Fungi From Palomar Mountain
Additional Fungus Photos:
A Delicious Morel |
A black morel (Morchella elata), one of the edible and delectable members of the
class Ascomycetes. This species is eagerly sought after by mushroom collectors. |
Brown-ribbed Elfin Cup (Helvella acetabulum). An interesting fungus in the class Ascomycetes that looks like a cross between a cup fungus and an elfin saddle. The prominent ribs extending up the underside of the cup help to distinguish this species from other species of Helvella. |
Helvella lacunosa photographed at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.
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Armillaria mellea includes a variable complex of mushrooms that are often found growing in massive clusters at the base of trees in the forest. This species complex is currently being subdivided into separate species based upon microscopic, macroscopic and distributional characteristics. In some references this species is listed as Armillariella mellea. They typically grow as harmless saprophytes on dead wood, but they may also be a virulent parasite on timber and orchard trees. The mycelium may extend through forest soil for hundreds of meters (perhaps even kilometers). |
Armillaria mellea on Palomar Mountain in November, 2005
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There is so much variation in the color and size of cap that different populations of Armillaria resemble different species. The Palomar Mountain populations generally have the following characteristics if you examine them when the fruiting bodies first appear. Otherwise some of these traits are evanescent (soon withering away and vanishing):
The mycelium of some forest fungi can extend
enormous distances. A single individual of Armillaria bulbosa has been discovered that permeates more than 30 acres of forest soil in
northern Michigan and may be one of the world's largest living
organisms. Some scientists speculate that it was spawned by a
single spore thousands of years ago. Another Armillaria in
Washington was recently found to consist of a subterranean
mycelial network with erect, above-ground mushrooms covering more
than a thousand acres of forest soil. These fungal monstrosities
are rivaled in total size and mass by a 106 acre, 6,000 ton stand
of genetically identical quaking aspen in the Rocky Mountains.
The aspen clone is connected by a common root system, and has
literally climbed over mountains and across meadows. Any
discussion of massive clonal colonies should also include the
conjoined polyps of coral reefs. However, the question still
remains: Do these clonal colonies qualify as a single individual,
as in the 1200 ton General Sherman tree of California's Sequoia
National Park?
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