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Each species here is reproduced at its actual size, in full color, and accompanied by a scientific explanation of its distribution, habitat, association, abundance, growth form, spore color, and edibility. With information on the characteristics, locations, distinguishing features, and occasionally bizarre habits of these fungi, you’ll find in this book the common and the conspicuous, the unfamiliar and the odd—including a fungal predator, for instance, that hunts its prey with lassos, and several that set traps, including one that entices sows by releasing the pheromones of a wild boar. Identification: Are cup-shaped and scarlet, however can also be bright orange. Stems attach to the leaf litter making them appear as hollow bowls lying on the woodland floors. Cups are roughly 4cm across.
Spores can be produced either asexually or sexually. Asexual spores are always formed in a sporangium following mitosis and cytoplasmic cleavage. The number of sporangiospores and their arrangement in the sporangium are used to differentiate the various zygomycetes. Sexual spores (Table-3) occur following meiosis. Ascospores (see Ch. 73, Fig. 5A) are formed in a saclike cell (called an ascus) by free-cell formation, basidiospores form on basidia (see Ch. 73, Fig. 5B), and zygospores form within zygosporangia. Oospores are sexual spores that are produced by one group of fungi that will not be considered because they are medically unimportant. Sexual spores are rarely seen in clinical isolates because most fungi are heterothallic (i.e., sexually self-sterile). Typically, only one of the two mating types is isolated from a particular clinical specimen. When homothallic isolates are recovered in the clinical laboratory, they often produce sexual spores because they are sexually self-fertile. Collins Fungi Guide: The Most Complete Field Guide to the Mushrooms & Toadstools of Britain & Ireland How dazzling is the world of mushrooms? The fan-shaped cinnabar oysterling looks like something you would find undersea. The violet webcap is vibrant. These are among the more than 600 fungi described and illustrated in this scholarly and beautiful book.”— The New York Times Identification: A grey to fawn cap that is at first egg-shaped and then later bell shaped. The surface is smooth and splits into a few tiny scales from the apex, the edges are often wavy and split. Stem is white and hollow. Cap is around 4-8 cm across and stem is 5-15 cm tall. Mycelium, Sheldrake says, is the tissue that holds together much of the world. The filaments thread through the soil, and through living and decomposing bodies, plant or animal. Each exploring tip is looking for water and nutrients, which it will begin to absorb, sending chemical signals to other parts of the network. In some species, scientists have also detected electrical waves. Other filaments nearby that receive these messages turn towards the nourishment. The network can store information. Scientists have tried removing the food source and severing all the connections. New filaments appear and set out in the right direction. It is hard not to call this “memory”.A truffle dog hunting in a forest of truffle oaks in Veyrines de Vergt near Sarlat, France. Photograph: Caroline Blumberg/EPA An up-to-date, comprehensive and brilliantly illustrated book on fungi foraging in Britain and Europe. It covers every known edible species, and all the poisonous groups, as well as a few other extremely common ones. Candida albicans may form a budding yeast, pseudohyphae, germ tubes, true hyphae, and chlamydospores. A number of investigators are interested in germ tube formation because it represents a transition between a yeast and a mold. Generally, either low temperature or pH favors the development of a budding yeast. Other substances such as biotin, cysteine, serum transferrin, and zinc stimulate dimorphism in this yeast. I find this a horror, and want to assert our human need to do so, even if the ant experiences nothing that we should call suffering, and it is only as drama that the spectacle is appalling. The fact that Ophiocordyceps has evolved to do this and has no choice makes little difference. A creature’s perceptions and desires have turned into enemies steering it to its death. There is no symbiosis or negotiation. Even a farm animal, a free-range one anyway, has some agency while it lives, but this ant has none. It becomes purely a means to an end desired by another. Human beings sometimes do this, and other abominable things that they often succeed in regarding as right, or normal, or not worth noticing, yet humans alone, as far as we know, have a highly developed ability to see their own natural behaviour as wrong. Reading about the fate of these ants made me grab at the idea of a conscience, however imperfect, that makes us different from fungi, or from a male tiger killing a female’s cubs to bring her into season. Where to find: Usually found low on the trunk of old, living oak trees and sweet chestnut trees, and sometimes on their stumps. Recommended Reading/Guides:
Nearly 2400 species are illustrated in full colour, with detailed notes on how to correctly identify them, including details of similar, confusing species.
Books
A joyful photo-essay on the glorious diversity of fungi. It will not hurt your brain or your wallet. Because of all the beautiful photos, you will hardly even notice you are learning things, that you are developing a structured view of the kingdom of fungi."—Kathie T. Hodge, Cornell Mushroom Blog
Petersen has been both a mycologist and a fine arts photographer for decades. His ability to capture minute fungal structures while maintaining a stunning aesthetic in the 800-plus photos makes this book an unsurpassed treasure. . . . [I]t would be a showpiece in any specialist's collection. The volume's spectacular images will captivate even the most disinterested individual."— Choice
A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species from around the World
Discover the kingdom of fungi with Keith Seifert’s book, for indeed, fungi are a different kingdom to plants and animals. It’s a broad book, which is suitable since fungi are so diverse and wide-ranging. It covers everything from how fungi break down wood, how fungi can zombify insects, to how humans have taken on our favourite fungi and used them to make bread, cheese, and alcohol. A lavish work. . . . [A] book with a message about both the beauty and importance of fungi that should be widely available in bookshops worldwide and so help raise the global awareness of kingdom Fungi. I cannot commend it too strongly, and if you have not yet seen it you are in for a real treat—perhaps a mycologist's equivalent of being a kid in a candy store."— IMA Fungus
Identification: Initially cup-shaped and smoothed, the fruiting body develops lobes in the shape of a wrinkled human ear. Soft, gelatinous and a date-brown colour, but when it dries it is much smaller, darker and harder. Upper surface is velvety, and is attached laterally by a small stalk. Up to 8cm across. The superficial morphologic similarities between actinomycetes (filamentous bacteria) and molds suggest that the two groups have undergone parallel evolution. Despite the production of branching filaments and mold-like spores, the actinomycetes are clearly prokaryotes, whereas fungi are eukaryotes. Moreover, the sexual reproduction of bacteria, which typically occurs by transverse binary fission, should not be confused with asexual processes of budding and fragmentation associated with mitotic nuclear division in fungi. Most of the molds that produce septate vegetative hyphae reproduce exclusively by asexual means, giving rise to airborne propagules called conidia. On the other hand, elaborate mechanisms of sexual reproduction are also demonstrated by members of the Eumycota. Four distinct kinds of meiospores (products of karyogamy-meiosis-cytokinesis) are recognized: oospores (Oomycetes), zygospores (Zygomycetes), ascospores (Ascomycetes), and basidiospores (Basidiomycetes). Merlin Sheldrake, a mycologist who studies underground fungal networks, carries us easily into these questions with ebullience and precision. His fascination with fungi began in childhood. He loves their colours, strange shapes, intense odours and astonishing abilities, and is proud of the way this once unfashionable academic field is challenging some of our deepest assumptions. Entangled Life is a book about how life-forms interpenetrate and change each other continuously. He moves smoothly between stories, scientific descriptions and philosophical issues. He quotes Prince and Tom Waits.A) Life cycle of S cerevisiae. (B) Basidiospore formation by Filobasidiella neoformans, sexual state of Cryptococcus neoformans. (1 and 2) Dikaryon formation. (3) Nuclear fusion (Karyogamy). (4 and 5) Meiosis. (6) Basidiospore formation. (7) Mitosis (more...) The rigid cell wall of fungi (see ch. 73, Fig. 2A) is a stratified structure consisting of chitinous microfibrils embedded in a matrix of small polysaccharides, proteins, lipids, inorganic salts, and pigments that provides skeletal support and shape to the enclosed protoplast. Chitin is a (β1–4)-linked polymer of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (GlcNAc). It is produced in the cytosol by the transfer of GlcNAc from uridine diphosphate GlcNAc into chains of chitin by chitin synthetase, which is located in the cytosol in organelles called chitosomes. The chitin microfibrils are transported to the plasmalemma and subsequently integrated into the new cell wall. Some fungi cannot be identified without a microscope, however those in this blog can be identified using macro characteristics displayed by the fruiting body. Most are umbrella or mushroom shaped with gills on the cap underside. Below are some key characteristics to look out for when identifying: The questions grow more complicated. Mycorrhizal fungi are species whose mycelia penetrate and entangle themselves with plant roots. A symbiotic exchange occurs, in which the photosynthesising plant feeds the mycelium with carbon, and receives from it nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients. I nearly wrote “receives in return”. Descriptions of this relationship can barely reject the language of bargains. There is frequent adjustment. Plants funnel chemical information from the air to the fungus, whose mycelia bring similar signals to the plant from underground. In woodland, the network, involving numerous species, can be so extensive and dense that trees detect what happens to each other across long distances. Some people call this the “Wood Wide Web”. The lurid photographs and enticing, offhandedly witty descriptions make the reader want to go out collecting specimens right away."— Popular Science
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