Daily Account #7

5/8- today we learned about fungi with Joe Ammirati.

fungi have a commitment to making a lot of spores- a single puff ball can have one trillion of them!

their primary function is as a decomposer- breaking down dead organic material (saprothrops), especially of woody materials (dead trees, snags, logs, wood chips)- or in other words, carbon.

they are biotrophs, meaning that they require a living host (symbiotic organisms).

there are both native and invasive fungi.

there are three different types of fungi: soft rot and brown rot, which are fungi that don't break down lignan, therefore leaving unaccessed carbon left in the wood) and white rot fungi, which can strip away all the lignan and break down wood completely. this is very important to forest ecosystems, as white rot fungi are the main organisms that break down wood and restore the materials to the ecosystem.

we drew a picture of a spore and talked about the hyphae tips that extend into the ground. they absorb carbon by releasing enzymes from hyphae that break down compounds into things they can absorb, like glucose. they also use these tips as sensors in the ground.

we then went on a field trip outside to see different kinds of fungi in action. the first stop was in the grassy area by the fountain that had artist's conch (Ganoderma applanatum) growing inside crab apple trees. G. applanatum is a white rot fungi that can hollow out trees (eats their interior), but doesn't kill their hosts.

white rot fungi tend to favor angiosperms.

the next one we saw was another white rot fungus, oyster mushroom (Pleurotus pulmonarius), which was growing on a piece of wood near the UW Farm. oyster mushrooms can grow in almost anything, and can produce a toxin to attack nematodes.

another white rot fungus we saw was turkey tail (Tremetes versicolor) also on a log at the UW Farm. it's a very efficient fungi and does not like conifers.

we also saw huge families of Agrocybe praecox mushrooms in clusters under cedars of lebanon trees outside of benson hall. they were growing in beds of cone scales from the trees above. we uncovered the top layer of scales/organic matter (only an inch or two) to find that the soil was filled with networks of mycellium. all of the mushrooms here were probably genetically identical.

further along we found some split gill mushroom (Schizophyllum commune) on a dead limb on the ground (also a white rot fungi). they grow their gills facing down towards the ground, so that they fruit on the bottom of the limb only.

species list:
Agrocybe praecox
Schizophyllum commune
Tremetes versicolor
Ganoderma applanatum
Pleurotus pulmonarius

Posted on May 19, 2012 08:13 PM by akumar