipe that is solid or filled with cottony material, rather than hollow.  If you’re unsure whether you have a false or a true morel, just slice the mushroom from top to bottom and look for the three factors above.  If you’re familiar with these two groups of mushrooms, then you can differentiate between them just by glancing at them.  I think that false morels look kind of like melted versions of morels: instead of the upright...

#033: Mushroom Morphology: Morels 8

Fungus Fact

#033: Mushroom Morphology: Morels

It’s finally spring in North America! This has been a very long winter, but now the trees are starting to bloom.  To any mushroom enthusiast, this can only mean one thing: it’s the start of morel season!!  Keep your eyes peeled for these elusive mushrooms (especially under Tulip Poplars if you’re on the East Coast)!  What a morel looks like is a little hard to describe without a picture, so look at the one in the link below.  The head of the mushroom is the fertile surface and is defined by an exterior of irregular ridges and pits and a hollow interior.  This is often likened to a pinecone, though one with more color and less regularity.  The head is held above the ground by a stocky, hollow stipe.  The cumulative effect looks somewhat like a pinecone trophy.  There are four main species (or perhaps morphological groups) of morels in...

#032: Mushroom Morphology: Cup Fungi 2

Fungus Fact

#032: Mushroom Morphology: Cup Fungi

The defining features of cup fungi include spores borne in asci, a smooth, upper spore-bearing surface, and a sterile surface underneath. Most cup fungi are saprobic, but it has been recently suggested that some of the large cup fungi may be at least partially mycorrhizal.  Although I am discussing cup fungi as a morphological type and these fungi are usually grouped together in identification keys, the term “cup fungi” covers a variety of different shapes.  So-called “cup fungi” can be flat to slightly turned up at the edges to bowl-shaped to goblet-shaped to vase-shaped to vase-shaped with a slit down the side to shaped like a bunch of cups squished together (accordion style).  Despite these various morphologies, this collection of mushrooms is differentiated into at most three groups: small cup fungi, large cup fungi, and ear fungi.  To get a better idea of what I describe below, I would recommend...

#026: Pseudogymnoascus destructans 5

Fungus Fact

#026: Pseudogymnoascus destructans

The fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans is the causal agent of White-Nose Syndrome (WNS) of bats. WNS is most destructive to bats during the winter.  Its primary effect on bats is to change their behavior during winter.  Bats with WNS are observed to wake up frequently, fly around during the day, and cluster near the entrances to their hibernacula during the time that they should be hibernating.  This extra activity kills bats in two ways.  For one, they could either freeze to death while flying around outside.  Alternatively, the extra activity could deplete their fat reserves and the bats could starve to death.

#025: Production of Soy Sauce 0

Fungus Fact

#025: Production of Soy Sauce

There are two ways to make soy sauce: the traditional brewing process or the modern chemical hydrolysis process. In short, the traditional process involves the fermentation of soybeans and wheat by fungi and some bacteria.  The hydrolysis process extracts the amino acids from soy and adds other ingredients to create a liquid similar to soy sauce.

#019: Apiosporina morbosa, Black Knot of Cherry [Archived] 0

Archived

#019: Apiosporina morbosa, Black Knot of Cherry [Archived]

Note: this is an archived post.  You can view the current version of this post here. And now for something completely different: identifying trees from a long way away. If you’ve ever tried to identify deciduous trees in the winter, you know how hard it is to identify a tree based on its bark.  However, thanks to the fungus Apiosporina morbosa, identifying cherry trees in winter becomes a walk in the park.  Apiosporina morbosa is an ascomycete that parasitizes cherry and plum trees.  Commonly known as “black knot,” the fungus forms black, dry, cracked, irregular swellings on branches which grow to surround the branch.  According to Michael Kuo, these knots look like “dried cat poop on a stick.”*  Although this is not the most attractive-looking fungus, it is very helpful for identifying cherry trees from hundreds of feet away, especially in winter when the knots are not hidden by leaves.