Fungal Word Friday: Polypore

Polypores are a group of fungi that form pores or tubes on their fruiting body for spore dispersion.

A Polyporus sp. Viewed from underneath to highlight the spore tubes.

Photo Cred: By Otto Miettinen (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Fungal Word Friday: Conidiogenesis

Conidiogenesis is the technique utilized by conidial fungi to produce spores.

It falls into two basic patterns: Blastic conidiogenesis, where the condia develops before being separated off by a cross wall; and thallic conidiogenesis, in which a cross wall develops prior to the spore itself.

Blastic Conidiogenesis of Trichoderma harzianum

Photo cred:  Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Systematic Botany and Mycology Laboratory

Fungal Word Friday: Muriform

Muriform refers to conidium that have septa both transversely and longitudinally.

Muriform conidia of Rhizocarpon subgeminatum

 This term derives from the resemblance to bricks in shape and arrangement.




Photo cred: By Ed Uebel [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

All Your Amphibian Are Belong To Us

It is official, the chytrid Fungi have reached all three of the extant amphibian orders.

Chytrid fungi are the cause of global decimation in frogs and toads, as well as newts and salamanders. But, until now, the lesser known caecilians had managed to evade their mycelial grasp. That ends now!

Goodbye Mr. Bond Caecilian

A recent study released in the journal EcoHealth has found the first cases of chytridiomycosis in the legless amphibians. Unfortunately, EcoHealth is not a free journal so all I can link you to for the article is the article front page, provided by Springer. You can read the intro but for the full article you gots to have the monies: Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Infection and Lethal Chytridiomycosis in Caecilian Amphibians (Gymnophiona). But there is also an piece in PsyOrg discussing the Journal article: Fatal fungus found in third major amphibian group, caecilians.

 The team of researchers conducted a field swab of over 200 specimens across 20 different species in five countries of Africa and South America and ran what amounted to the worlds largest caecilian PCR survey for the presence of Batrachohytrium dendrobatidis, which is the fungi generally refered to as the chytrid fungus. Their results? 58 specimens from Tanzania and Cameroon came back positive for it. That is over 25% of the total sample! Infection is a go!

But, wait you say, haven't some frogs shown a certain resistance to infection? Could, perhaps, caecilians face fungal morbidity sans mortality? Nope, the team managed to report the first lethal infections as well. Noting that while the degree of infection in the wild samples were not very high, they were at the same levels observed to cause death in Gaboon caecilians held in captivity.

So clearly, fungi have completed the dominance over the entire Amphibian Class. Who goes next? Bats? Bees?

Well, whichever group it is, I am sure we humans will have our hands full trying to prevent a complete fungal victory.


Awesome Reserachers:Gower, D., Doherty-Bone, T., Loader, S., Wilkinson, M., Kouete, M., Tapley, B., Orton, F., Daniel, O., Wynne, F., Flach, E., Müller, H., Menegon, M., Stephen, I., Browne, R., Fisher, M., Cunningham, A., & Garner, T. (2013). Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis Infection and Lethal Chytridiomycosis in Caecilian Amphibians (Gymnophiona) EcoHealth DOI: 10.1007/s10393-013-0831-9

Photo cred: By Franco Andreone - see authorization (http://calphotos.berkeley.edu) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5) or CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons

Gif props: Arrested Development returns to Netflix on May 26. 2013

Fungal Word Friday: Bromatia

Leaf cutter ants are famous for farming fungi. The bromatia, is a swollen tip on the fungus that the ants treat basically as a fruit, or a small mushroom would be more acurate. 

Bromatia

Photo cred: The http://www.morning-earth.org/Graphic-E/SymbiosisAnts.html page about symbiotic ants.

First Monday Mushroom: Hooded False Morel

This month I bring you not a morel, but a false morel!

This saddle mushroom is sometimes called the hooded false morel or pouched false morel, but its scientific name is Gyromitra infula. The 5 to 15cm tall mushroom grows a brown to red cap and is poisonous to eat. It is found on the ground growing in portions of both North America and Europe.

Gyromitra infula

For our key this month we return to our friend the Mushroom Expert.

1.

Mushroom growing on other mushrooms or the decayed remains of other mushrooms.

Mycotrophs

1.

Mushroom not growing on other mushrooms.

2

2.

Mushroom with gills on its underside.

3

2.

Gills absent.

5

3.

Growing shelflike on wood (or, if not, then gills concentric rather than radial); mushroom very tough and leathery, corky, or woody (try tearing it in half); gills tough and hard, sometimes maze-like; cap frequently (but not always) with concentric zones of color.

Polypores

3.

Not completely as above.

4

4.

Gills running down the stem, not platelike and thus not easily separable from the cap and stem (try removing an entire "gill" with your fingers or a sharp object); mushroom usually not growing on wood.

Chanterelles and Trumpets

4.

Gills not as above; mushroom growing on wood or elsewhere.

Gilled Mushrooms

5.

Mushroom with pores on its underside (they may be very tiny; use a hand lens if unsure).

6

5.

Pores absent.

9

6.

Stem absent--or, if present, lateral.

Polypores

6.

Stem present and central.

7

7.

Flesh in stem tough.

Polypores

7.

Flesh in stem soft.

8

8.

Cap round in outline; pore surface not running down the stem, or only slightly running down the stem; spore print not white.

Boletes

8.

Cap round to irregular in outline; pore surface running down the stem; spore print white.

Polypores

9.

Mushroom with spines or "teeth"--either on the underside of a cap, or hanging from a branched structure, or clumped together in an indistinct mass.

Toothed Mushrooms

9.

Spines or teeth absent.

10

10.

Mushroom covered in some part with a foul-smelling slime; arising from a soft underground "egg"; variously shaped (like a club or stick, like crab claws, like a lantern, like a Wiffle ball, etc.); frequently found in urban settings, but also found in woods.

Stinkhorns

10.

Not as above.

11

11.

Mushroom shaped like a cup, a saucer, a goblet, a standing rabbit ear, a bowl, (etc.), with or without a stem.

12

11.

Mushroom not shaped as above.

13

12.

Goblet or cup with tiny "eggs" inside; mushroom very small.

Bird's Nest Fungi

12.

Eggs absent; mushroom variously sized.

Cup Fungi

13.

Mushroom more or less shaped like a ball, or like a ball raised up on a stem, or like a ball set on a starfish.

Puffballs

13.

Not as above.

14

14.

Mushroom with a clearly defined, more or less central stem that is separate from a clearly defined cap.

15

14.

Mushroom without a clearly defined cap and stem.

19

15.

Cap shape convex to centrally depressed or vase-shaped; undersurface smooth, wrinkled, or gill-like; rarely fruiting in spring except in warm coastal areas.

Chanterelles & Trumpets

15.

Cap shape oval, pointed, lobed, saddle-shaped, irregular, or thimble-like (never vase-shaped or convex); undersurface absent, or hard to see or define; many (but definitely not all) species fruiting in spring.

16

16.

Stem completely hollow, or hollow with cottony fibers inside; cap with pits and ridges, or longitudinally wrinkled, or fairly smooth (never lobed or convoluted); without reddish or reddish brown shades; found in spring.

True Morels & Verpas

16.

Not completely as above.

17

17.

Most (but not all) species found in spring (in north-temperature regions); cap lobed, convoluted, "brainlike," or irregular, with brownish or reddish brown to reddish shades (never black, white, or gray when fresh).

False Morels

17.

Not completely as above.

18

18.

Found in summer and fall (or spring in warm coastal areas); cap lobed, saddle-shaped, or irregular and whitish, grayish, brownish, or black; stem surface ribbed or "pocketed" in some species.

Saddles

That gets us to the general group known as saddle mushrooms. Next we will look at the key provided to further get down to our selected mushrrom.

1.

Cap cuplike; with or without a stem. (Not treated below; the cuplike species of Helvella are treated in the key to the cup fungi.)

Cup Fungi

1.

Cap not cuplike.

2

2. Cap dark brown or reddish brown or purplish red, 2- to 3-lobed; growing on wood (or, rarely, terrestrially, especially in the West); stem smooth or broadly wrinkled; undersurface of cap not hairy; spores with two oil droplets. Gyromitra infula 2. Not completely as above. 3

And there we have it, the Hooded False Morel, Gyromitra infula. Remember, don't eat it.


Photo Cred: By Horst74 (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Fungal Word Friday: Coprophilous

Saying a fungi species is Coprophilous means that is grows on dung.

Brown Dung Cup

Photo Cred: By Jason Hollinger (Brown Dung Cup  Uploaded by Amada44) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons