Fungi Adventures
Fall in the Willamette Valley of Oregon is, depending on the day, beautiful and bracing or dreary and wet. The wet days outnumber the nice ones. Nonetheless, a good helping of green is essential for the soul, particularly when most of ones time is spent with people under the age of 13. So it was on one of these days that I went on a little hike, inadvertently dipping a toe into the deep waters of a new taxa.
The place we chose for this hike is up an old logging road, in the armpit of the Valley. Nice, twisty places full of sword ferns and looping, mossy branches. I had recently discovered a new toy: Seek by iNaturalist. I was testing it out for use in the classroom, as it seemed a useful tool for kids with limited outdoors experience. Seek is an app that identifies living things for you (forgive my plug for it here- it's a good app). All you have to do is make peace with sacrificing a chunk of battery life, aim the camera at the thing, and then do contortions to get the right angle until it tells you what you're looking at. The app does its very best to narrow all the way down to species, but sometimes has trouble. For many plants, without having a fruit to look at, it can only get as far as Dicot. Whoop-de-doo. But for many others you watch it leap right over the family and order to give you genus, then species. Then it logs it for you and awards a badge. It's great.
Although I wasn't thinking there would be much around to Seek that time of year, I was (happily) incorrect. While waiting for a friend to arrive, my husband and I ID'd several mosses and plants, and discovered a few toadstools that warranted more investigation. We also discovered a specimen of golden chincapin, a stunning understory tree with gold/silver bicolored leaves and ridiculous spiky fruits.
By the time our friend got there, we were completely engrossed in Seeking various fungi. There were many more than I had thought there would be, hiding in the undergrowth and leaf litter. She had brought along a copy of All the Rain Promises and More. It became a fungi-focused adventure.
On that little hike we discovered many species new to us. Hare's foot inkcap, pine spikes, mica cap, pig's ears, coral fungus, bolete mold, lobster mushroom and chanterelles, common fiber vase and pinewood gingertail (the bottom of the stalk is covered with reddish fuzz). A whole new taxa to explore!
One of the side perks of mushrooming: we collected some handsome and delicious specimens of chanterelle and lobster mushroom.
Fungi Basics
Besides the culinary aspects of mushrooming, fungi hold a larger fascination. My favorite class in college (besides physiology) was ecology of fungi.
This was mostly due to the efforts of my professor, Dr. Cathy Cripps, who was crazy for fungi and took a personal interest in making sure we caught the bug too. In her class I learned about the role of fungi in ecosystems, the phyla separating what I thought of as a single group into at least five very different phyla, and the particular and peculiar discussions around what constitutes fungal species and individuals.
Fungi are absolutely crucial to (terrestrial) ecosystem health. Their bodies are really just a fine, wisp-like network of connected threads: hyphae. These threads are often associated and intertwined with the root network of a plant, taking in sugars and extending the water-uptake capacity of that plant, and even connecting plants to others. This can even be a non-negotiable partnership for the plant- most orchids cannot survive without a fungal partner, and even produce seeds that lack endosperm, woefully unprepared for life without their fungus. When something dies, it is fungi who help break down the remains into useful nutrients. A coniferous tree decomposing into squarish chunks is being eaten by brown rot, while the fluffy decay of a deciduous tree is undertaken by white rot. And, while fungi fill these very beneficial roles, they also have more insidious, but no less important, impacts. Chitrid fungus decimates amphibian populations in a warming world. Cordyceps is a natural, necessary, and entirely horrifying disease affecting insects, in which the fungus directs its infected host to climb skyward, cling to its perch, and die, whereupon the fruiting body of the fungus sprouts to release more spores. Everything strives, one way or another, to survive and reproduce.
Reproduction is often the only part of the fungal life cycle we notice. This is because it's the only time we see things like mushrooms, the spore release system of the fungus. An individual fungus is haploid, like our sex cells. This individual grows until it meets the hyphae of another compatible individual, and the two form new hyphae, with copies of both individual's nuclei in each cell. This dikaryotic bunch of hyphae is what can now produce mushrooms. Their entire purpose is sexual reproduction.
For the record, many fungi don't produce anything like a mushroom, instead sending up little microscopic stalks that are the fuzz on bread mold, for example. Or they fruit underground, as truffles do. Or form little balls, like yeasts. They can also reproduce asexually, through propagules, or asexual fruiting bodies like conida. Some groups don't even have an observable sexual stage. There are many, many strategies for blending genes (or not) and producing new individuals.
This does, however, raise some interesting questions. What constitutes an individual fungi? Is it the non-reproducing haploid hyphae, or the dikaryotic fruiting body that draws genetic material from two separate, self-sufficient hyphae networks? For that matter, what constitutes a species? Fascinating questions for the Bristol who, in another universe, became a mycologist. In this one I just indulge my love of learning and expanding my understanding of the natural world.
Walking with Fungi
Our second big fungi adventure came not long after the first. We had the opportunity to attend a fungi-centered walk with an expert at H.J. Andrews Forest near Eugene, Oregon. After a long drive early in the morning, we met up with other fungi enthusiasts and began the hike. It was extremely short length-wise, but took several hours. Happily for us, we were with a group that liked to stop every few feet and poke around in the undergrowth, peering about for those little rounded caps.
Our guide was very well versed in fungi. As a professional fungi surveyor, he also had good tips for collecting and IDing. Always have a few paper bags, preferably wax-lined. Donut bags are one of the few options available. For tiny specimens, carry a tackle box with lots of little boxes and bins. Suitably prepared, we ventured out into the woods.
Starting out, we found some tiny golden yellow mycena, a nice clutch of chanterelles, and some LBMs-little brown mushrooms (unremarkable, difficult to ID, and often passed over). Slightly further down the path, I scrambled over a rotting log and spotted a strange roundish lump, which proved to be something that is sometimes called the world's ugliest mushroom- Pisolithus arhizus. We were all very excited. This specimen was very large, with tarry ooze at the base and brown powdery spores at its apex. I was thrilled to discover something so unique, and took it as a good omen for the rest of the hike.
Later on in the walk, we found a few patches of a small but intricate and ethereal fungus-Pseudohydnum gelatinosum, cat's tongue. So named for its shape and the toothed underside, this fungus has an odd texture: you can barely feel any at all, and have to convince yourself you're touching something.
Jelly fungi in general are in Basidiomycota- the phylum that includes most mushrooms. Others that I'm familiar with include poor man's gumdrops, wood ears, and witches butter.
An elfin saddle Helvella vespertina lurked in the mossy undergrowth, my first time seeing one. The elegance of its fluted stalk contrasted sharply with the knobby, bumpy cap, although you can tell it's somewhat related to morel mushrooms.
This group of mushrooms is in Ascomycota, and also includes truffles and baking yeast. Instead of positioning spores on tiny pedestals, or basidia, they let them drop from long sleeves called asci (singular ascus), like a pea pod open at one end, or a tube full of marbles.
My personal favorite was found at the tail-end of the hike. Spying a likely rounded shape, I climbed up a small embankment to discover a blackish-purple mushroom. The violet cortinarius, a standout among fungi.
My specimen of Cortinarius violaceous had a dark, deeply purple cap and stalk, and pale lilac mycorrhizae at the base. Despite my initial impression of an old, decaying mushroom, it was in its prime. Apparently this is the mushroom that gets people into mushrooming. The husband and I even later found an offbeat set of mushroom stickers that featured the violet cort. I must carefully consider where to display this token of my admiration...
At the conclusion of this foray, we had a grab-bag full of spectacular specimens and new knowledge. We estimated that we saw around 80 different species of fungi on that two-hour, mile-long walk, identifying perhaps 40-50 of them on the spot. (Many species are very difficult or impossible to ID without using a microscope or even DNA testing.)
Since then, we have procured copies of Everything the Rain Promises and Mushrooms of the Northwest. We have Seek at our disposal when internet service is available. So armed, Ed and I continue onward. The world of fungi awaits.
Further reading and resources for the fellow amateur:
Mushrooms of the Northwest by Teresa Marrone and Drew Parker
A good pocket guide (6" X 4.5") for common mushrooms and fungi. Includes good introductory information, as well as detailed info on species habitat, description, season, similar species, and notes.
All the Rain Promises and More by David Arora
Indespensible book for the PNW forager. Outlines edible as well as non-edible fungi, and includes great pertinent anecdotes and recipes for various species. A guide with a sense of humor.
An online key that includes all the variety of fungi in the region. Very handy pictures and descriptions. Can be a bit chunky to use, but I was swayed by their honesty and their earnest endeavor to provide something useful for every skill level. They also include all the similar species, and group species by appearance, making this pretty easy and gratifying to use for newcomers.
Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora
I myself have not yet used this book, but if the first two listed are for absolute beginners, this is probably the next step. Highly recommended to me by many.
This app is the lightweight version of iNaturalist, meant more for classrooms because it doesn't allow you to upload your own data to iNaturalist. Instead it just uses the data available there to ID in realtime what your camera is looking at. It's not perfect and sucks up battery life something fierce, but it's also getting better all the time, and is a great time-saver, and is lighter to carry around than a guide. Super useful, especially if you're in a new region or investigating a new taxa. I would most useful for stationary or slow things like plants, fungi, lichen, tidepool life, etc.
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