Fungus Fact Friday

Tagged: tree

#049: Coffee Rust [Archived] 1

Archived

#049: Coffee Rust [Archived]

Note: This is an archived post. You can find the current version of this post here. Coffee Rust (la roya in Spanish) is a disease of coffee plants that is caused by the fungus Hemileia vastatrix. If you enjoy a fine cup of coffee, then this is one fungus you should be very interested in.  The Coffee Rust is currently ravaging coffee trees in Central America, where 60% to 75% of the region’s crops are infected with the pathogen.  The result of this has been a 15% drop in Central America’s coffee output and a corresponding loss of more than 100,000 jobs over the last two years.  The high-end Arabica trees are particularly susceptible to the disease.  America’s major coffee producers have been able to find enough coffee to meet demand without a noticeable impact on price*, but smaller, specialty brewers are having a harder time.  And we haven’t seen...

#024: Fungi in the Production of Chocolate 1

Fungus Fact

#024: Fungi in the Production of Chocolate

Along with red roses and cheesy cards, chocolate is one of the common Valentine’s Day gifts. So on this day when heart-shaped boxes of chocolates are a common sight, I thought you might like to learn a little about how chocolate gets from the cocoa beans to the cloying boxes (be thankful I didn’t decide to discuss fungal diseases you can get from roses).  You probably already know that chocolate comes from the seeds of the cacao tree, Theobroma cacao.  The first way in which fungi allow for the production of chocolate is by helping the cacao tree to grow.  In order to get nutrients required for growth, all trees participate in mutualistic relationships with fungi called mycorrhizae.  There are a number of types of mycorrhizae, but Theobroma cacao only forms endomycorrhize.  In these mycorrhize, fungi in the phylum Glomeromycota penetrate the root cells of the tree and form specialized...

#020: Aleurodiscus oakesii, Smooth Patch Disease of Oak [Archived] 0

Archived

#020: Aleurodiscus oakesii, Smooth Patch Disease of Oak [Archived]

Note: This is an archived post.  You can read the current version of the post here. How to use a trees to identify a mushroom (without seeing the actual mushrooms): If you are more than a casual observer of trees you have probably learned that oak trees often have smooth patches in their normally rough bark.  What you may not know is that these smooth patches are caused by the fungus Aleurodiscus oakesii.  This fungus only feeds off of the tree’s bark, so it does not cause any damage to the tree.  However, it does result in patches of bark that are more smooth than usual.  These patches are known as “smooth patch disease.”  As the fungus is not harmful to the tree, the main impact of the disease is the undesirable cosmetic effect it has on trees in peoples’  The disease is common on oaks, especially on white oaks,...

#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.

#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...