Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Amanita muscaria (fly agaric)

One of the most iconic and distinctive of British fungi, fly agaric, with its red cap and white spots, is renowned for its toxicity and hallucinogenic properties.

Species Information

Scientific Name: Amanita muscaria (L.) Lam.
Common name(s): fly agaric, fly mushroom
Synonym(s): Agaricus imperialis, Agaricus nobilis, Amanitaria muscaria
Conservation Status: Not considered to be of conservation concern. Widespread, and frequent to common throughout its range.
Habitat: In woodland, or beside isolated trees. Ectomycorrhizal (forming a relationship with tree roots) especially with species of Betula (birch) and Pinus (pine), and occasionally with other tree species.
Key Uses: Religious and recreational uses related to its hallucinogenic properties. Insect pest control. Medicinal uses. Forms a food source for some fly larvae.
Known hazards: Contains small amounts of the toxin muscarine, which causes sweat-inducing poisoning. Also contains the alkaloids muscimol, ibotenic acid and muscazone, causing psychotropic poisoning, which may be severe in some cases, although deaths are very rare.

For more details: http://www.kew.org/plants-fungi/Amanita-muscaria.htm

Resupinatus sp.

The photos show species of Crepidotus and Resupinatus . Both grow on dead wood and neither has a stem. In the former the cap is attached at it’s edge and in the latter the cap is attached by its top. The fruiting bodies of Campanella, like those of Resupinatus, are stem-less mushrooms that typically grow on the underside of dead wood lying on the ground. however, while Resupinatus has fairly standard gills, radiating from the point where the cap is attached tot he wood, Campanella is different. Here are two specimens, one brown and the other white , both collected on Norfolk Island. While each has a few radial gills, there are also numerous cross-connections between the gills.

Campanella sp.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Coral fungi show different types of branching. Some branch in much the same way as trees, with a main trunk dividing smoothly into two or more, those later dividing smoothly again and so on. A more dramatic type of branching is what’s called pyxidate branching. Here, one level finishes in a disk-like to cup-like area and the branches for the next level start at the margins of the disk or cup. The diagram shows this in stylized form and the photo shows a close-up view of a species of Clavicorona where you can see some very young branches developing around the rim of one of these disk-like areas.

Geastrum sp. ostiole

An Earthstar (the genus Geastrum ) looks like a puffball on a star-like base. The spore sack may sit directly on the star-like base or be raised on a short stalk. The apical opening through which the spores are released may be a fairly simple affair or more complex, such as the conical, pleated structure on Geastrum pectinatum .