100 More Species: #6 Gray-lilac crust

Gray-lilac crust Peniophora lycii

I like to remind people that rot, the apparently passive process of biological entropy, is actually the vigorous activity of a community of living things. Wood is made up of several components which are resistant to the agents of decay. Different species of fungi are able to break down different components of wood, and can coexist in the same dead tree, feeding on their preferred part of the process.

Peniophora lycii was one of three species of fungi that happened to be feeding on this fallen shagbark hickory branch from my front yard. The fruiting body it produces looks like a thin powdery coating of paint, but it is essentially a very narrow and wide mushroom. I have adapted a common name from one that's already out there (using the American spelling of the word "gray"), which describes the color of the crust, not the type of wood it feeds on.

100 More Species #7: Split gill

Split gill Schizophyllum commune

This is the second of the three fungi on that one log I mentioned in the previous entry. This fungus produces an unambiguous mushroom of a fruiting body, and even has gills like our most familiar mushrooms. It is not closely related to most other gill-bearing mushrooms, and is distinct in several ways.

The split-gill mushroom can produce spores, then dry out completely until it becomes humid or rainy again, then produce spores again. This resistance to dessication makes it one of the few mushrooms active in the New England winter. The fungus has another quirk: through a complicated trick of math and genetics (or perhaps witchcraft--it might be better if you read Tom Volks entry for this information) this organism effectively has 28,000 different reproductive types. If two split gill fungi from different parents encounter one another, they have a 27,997 out of 28,000 chance of being capable of reproduction. That makes our 50% chance seem pretty pathetic.

Perhaps as a result of these adaptations, this fungus is the most widely spread species in its kingdom, found on every continent except Antarctica. (According to Volk. One assumes that if humans have brought dead wood to Antarctica there may be split gill fungus growing within it.) Many other fungi thought to be widespread turn out to be different species when tested in the lab. Schizophyllum commune appears to be one big happy family.

Split gill was 365 urban species #35, the entry for February 4th.

EDITED TO ADD:


I intended to take a spore print of this mushroom (growing in mulch near where the branch pictured above had fallen) but I accidentally stepped on it. Fortunately, most mushrom-producing fungi are long-living creatures and more of the same fruiting bodies will appear in the future.