Mushroom class notes
Nov. 27th, 2012 07:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpanBack in October I took a mushroom class and took some notes. I'm writing them here--maybe not too interesting in this format but maybe there's something useful here for you.
Clitocybe robustus is an all-white mushroom with a thick stalk and a "nasty smell" (which I couldn't detect) that grows in pine duff and leaf litter (pretty sure I know of two locations where it grows at the zoo, and I probably mis-identified it). Unscrupulous foragers will store it until the smell goes away and sell it to restaurants (not poisonous but not a great edible either).
The umbrella shape of a mushroom protects the spores from drying out from the sun as well as being ruined by the rain (proper humidity levels are required for the spore-producing cell to release the spore correctly).
Fungi are better at nitrogen intake than plants are (this is one of the benefits plants receive from mycorrhizal associations).
18-20% of the photosynthates (the sugars generated by photosynthesis) are given to the fungal partner(s) in a mycorrhizal relationship.
In the autumn, plant growth stops and fungal fruiting happens.
Wood holds moisture better than soil.
Windy weather helps dry out soil and wood, resulting in fewer mushrooms.
BROWN ROT is the same as cubical rot. Brown rot fungi digest cellulose, leave lignin behind. (This fact won't seem to stay in my head).
WHITE ROT fungi digest lignin, leaves cellulose behind.
Bark peeling at the base of a tree, and leaves falling early are signs of a fungal infection. (For trees, silly!)
Lichen are more properly called "lichenized fungi."
Old man's beard lichen has no apothecia (fruiting bodies) but instead reproduces vegetatively with wind-blown broken pieces.
Some graveyard groundskeepers routinely apply bleach to gravestones to retard lichen growth.
Acid rain provides nitrogen to trees, causing trees to dismiss their fungal partners. (That doesn't seem quite right--it must be that trees nourished by acid rain are less likely to form mycorrhizae).
Lawrence Millman is working on red-listing New England fungi species. (Should have explored this further--what's involved in "red-listing?")
My identification of lilac-gray crust is probably wrong. (Check entry later). Peniophora incarnata may be what I've been calling lilac-gray crust. Larry said there's no way to confuse the two. I FOUND A WAY.
Woodpeckers help spread fungi from tree to tree.
The mushroom growing from my picnic table is probably Gloeophyllum sp., not whatever I said it was.
Mollisia cinerea is a tiny gray cup fungus.
Clitocybe robustus is an all-white mushroom with a thick stalk and a "nasty smell" (which I couldn't detect) that grows in pine duff and leaf litter (pretty sure I know of two locations where it grows at the zoo, and I probably mis-identified it). Unscrupulous foragers will store it until the smell goes away and sell it to restaurants (not poisonous but not a great edible either).
The umbrella shape of a mushroom protects the spores from drying out from the sun as well as being ruined by the rain (proper humidity levels are required for the spore-producing cell to release the spore correctly).
Fungi are better at nitrogen intake than plants are (this is one of the benefits plants receive from mycorrhizal associations).
18-20% of the photosynthates (the sugars generated by photosynthesis) are given to the fungal partner(s) in a mycorrhizal relationship.
In the autumn, plant growth stops and fungal fruiting happens.
Wood holds moisture better than soil.
Windy weather helps dry out soil and wood, resulting in fewer mushrooms.
BROWN ROT is the same as cubical rot. Brown rot fungi digest cellulose, leave lignin behind. (This fact won't seem to stay in my head).
WHITE ROT fungi digest lignin, leaves cellulose behind.
Bark peeling at the base of a tree, and leaves falling early are signs of a fungal infection. (For trees, silly!)
Lichen are more properly called "lichenized fungi."
Old man's beard lichen has no apothecia (fruiting bodies) but instead reproduces vegetatively with wind-blown broken pieces.
Some graveyard groundskeepers routinely apply bleach to gravestones to retard lichen growth.
Acid rain provides nitrogen to trees, causing trees to dismiss their fungal partners. (That doesn't seem quite right--it must be that trees nourished by acid rain are less likely to form mycorrhizae).
Lawrence Millman is working on red-listing New England fungi species. (Should have explored this further--what's involved in "red-listing?")
My identification of lilac-gray crust is probably wrong. (Check entry later). Peniophora incarnata may be what I've been calling lilac-gray crust. Larry said there's no way to confuse the two. I FOUND A WAY.
Woodpeckers help spread fungi from tree to tree.
The mushroom growing from my picnic table is probably Gloeophyllum sp., not whatever I said it was.
Mollisia cinerea is a tiny gray cup fungus.
