Pholiota nubigena
Pholiota nubigena known as the gastroid pholiota or the bubble gum fungus, is a species of secotioid fungus in the family Strophariaceae. It is found in mountainous areas of the western United States, where it grows on rotting conifer wood fir logs, it fruits in spring under snow, early summer toward the end of the snowmelt period in high mountain forests. Fruit bodies appear similar to unopened mushrooms, measuring 1–4 cm tall with 1–2.4-centimeter diameter caps that are whitish to brownish. They have a short but distinct whitish stipe that extend through the internal spore mass of the fruit body into the cap; the gleba consists of irregular chambers made of contorted gills. A whitish, cottony partial veil is present in young specimens, but it disappears in age and does not leave a ring on the stipe; the species was first described in 1899 by American mycologist Harvey Willson Harkness as Secotium nubigenum. Harkness found the type collection growing on logs of lodgepole pine in the Sierra Nevadas at an elevation of 7,000 feet.
Curtis Gates Lloyd discussed the species in a 1903 publication, but named it rubigenum, stating that nubigenum was incorrect because of typographical errors carried down from Pier Andrea Saccardo. The genus Nivatogastrium was circumscribed by American mycologists Rolf Singer and Alexander H. Smith in 1959, who set N. nubigenum as the type and only species. They considered Lloyd's spelling rubigenum to be a misprint; the holotype specimen was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Modern molecular phylogenetic analysis has demonstrated that the species is nested within the genus Pholiota, is related to Pholiota squarrosa and Pholiota multicingulata. Mycologist Scott Redhead transferred the species to Pholiota in 2014; the specific epithet nubigenum derives from the Latin roots nub, meaning "cloud", gen-, meaning "born of" or "originating from". It is known as the "gastroid pholiota" or the "bubble gum fungus"; the fruit bodies of N. nubigenum are 1.5–4 cm tall and have round to convex caps measuring 1–2.4 cm in diameter.
In maturity, the center of the cap develops a depression. Its color ranges from somewhat ochre to tawny to dirty yellow to whitish, the surface texture is smooth to fibrillose; the cap is somewhat sticky. In young specimens, the cap margin curves inward and is lobed; the short and stout stipe measures 0.5–2 cm long by 0.2–2 cm thick. More or less equal in width throughout, or thicker on either end, its color is whitish to brownish to rusty-brown; the flesh of the cap is soft, while it is brownish and tougher in the stipe. Its odor ranges from mild to reminiscent of bubble gum; the gills, colored brown to cinnamon brown in maturity, are arranged as irregular, deformed plates that form internal chambers. The partial veil, visible as whitish, cottony tissue extending from the cap margin to the stipe disappears in age; the edibility of the fungus is unknown. The fruit body development of Pholiota nubigena is classified as "pileate", meaning there is a single stalk with the gleba arranged with gill-like tramal plates.
The smooth, thick-walled elliptical spores measure 7.5–10 by 5–7 µm. They have a narrow germ pore; the mushroom does not produce a spore print. The basidia are hyaline, club-shaped four-spored, measure 17–21 by 6–8.2 µm. Pseudoparaphyses are abundant in the gleba. Cystidia are yellowish to brownish, thin-walled, with dimensions of 60–100 by 15–25 µm; the peridium is made of two distinct tissue layers. The epicutis comprises narrow, gelatinous interwoven hyphae in a layer, 15–50 µm. Underneath the epicutis is the subcutis, which consists of thin-walled hyphae up to 12 µm in diameter. All hyphae are inamyloid, all have clamp connections. In 1971, Egon Horak described the species Nivatogastrium baylisianum, N. lignicola, N. sulcatum from New Zealand, all of which differ from Pholiota nubigena by microscopic characters. N. baylisianum and N. sulcatum fruit on the ground. The three New Zealand Nivatogastrum species lack the fruity odor present in P. nubigena. Thaxterogaster pingue is somewhat similar in appearance to P. nubigena, but can be distinguished from the latter by its terrestrial habitat, autumn fruiting period and lack of odor.
Some species of Weraroa are similar in morphology, but distinct in their microscopic characteristics. Additionally, Weraroa species grow on hardwoods rather than conifer wood. Pholiota nubigena fruits singly, in groups, or in small clusters on rotting conifer wood fir and lodgepole pine. Fruiting in spring and early summer, it is a snowbank fungus, meaning it is found near melting snow or soon after the snow has disappeared. In the United States, it is common in the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Mountains, found in elevations ranging from 1,650 to 2,400 m; the fungus has been collected from the US states of California, Idaho and Washington. Squirrels consume the fungus, sometim
Amanita
The genus Amanita contains about 600 species of agarics including some of the most toxic known mushrooms found worldwide, as well as some well-regarded edible species. This genus is responsible for 95% of the fatalities resulting from mushroom poisoning, with the death cap accounting for about 50% on its own; the most potent toxin present in these mushrooms is α-amanitin. The genus contains many edible mushrooms, but mycologists discourage mushroom hunters, other than knowledgeable experts, from selecting any of these for human consumption. Nonetheless, in some cultures, the larger local edible species of Amanita are mainstays of the markets in the local growing season. Samples of this are Amanita zambiana and other fleshy species in central Africa, A. basii and similar species in Mexico, A. caesarea and the "Blusher" Amanita rubescens in Europe, A. chepangiana in South-East Asia. Other species are used for colouring sauces, such as the red A. jacksonii with a range from eastern Canada to eastern Mexico.
Many species are of unknown edibility in countries such as Australia, where many fungi are little-known. The name is derived from Amanus, a mountain in Cilicia; the genus Amanita was first published with its current meaning by Christian Hendrik Persoon in 1797. Under the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, Persoon's concept of Amanita, with Amanita muscaria Pers. as the type species, has been conserved against the older Amanita Boehm, considered a synonym of Agaricus L. Several members of the section Phalloidieae are notable for their toxicity, containing toxins known as amatoxins, which can cause liver failure and death; these include. More a series in the subgenus Lepidella has been found to cause acute renal failure, including A. smithiana of northwestern North America, A. pseudoporphyria of Japan, A. proxima of southern Europe. Although some species of Amanita are edible, many fungi experts advise against eating a member of Amanita unless the species is known with absolute certainty.
Because so many species within this genus are so deadly toxic, if a specimen is identified incorrectly, consumption may cause extreme sickness and death. Edible species of Amanita include Amanita fulva, Amanita vaginata, Amanita calyptrata, Amanita crocea, Amanita rubescens, Amanita caesarea, Amanita jacksonii, Amanita citrina. Inedible species of Amanita include Amanita albocreata, Amanita atkinsoniana, Amanita excelsa, Amanita franchetii, Amanita longipes Amanita onusta, Amanita rhopalopus, Amanita silvicola, Amanita sinicoflava, Amanita spreta, Amanita volvata. Poisonous species include Amanita brunnescens, Amanita ceciliae, Amanita cokeri, Amanita crenulata, Amanita farinosa, Amanita flavorubescens, Amanita frostiana, Amanita muscaria, Amanita pantherina, Amanita porphyria. Deadly poisonous species include Amanita abrupta, Amanita arocheae, Amanita bisporigera, Amanita exitialis, Amanita magnivelaris, Amanita ocreata, Amanita phalloides, Amanita smithiana, Amanita subjunquillea, Amanita verna, Amanita virosa.
Death cap Destroying angel List of Amanita species Rodham E. Tulloss and Zhu-liang Yang's Amanita site – Comprehensive listing of the nearly 600 named Amanita species with photos and/or technical details on over 510 species. "The genus Amanita" by Michael Kuo, MushroomExpert. Com, March 2005
False truffle
A false truffle or a hymenogastrale is any species of fungus that has underground fruiting bodies that produce basidiocarps resembling the true truffles of genus Tuber. While rodents such as squirrels eat a wide variety of false truffle species, many are considered toxic or otherwise inedible by humans and only a few are sought after as food
Calostoma cinnabarinum
Calostoma cinnabarinum is a species of gasteroid fungus in the family Sclerodermataceae, is the type species of the genus Calostoma. It is known by several common names, including stalked puffball-in-aspic and gelatinous stalked-puffball; the fruit body has a distinctive color and overall appearance, featuring a layer of yellowish jelly surrounding a bright red, spherical head 2 centimeters in diameter atop a red or yellowish brown spongy stipe 1.5 to 4 cm tall. The innermost layer of the head is the gleba, containing clear or yellowish elliptical spores, measuring 14–20 micrometers long by 6–9 µm across; the spore surface features a pattern of small pits. A distributed species, it grows in eastern North America, Central America, northeastern South America, East Asia. C. cinnabarinum grows on the ground in deciduous forests, where it forms mycorrhizal associations with oaks. Despite its appearance and common name, C. cinnabarinum is not related to the true puffballs or to species in the genus Podaxis.
It is unrelated to earthstars and stinkhorns. However, C. cinnabarinum has had a complex taxonomic history that at various times confused it with each of those groups, until the advent of molecular phylogenetics. Although eaten or used in folk medicine in some areas, it is considered inedible. Calostoma cinnabarinum has a long taxonomic history. Leonard Plukenet illustrated a "dusty fungus from Virginia, an elegant twisted work with a coral-red stipe" in his 1692 Phytographia, recognized as this species. In 1809, Christiaan Persoon provided the first modern scientific description, as Scleroderma callostoma, suggested that the species might be distinctive enough to warrant the creation of a new genus; that year, Nicaise Desvaux did just that, creating the genus Calostoma. To avoid a tautonymous name, he renamed the type species C. cinnabarinum. In 1811, Louis Bosc did not mention the earlier works when describing it as Lycoperdon heterogeneum, although he suggested it should be placed in its own genus.
Jean Poiret transferred Persoon's S. callostoma to Lycoperdon in 1817, while including Bosc's L. heterogeneum separately. In the same year, Nees von Esenbeck noted Bosc's belief that the species deserved its own genus and created Mitremyces, without referencing Desvaux's prior assignment to Calostoma. An 1825 paper by Edward Hitchcock referred to the species with the novel binomial name Gyropodium coccineum. Schweinitz assigned Bosc's Lycoperdon heterogeneum to Mitremyces under the name M. lutescens in 1822. He revisited the genus a decade describing M. cinnabarinum as a novel species, but incomplete descriptions and mislabelled specimens caused confusion. August Corda separated them more providing new descriptions, assigning cinnabarinum to Calostoma based on the descriptions of Desvaux and Persoon, while maintaining lutescens in Mitremyces. George Massee's 1888 monograph of Calostoma discounted the distinction arguing that Schweinitz's two species were the same species at different stages of development.
In 1897, Charles Edward Burnap published a new description of C. lutescens, making a clear division between the two similar species that has not been revised since. References to this species as "C. cinnabarina" are incorrect. The specific epithet cinnabarinum is derived from the Ancient Greek word kinnábari, refers to its "cinnabar-red" color, like that of dragon's blood, its names in the English vernacular include "stalked puffball-in-aspic", "red slimy-stalked puffball", "aspic puffball", "gelatinous-stalked puffball", "hot lips". In central Mexico, it is known as "orchid fungus" in both Nahuatl; the relationships and evolutionary origins of Calostoma were a matter of considerable historical debate. Based on various morphological features, 19th-century mycologists viewed it as a relative of, Scleroderma, Geastrum, or Tulostoma; the advent of molecular phylogenetics in the late 20th century confirmed that the Gasteromycetales order was polyphyletic because gasteroid fungi do not form a single clade.
Efforts to use nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequencing to resolve the proper taxonomic placement of these fungi revealed that Calostoma cinnabarinum was not related to true puffballs, most earthstars, or gasteroid agarics such as Tulostoma or Podaxis, but instead belonged within the Boletales. Further research organized a group of gasteroid fungi, including Calostoma, into the newly named suborder Sclerodermatineae; this analysis confirmed that C. cinnabarinum and C. ravenelii are distinct species, identified their closest relatives outside the genus as Gyroporus and Scleroderma. A subsequent multigene study redrew the Sclerodermatineae cladogram making Pisolithus the closest relatives of Calostoma. Calostoma cinnabarinum's physical dissimilarity to many other species in Boletales corresponds to a higher rate of genetic drift than average for the order; this trait is shared with other members of the Sclerodermatineae, which as a group have undergone more rapid evolutionary change than the order as a whole.
The assignment of Calostoma to the Boletales placed it in an order whose biochemistry has been the topic of research. Most members of the Boletales are characterized by compounds produced by the shikimate-chorismate pathway, including several distinctive p
Spore
In biology, a spore is a unit of sexual or asexual reproduction that may be adapted for dispersal and for survival for extended periods of time, in unfavourable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae and protozoa. Bacterial spores are not part of a sexual cycle but are resistant structures used for survival under unfavourable conditions. Myxozoan spores release amoebulae into their hosts for parasitic infection, but reproduce within the hosts through the pairing of two nuclei within the plasmodium, which develops from the amoebula. Spores are haploid and unicellular and are produced by meiosis in the sporangium of a diploid sporophyte. Under favourable conditions the spore can develop into a new organism using mitotic division, producing a multicellular gametophyte, which goes on to produce gametes. Two gametes fuse to form a zygote; this cycle is known as alternation of generations. The spores of seed plants, are produced internally and the megaspores, formed within the ovules and the microspores are involved in the formation of more complex structures that form the dispersal units, the seeds and pollen grains.
The term spore derives from the ancient Greek word σπορά spora, meaning "seed, sowing", related to σπόρος sporos, "sowing," and σπείρειν speirein, "to sow." In common parlance, the difference between a "spore" and a "gamete" is that a spore will germinate and develop into a sporeling, while a gamete needs to combine with another gamete to form a zygote before developing further. The main difference between spores and seeds as dispersal units is that spores are unicellular, while seeds contain within them a multicellular gametophyte that produces a developing embryo, the multicellular sporophyte of the next generation. Spores germinate to give rise to haploid gametophytes, while seeds germinate to give rise to diploid sporophytes. Vascular plant spores are always haploid. Vascular plants heterosporous. Plants that are homosporous produce spores of the same type. Heterosporous plants, such as seed plants, spikemosses and ferns of the order Salviniales produce spores of two different sizes: the larger spore in effect functioning as a "female" spore and the smaller functioning as a "male".
Such plants give rise to the two kind of spores from within separate sporangia, either a megasporangium that produces megaspores or a microsporangium that produces microspores. In flowering plants, these sporangia occur within anthers, respectively. Fungi produce spores, as a result of sexual, or asexual, reproduction. Spores are haploid and grow into mature haploid individuals through mitotic division of cells. Dikaryotic cells result from the fusion of two haploid gamete cells. Among sporogenic dikaryotic cells, karyogamy occurs to produce a diploid cell. Diploid cells undergo meiosis to produce haploid spores. Spores can be classified in several ways: In fungi and fungus-like organisms, spores are classified by the structure in which meiosis and spore production occurs. Since fungi are classified according to their spore-producing structures, these spores are characteristic of a particular taxon of the fungi. Sporangiospores: spores produced by a sporangium in many fungi such as zygomycetes.
Zygospores: spores produced by a zygosporangium, characteristic of zygomycetes. Ascospores: spores produced by an ascus, characteristic of ascomycetes. Basidiospores: spores produced by a basidium, characteristic of basidiomycetes. Aeciospores: spores produced by an aecium in some fungi such as rusts or smuts. Urediniospores: spores produced by a uredinium in some fungi such as rusts or smuts. Teliospores: spores produced by a telium in some fungi such as rusts or smuts. Oospores: spores produced by an oogonium, characteristic of oomycetes. Carpospores: spores produced by a carposporophyte, characteristic of red algae. Tetraspores: spores produced by a tetrasporophyte, characteristic of red algae. Chlamydospores: thick-walled resting spores of fungi produced to survive unfavorable conditions. Parasitic fungal spores may be classified into internal spores, which germinate within the host, external spores called environmental spores, released by the host to infest other hosts. Meiospores: spores produced by meiosis.
Examples are the precursor cells of gametophytes of seed plants found in flowers or cones, the zoospores produced from meiosis in the sporophytes of algae such as Ulva. Microspores: meiospores that give rise to a male gametophyte. Megaspores: meiospores that give rise to a female gametophyte. Mitospores: spores produced by mitosis. Fungi in which only mitospores are found are called "mitosporic fungi" or "anamorphic fungi", are classified under the taxon Deuteromycota. Spores can be differentiated by. Zoospores: mobile spores that move by means of one or more flagella, can be found in some algae and fungi. Aplanospores: immobile spores that may potentially grow flagella. Autospores: immobile spores that cannot develop flagella. Ballistospores: spores that are forcibly discharged or ejected from the fungal fruiting body as the result of an internal force, such as buildup of pressure. Most basidiospores are ballistospores, another notable e
Gasteroid fungi
The gasteroid fungi are a group of fungi in the Basidiomycota. Species were placed in the obsolete class Gasteromycetes Fr. or the obsolete order Gasteromycetales Rea, because they produce spores inside their basidiocarps rather than on an outer surface. However, the class is polyphyletic, as such species—which include puffballs, earthstars and false truffles—are not related to each other; because they are studied as a group, it has been convenient to retain the informal name of "gasteroid fungi". Several gasteroid fungi—such as the stinkhorn, Phallus impudicus L.—were formally described by Linnaeus in his original Species Plantarum of 1753, but the first critical treatment of the group was by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in his Synopsis methodica fungorum of 1801. Until 1981, this book was the starting point for the naming of Gasteromycetes under the International Code of Nomenclature for algae and plants. Although the starting point was subsequently put back to 1753, names of gasteroid fungi used in Persoon's book are still sanctioned and cannot be replaced by earlier names.
Elias Magnus Fries introduced the name Gasteromycetes for a class of fungi in his Systema Mycologicum of 1821, although he included many species of the Ascomycota within the class. Fries contrasted the Gasteromycetes with the Hymenomycetes, where spores are produced externally on gills and other surfaces; this convenient division continued to be used for the next 150 years or so, although by the middle of the twentieth century it had become evident that Gasteromycetes was an artificial class and not a natural one. In a 1995 study of British species, Pegler, et al. noted that "these fungi represent an heterogeneous assemblage, a mixture of forms which are derived from various lineages... can be collectively referred to as gasteroid fungi, but they cannot be classified as a single group." DNA-based systematic research has, not unexpectedly, confirmed the diversity of the gasteroid fungi. According to a 2011 estimate, gasteroid fungi comprise about 8.4% of the known Agaricomycetes. The gasteroid fungi form visibly diverse fruit bodies, but in all cases the spores are formed and reach maturity internally.
They are not discharged forcibly, as in agarics and most other members of the Basidiomycota, but are released passively in a variety of different ways. In the puffballs, which include the genera Lycoperdon and Calvatia, spores are formed within spherical to pestle-shaped fruit bodies and are released either by wind or by raindrops. In the latter case, the fruit bodies develop an ostiole through which spores are puffed out by the pressure of raindrops falling on the fruit body surface; the same ingenious mechanism has evolved separately in the earthstars, which have a hard outer layer to the fruitbody that splits open in a star-like manner to reveal the puffball-like spore sack. The stinkhorns and their allies, including the genera Phallus, Mutinus and Lysurus, form spores within internally gelatinous, puffball-like'eggs'. At maturity the eggs split and various strange spore-receptacles emerge; the spores are coated with an evil-smelling slime that attracts flies—these being the agents of dispersal.
The bird's nest fungi, which include the genera Cyathus and Crucibulum, form miniature, egg-like packets of spores within cup-shaped fruit bodies. These packets of spores are ejected by rain-splash and may land some distance away, the packets wearing away to release the spores themselves. False truffles in such genera as Rhizopogon and Melanogaster develop underground or at the soil surface; as with the true truffles, some of them have distinctive smells and are hunted out by small mammals which may consume them and spread their spores. Some New Zealand secotioid fungi in the genus Leratiomyces are shaped and coloured like berries and their spores may be dispersed by ground-dwelling birds. Most gasteroid fungi are saprotrophic, living on dead plant material, including rotten, fallen wood; the earthballs and many false truffles are ectomycorrhizal, forming a mutually beneficial relationship with the roots of living trees. These species are cosmopolitan, but the stinkhorns and their allies are most diverse in the wet tropics.
Producing spores in an enclosed fruit body is a suitable adaptation for growing in arid conditions. Several genera, including Podaxis, Battarrea and Tulostoma, are typical of steppes and deserts, some occurring in sand dunes in temperate zones. Miller HR, Miller OK. Gasteromycetes: Morphological and Developmental Features, with Keys to the Orders and Genera. Eureka, California: Mad River Press. ISBN 0-916422-74-7; the Australian National Botanic Gardens Fungi Web Site
Calvatia cyathiformis
Calvatia cyathiformis, or purple-spored puffball, is a large edible saprobic species of Calvatia. This terrestrial puffball has purplish or purple-brown spores, which distinguish it from other large Lycoperdales, it is found in prairie or grasslands of North America and elsewhere. The fruiting body broad; when young it is smooth and spherical or flattened and purplish or brownish. It has a purple-colored gleba with a smooth exoperidium; as it matures it becomes pear or irregularly-shaped and the exterior skin takes on a dark or silvery colour. As it ages the exterior dries and cracks and the fleshy spore-bearing interior breaks away to be distributed by wind and rain. After the spores disperse, "a soft leathery cup-shaped sterile base rooted to the ground remains"; the spores are "3.5-7.5 µ. Capillitial threads 3-7.5 µ wide. It is said to be edible. "To make a meal from most mushrooms, you hope to find at least a half dozen to a dozen, depending on the size. The large Calvatia species are special, because one or two at the most will be sufficient for a dinner for two.
While this puffball does not have a strong flavor of its own, it is still quite good, its ability to absorb flavors makes it a rewarding find." This is a common puffball in grazing paddocks and grassed areas around the wet areas of Australia in the southwest of Western Australia, from Adelaide in South Australia to Cooktown, on Cape York Peninsula, as well as in Darwin, Northern Territory. Hall, Ian, et al.. Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms of the World. Timber Press. ISBN 978-0-88192-586-9. Calvatia cyathiformis at Mushroomobserver.org. Australian Fungi - A Blog: Fungus observations around Australia in the Hunter Valley north of Sydney. Accessed 12 Feb. 2011. Accessed at MushroomExpert. Com on 12 Feb. 2011
