Fungi on Mt-Royal
On Mont-royal, I saw what I am tentatively identifying as Inky Caps, or Coprinopsis atramentaria. On the phylogenetic tree, it is very deep down the branch of “animals, fungi and more”, going down the basidiomycetes branch, then agaricomycotina, then Agaricomycetes — mushroom forming fungi, then way down to Coprinopsis, then finally to the inky cap “Coprinopsis atramentaria”.
The inky cap is edible, but poisonous when combined with alcohol. Clumps of it grow after rainy days, and it is often found in city environments.
Brittle Cinder, another mushroom I observed (I think), which is also a “facultative parasite”. It grows on trees, and can cause damage and soft rot by degrading the cellulose and then the lignin. It grows on living trees and can be causing damage to them even if they look healthy. It can spread to other trees if they come into contact with an infected root, and stays on after the tree dies.
I am not sure what counts as an adaptation that all mushrooms we observed in our project have. However, they all seemed to form off-path, and on living or dead trees.
