fungus friday :)

• yappin about fungi • mushroom in banner image is xeromphalina campanella(golden trumpet) • mushroom in pfp is coprinus comatus (shaggy ink cap) •

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hullo! welcome to my silly little blog where i yap about fungi that interest me :-) but only on fridays

i will mainly make posts about mushrooms because i know the most about them out of all the kinds of fungi and because i think they’re real neat :-) but i will probably also yap a bit about other fungi like rust, yeast, and particularly lichen! i will not be making posts about mold because of personal reasons so uh sorry to any mold enjoyers that might happen upon my blog

i am on AEST time, and will be posting on fridays for AEST! fridays for me may be different days for you wherever you are

ALL POSTS ABOUT FUNGI WILL INCLUDE PICTURES OF FUNGI

TAGGING SYSTEM i may be bad with this im so sorry please bear with me

#mushrooms <- fungi that are mushrooms

#non-mushrooms <- fungi that are not mushrooms (the type of fungus will also be tagged in these ones)

#unfortunately un-fungi <- posts that are not related to/do not contain information about mushrooms. there will probably not be very many of these!

#mycelium mail <- asks!

#icky i suppose <- posts with images that may be gross or triggering to people. these will be fungi with slime, lots of holes, weird looking tentacles, or ‘bubbles’. anything that you think is gross and needs a warning, please tell me!! and i will tag accordingly

all fungus-related posts will be tagged with #cw fungus regardless of what fungi are featured :-)

I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL!! this is a silly blog for me to yap about mushrooms. i get all my information from foraging websites, wikipedia, and books i own. if any of my posts contain misinformation, please tell me!!

mod pronouns are it/star if you need to use them at all

that’s all! enjoy the wonder and whimsy of the mycelial world :-)

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friend asked me to identify a weird mushroom she found and i knew it immediately….. one one hand i really am a nerd huh… on the other fuck yeahhhhh i got it right

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This Friday’s fungus is amanita phalloides, commonly known as deathcap mushroom. Amanita phalloides is a highly toxic basidiomycete characterised by an initially rounded or hemispheric cap that flattens with age. It closely resembles some species of mushrooms that are edible and popular in culinary use (notably, amanita caesarea (Caesar’s mushroom) and volvariella volvacea (straw mushroom)), which is incredibly dangerous. The cap can be pale yellow, greenish, olive-brown, or white, with a surface that is sticky when wet and can be peeled easily – a common characteristic of edible mushrooms, which makes it even more dangerous to foragers. Amanita phalloides contains three main groups of toxins; amatoxins, phallotoxins, and virotoxins. These toxins are heat-stable, so cannot be inactivated through cooking. Consuming amanita phalloides causes severe illness and has a 20% to 50% mortality rate. Symptoms of stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea commence 6 to 24 hours after ingestion and then can settle, giving a false sense of recovery. However, the toxins will have entered the body’s circulation and start causing serious harm. 2 to 4 days after ingestion, severely poisoned individuals will develop irreversible liver failure (and often kidney failure) that can result in death. Amanita phalloides is native to Europe but is now spread globally. It grows in leaf litter or on lawns, often under oak trees. 

If you suspect you or anyone you know has ingested a poisonous mushroom, do not wait for symptoms to start before seeking medical help.

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This Friday’s fungus is amanita muscaria, commonly known as fly agaric, fly amanita, or simply red toadstool. This mushroom is the one you see in fairytales and children’s books, perhaps used as an umbrella for a frog or a house for a pixie. It is characterised by a white stem and an umbrella-shaped cap when fully matured. The cap is dotted by white warts – remnants of the universal veil, a membrane that encloses and protects the mushroom when it is very young – and cap colour ranges from white to yellow, orange, or brown to the famous bright red we see so often in depictions of the mushroom. Amanita muscaria is a basidiomycete and spreads its spores in a curious manner – it allows moisture to evaporate off its body, which uses up heat energy, creating cooler, less dense air. The combination of this cooler air and the water vapour from evaporation creates ‘wind’ that carries the spores away to grow elsewhere. 

Amanita muscaria has a number of varieties, subspecies, and polymorphisms. 

Amanita muscaria var. muscaria; 

The muscaria variant is the most recognisable variant of amanita muscaria. It is found in northern Europe and Asia and has a wide, bright red cap and whitish warts.  

Amanita muscaria var. flavivolvata; 

The flavivolvata variant is very similar to the muscaria variant in appearance, although its warts are more yellow than white. It is found in Northern and Central America.  

Amanita muscaria var. guessowii/var. formosa; 

The guessowii and formosa varieties are the yellow variation of amanita muscaria and feature a yellow to orange cap with white or yellowish warts. Guessowii is found in Northern America and formosa is found in Europe. 

Amanita muscaria var. alba; 

The alba variant is very distinct from the other variants, featuring a pale white or cream cap with white warts. It is found in Northern America and Europe. 

Amanita muscaria is not universally classified as edible; in its natural state, it is highly poisonous and contains neurotoxins like muscimol and ibotenic acid. However, in some cultures, it can be made edible through meticulous preparation and several rounds of parboiling to leach out the toxins. Ingestion without proper preparation can result in severe illness, delirium, hallucinations, intense nausea, seizures, and sometimes coma or death. 

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My circus trainer has a pet shaggy ink cap in his van

that’s so cool….. tell him i think that’s cool….

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This Friday’s fungus is craterellus cornucopioides, commonly known as black trumpet, black chanterelle, horn of plenty, or trumpet of the dead. It has a funnel-shaped fruiting body, of which the stalk and cap are seamlessly connected. The upper and inner surface is black or dark grey (or sometimes yellow, though that is quite rare), and the lower and outer surface is a lighter grey. Craterellus cornucopioides is a basidiomycete, with its spores dusted on the lower/outer surface of the fruiting body. This dust of spores is picked up by the wind and carried to other places where the mushroom can grow. Craterellus cornucopioides is an edible mushroom and is very popular with foragers and chefs for its rich, smoky flavour and sweet aroma, as well as its nutritional benefits; it is highly valued for plant-based diets because it naturally contains vitamin B12, a nutrient rarely found in non-meat foods. It mainly grows under broad-leafed trees in moist and mossy spots on heavy calcareous soils and can be found in woods in Europe, East Asia, and North America, and in rainforest gullies in Australia.   

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We interrupt the usual rhythm of Fungus Friday to give you a little lesson on the classification of fungi! 

‘Higher fungi’ like mushrooms, yeasts, lichens, and molds are part of the dikarya, a subkingdom of the fungal kingdom that is split into two phyla (taxonomic ranks between kingdom and class); Basidiomycota, and Ascomycota. Higher fungi are categorised into one of these two groups based primarily on their spore type.  

Members of Basidiomycota are called basidiomycetes. Basidiomycetes are fungi composed of hyphae (branching, thread-like filaments that constitute the main vegetative growth form of fungi, known as mycelium) and reproduce sexually via club-shaped end cells called basidia that usually bear external meiospores called basidiospores. Some basidiomycetes, however, reproduce asexually, but are still classified as members of the division due to similarity to others. Common basidiomycetes include agarics, puffballs, stinkhorns, smuts, rusts, polypores (shelf and bracket fungi), and some yeasts. 

(image from Ernst Haeckel's 1904 Kunstformen der Natur) 

Members of Ascomycota are called ascomycetes, or sac fungi. Ascomycota is the largest phylum of fungi, with over 64,000 species. Ascomycetes can reproduce sexually with elongated cells or sacs known as asci (plural of ascus), which produce microscopic spores called ascospores, and asexually with vegetative reproductive spores called conidiospores. Common ascomycetes include yeasts, morels, truffles, molds, mildews, cup fungi, and lichens. 

(selection of anamorphs (asexual reproductive stages) of ascomycetes. (a) Basipetospora variabilis; (b) Scopulariopsis brevicaulis; (c) Harziella (Lepisticola) capitata; (d) Tyrannosorus pinicola; (e) Haplotrichum chilense; (f) Junewangia globulosa)

This information is a very brief overview on the phyla of higher fungi! There is so much more information about both types of fungi, and I haven’t even touched on non-dikarya fungi... I just wanted to give a little lesson about classifications so people will know what I’m talking about when I mention basidiomycetes or ascomycetes. Next Friday will be a regular post:-)

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This Friday’s fungus is stropharia ambigua, commonly known as questionable stropharia or ambiguous stropharia. It is a basidiomycete characterised by a smooth yellowish cap that is slimy when fresh and may have remnants of white veil hanging around the edge. It has very pale grey gills that become purplish grey or purple-black with age. Although it is not poisonous, it is not recommended and has been said to taste of old leaves. Stropharia ambigua grows in cold and damp environments and is primarily located in western North America.

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This Friday’s fungus is phallus indusiatus, commonly known as bridal veil stinkhorn, basket stinkhorn, or veiled lady. It is characterised by a conical or bell-shaped cap on a stalk with a lacy white ‘skirt’ descending from the cap, called the indusium. The cap is covered in spore-containing gleba, the foul odour of which attracts flies and insects that eat and disperse the spores. The indusium’s purpose in phallus indusiatus is not definitively known, but it may serve to visually entice insects not attracted by the odour, or act as a ladder for crawling insects to reach the cap. Phallus indusiatus grows in tropical areas with rich soil and well-rotted woody material, and has been found in Africa, South and Central America, Asia, and Australia.

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This Friday’s fungus is clathrus archeri, commonly known as devil’s fingers or octopus stinkhorn. The fungus starts out as a whitish ‘egg’ before erupting into 4-6 red arms that are coated in gleba, a blackish slime that stinks of rotting flesh. The smell attracts insects, which spread the spores of the fungus. While clathrus archeri is not poisonous, it is classified as non-edible and strongly discouraged from use in any culinary context. Clathrus archeri is native to Australia and New Zealand but has become established in parts of Europe, North America, and Asia. 

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This Friday’s fungus is gliophorus psittacinus (formerly called hygrophorus psittacinus and hgrocybe psittacina), known commonly as parrot waxcap or sometimes parrot toadstool. The ‘slime’ on the cap and stem of this whimsical mushroom is a natural glutinous and mucilaginous (sticky, viscous, and glue-like) coating that serves as a slippery protective layer to shield the mushroom from rain and dirt, especially while it is young. While it isn’t poisonous, it is not commonly considered edible due to its small size and slimy texture. Gliophorus psittacinus is widely found in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, such as Europe, Iceland, Greenland, North America, and Japan, though it has also been found in some parts of South Africa. 

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This Friday’s fungus is coprinus comatus, commonly known as shaggy mane or shaggy inkcap. It has a lifespan of about 24 hours; young mushrooms emerge from the ground as white cylinders covered in fibrous, torn scales, which are what give them their shaggy name. Eventually, coprinus comatus rapidly undergoes deliquescence, a form of autodigestion where the fungus liquefies its gills and cap into a black, inky liquid filled with spores. It is a choice edible mushroom, though it must be harvested young and consumed quickly after due to the deliquescence process. Coprinus comatus can be found in meadows, roadside ditches, parks, and other disturbed areas across North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland.