Geopora cooperi

On a recent mushroom foray in Washington State we found a wonderful fungus that shows evolution in action. We now know that underground truffles started out as cup fungi fruiting on the surface of the soil, then retreated below as the climate dried out. This fungus, Geopora cooperi, shows the process part of the way through. What was once a large cup fungus has folded in on itself and become like a ball of scrunched up newspaper (look at the first picture), with the spore-bearing surfaces on the inside, as the second picture shows.
I had never seen this before and it was an exciting discovery for a mycologist/evolutionist. If you are fascinated by natural history and biodiversity, as I am, this shows that you never run out of new things to see and wonder at.

Stormy Weather!

During a recent storm we were awoken at 4 am by a huge bang and a brilliant flash.
It wasn't thunder and lightning (which almost never happen here). No, our multi-trunked 70-foot tall poplar tree had blown down across our stream and into the park next door (picture 1), taking out our hydro pole on the way. Three days and one new pole later we got our power back.


Why did this happen? Looking at the aftermath, I noted that the hole where the roots had been was half full of water (picture 2). When we were able to cut up the main trunk, I saw extensive white rot at the base (right hand side of picture 3). So the fungi were largely to blame...

October 29, 2011

I have ten fairy rings in my courtyard. Do I live in the Magic Kingdom? No, I just happen to have an abundant fruiting of a tiny mushroom called Arrhenia retiruga growing on the moss that covers the bricks. I have seen it in the past two years, but never as numerous as it is now, at the end of October 2011.  Although it sounds as if you are clearing your throat when you say it, this genus was actually named in honour of a botanist called J.P. Arrhenius.

The fruit bodies are tiny - mostly only a few millimetres across - and tend to be one-sided, thin and rather petal-like, without a stipe. The hymenium is almost smooth, with shallow veins, but nothing resembling gills. The main reason it is growing at my house is the moss that covers much of our small courtyard - this fungus is almost always associated with mosses, and doesn't seem to be a particularly congenial companion, since the moss looks a bit faded wherever the Arrhenia is growing.