Lovely mushroom walk at a local wildlife habitat this morning. 🍄

We got to talk a little about the Northern Tooth fungus. Look at it closely and you’ll see that it has no gills. Instead, it has a series of dagger-like projections, or "teeth". The teeth produce a greater amount of surface area than gills resulting in the greater production of spores. This is necessary because so few spores find their way to a perfect host.

Although the vast majority of mushrooms are beneficial to plants and hosts, this one is a 'toughty: it is basically eating this tree alive. This tree doesn’t have much more to live. The fungus made its way up, and now it is high probably because it depleted this tree of its nutrient down below and inside, causing what’s known as ‘heart rot’. If you look up that tree (a sugar maple probably), it is definitely on its way out.

fungi #mushroom #decomposers #mycology #nature #naturePhotography #aWalkInTheWood #EwANaturalistCorner

Posted on October 4, 2017 08:07 PM by akilee