How Lower Ure mushrooms fit into a fungi planet
On a wooded walk on a late autumn day, you need not stop for long to see the evidence of the vast fungal networks beneath your feet. The classic ‘toadstool’ is a fruiting body for a much larger organism underground. This organism is reaching out, searching the forest floor for nutrients through its mycelium, and may well be ‘talking’ to the trees surrounding you.
A certain individual honey fungus (Armillaria gallica) extends over 37 hectares of forest in Michigan, US. It is estimated to be 2,500 years old, and weigh 440 tons; making it the largest organism on Earth.
It is a great example of the vast fungal networks beneath our feet, with trillions of miles of mycelium estimated globally. These organisms are vital for soil biodiversity and fertility, some making up a ‘mycorrhizal market economy’ through exchange of nutrients and carbon with trees.
So, what can the mushrooms of Nosterfield tell us about the fungi kingdom? Here are some fungi found by myself, staff and volunteers at Nosterfield Nature Reserve and the surrounding area.
Shaggy inkcaps
When working in a patch of woodland around Flasks Lake, we found what appeared as a troop of Coprinus comatus: shaggy inkcaps, or ‘lawyer’s wigs. These mushrooms start off slim and white, with cylindrical caps. They quickly deliquesce into a gruesome black liquid, which when collected can actually be used as an ink.
These distinctive fungi are one of the ‘fool proof four’ edible species in the UK. They are very common, and in 2021’s mushroom season even more so, this and their combination of distinct attributes make them relatively easy to identify.
1: Coprinus comatus on Nosterfield grassland
Birds nest fungi - Spore propagation
Cyathus olla, the field bird’s nest fungi are really small, trumpet shaped fungi that are frequent, but often missed due to their size. I was excited to get a text when some had been found by the reedbed. These fungi form as a closed cup, with a thin membrane at the top which withers with age.
2: Cyathus olla under a lens and in situ
When the membrane lid is gone their clever spore release system is revealed. Cyathus’ spores are stored in small silvery eggs, or ‘peridioles’ which sit inside the fruit body. When a raindrop falls into the ‘nest’ it displaces and shoots out the peridioles up to 80cm over the surrounding area.
Bearded milk caps - mycorrhizal fungi and tree relationships
3: Lactarius pubescens, flasks woodland edge
One of the first fungi I recorded at Nosterfield was a Lactarius pubescens, the ‘bearded milk cap’. Milk caps get their name from the droplets of milk they exude from damaged flesh and gills. The taste of the milk is a characteristic used for Lactarius identification (n.b. The milk is tasted briefly, then spat and not consumed).
When identifying this mushroom the milk tasted hot and acrid (not tasty!), which fit with the description of Lactarius pubescens. It also had a pale, woolly cap, cream-white spores, and was growing near birch on sandy soil.
Lactarius pubescens only grows near birch as it is a mycorrhizal fungus. This means that its mycelial root network forms a beneficial, nutrient sharing relationship with trees through their roots.
4: Auricularia auricula-judae, 'wood ears'
In these exchanges, the plant trades organic molecules such as sugars for mineral nutrients such as phosphorus from fungi. Research by Suzanne Simard has shown that not only do trees interact with single fungi in this way, but are even able to use shared ‘common mycelium networks’ to send nutrients to nearby trees of the same species.
Further, researchers such as Toby Kiers, have shown that mycorrhizal networks between multiple plant and fungi individuals behave remarkably similarly to a human market economy. Fungi are able to withhold nutrient resources to drive demand, and wait for a better offer from the plant they are trading with. They capitalise on trade by moving resources to areas of high demand, and adapt different trade strategies across the area of the mycorrhizal network.
5: Exidia glandulosa, 'black witches' butter'
I think it’s great to hunt for fungi. They come at just the right time as leaves fall and decay, and days grow shorter. Colourful caps that poke up through the leaf litter are always worth investigating, as are the weird and eerie fungi, like the spying ‘wood ears’ (above) and shadowy ‘black witches’ butter’ (left).
Fungi surrounds us all year. But the main mushroom season seems to fly by; and I find this is a great motivator to get out to new places to see what can be found!
Gabriel Holmes, Nov 2021
Further Info:
Mycorrhizal networks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tjt8WT5mRs
Mycorrhizal market economy: podcast and TED talk with Toby Kiers
https://www.mushroomrevival.com/blogs/podcast/the-mycorrhizal-market-economy-toby-kiers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjwvaF3P_5Q&t=11s
‘Humungus fungus’ largest organism
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mushroom-massive-three-blue-whales-180970549/
Sources
Simard, Suzanne W.; Perry, David A.; Jones, Melanie D.; Myrold, David D.; Durall, Daniel M.; Molina, Randy (August 1997). "Net transfer of carbon between ectomycorrhizal tree species in the field". Nature. 388 (6642): 579–582.
Mycorrhizal Fungi Respond to Resource Inequality by Moving Phosphorus from Rich to Poor Patches across Networks. Whiteside et al., 2019, Current Biology. 9 2043-2050. June 17, 2019. Elsevier Ltd
Philips, R; (2006) “Mushrooms”. Macmillan
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/30/fungi-climate-crisis-ally
J.R. Leake, D.J. Read,Chapter 2 - Mycorrhizal Symbioses and Pedogenesis Throughout Earth’s History,
Editor(s): Nancy Collins Johnson, Catherine Gehring, Jan Jansa,Mycorrhizal Mediation of Soil,Elsevier,2017,Pages 9-33,
Clonal evolution and genome stability in a 2,500-year-old fungal individual. James B. Anderson, Johann N. Bruhn, Dahlia Kasimer, Hao Wang, Nicolas Rodrigue, Myron L. Smith. bioRxiv 377234; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/377234