Fungus Fact Friday

Tagged: mushroom

#064: Endangered Fungal Species 0

Fungus Fact

#064: Endangered Fungal Species

We normally think of fungi as magical organisms that appear out of nowhere and resist all our attempts to get rid of them. Despite their mysterious nature, fungi are not impervious to environmental change.  The IUCN Red List currently contains five fungal species, ranging in threat assessment from vulnerable to critically endangered.  Given that there are an estimated 1.5 to 5 million fungal species worldwide, this may seem like good news for fungi.  However, I suspect that the low numbers of endangered fungi are due to the fact that it is almost impossible for us to monitor fungal populations.  Most fungi are only visible when they produce mushrooms and may not be found in the same place every year.  This makes it extremely difficult to track fungi over time by sight.  A new alternative is to test a soil sample for the presence of specific fungal genes.  This method, however,...

#060: Urnula craterium, The Devil’s Urn 2

Fungus Fact

#060: Urnula craterium, The Devil’s Urn

The creepiest thing about this black cup fungus is its name. Unfortunately, there’s no good story to go along with the name.  If you’re a little disappointed about this, here is a story that I just made up: Some say that each mushroom holds a dead soul that has come back to haunt the world of the living.  Sometimes you can even see the soul rise out of the Devil’s Urn and disappear into the air.  Although this story is fictitious and tailored to fit the mood of the season, it does have some truth in it.  Ascomycetes, which include cup fungi like the Devil’s Urn, often forcibly discharge their spores in a small puff when the air around them is disturbed (by, for example, picking it up or blowing on it).  This helps the fungus get its spores into moving air, which can spread the spores across great distances. ...

#059: Tremella mesenterica, Witch’s Butter [Archived] 1

Archived

#059: Tremella mesenterica, Witch’s Butter [Archived]

Note: This is an archived post. You can find the current version of this post here. Legend has it that witches use this fungus to cast hexes. When this fungus appears on your gate or door, you have certainly been the victim of a witch’s evil spell.  The only way to counter the hex is to pierce the fungus with straight pins, allowing the inner juices to drain and thus killing the fungus and the spell.  Unfortunately for those who believe this superstition, this method probably doesn’t work too well for two reasons.  First, the mushroom is specifically designed to survive repeated dehydration and rehydration.  Second, the main body of the fungus is still living inside the wood.  Unless you replace the wood you will probably find the mushroom repeatedly fruiting from the same place.

#058: Cordyceps militaris: the Scarlet Caterpillar Club 1

Fungus Fact

#058: Cordyceps militaris: the Scarlet Caterpillar Club

Cordyceps militaris is a fascinating fungus that infects caterpillar and moth larvae. What’s the creepiest thing about this fungus?  It mummifies its insect victims.  I’ve been told that it also makes its subterranean victims crawl to the surface so that it can more effectively release its spores, but I can’t find anything online to back that up.  Instead, everyone seems to want me to buy militaris (more on that later).  The Scarlet Caterpillar Club infects the larvae and pupae of a variety of caterpillars and moths.  Before they emerge as adults, the host insects live either underground or in decaying wood, so C. militaris mushrooms often look like a generic club fungus or earth tongue look-alike.  If you dig beneath the surface, however, you will find the mummified remains of the host insect, which provide the nutrients that C. militaris needs to produce spores.  Like other members of the Cordyceps...

#057: The Witch’s Hat, Hygrocybe conica [Archived] 1

Archived

#057: The Witch’s Hat, Hygrocybe conica [Archived]

Note: This is an archived post. You can find the current version of this post here. Welcome back to creepy fungus month!  I’m starting off this month with a mushroom that has a creepy name but is always fun to find: The Witch’s Hat.  Hygrocybe conica gets its common name from the conic shape of its cap, its orange to red color, and its proclivity for bruising black.  The Witch’s Hat is a small mushroom whose cap is 1 to 4cm across (rarely up to 6cm) and whose stipe is 3 to 8cm tall.  Young specimens of this mushroom truly are beautiful.  The bright, red to orange cap nicely compliments the lighter, orange to yellow stipe.  When young, the cap is conical with a curved top and edges that curve slightly inward.  The cap opens up as the mushroom matures to become broadly conical to convex, although it retains a...

#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...

#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...