BULLETIN OF THE PUGET SOUND MYCOLOGICALSOCIETY
Number 336, November 1997
Electronic Edition is published monthly, September through Juneby the
Puget Sound Mycological Society
Center for Urban Horticulture, Box 354115
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
(206) 522-6031
Agnes A. Sieger, Editor
Dick Sieger, HTML Editor
MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Tuesday, November 11, at 7:30 PM at the Center for UrbanHorticulture, 3501 NE 41st Street, Seattle
Back by popular demand, our speaker this month is physician,author, and PSMS member Dr. Denis Benjamin. Fresh from a trip toEurope, Denis will speak on “Mushroom Hunting and Mycophagy inItaly.” Denis is well known in mycological and medical circlesfor his expertise on mushroom poisoning and is the author of thehighly acclaimed Mushrooms: Poisons and Panaceas.
Will persons with last names beginning with the letters A–Dplease bring a plate of refreshments for the social hour?
CALENDAR
Nov. 11 Membership meeting, 7:30 PM, CUH
Nov. 17 Board meeting, 7:30 PM, CUH Board Room
Nov. 21 Spore Prints deadline
Dec. 9 Membership meeting, cookie bash, and slide show, CUH,7:30 PM.
MOUNTAINEERS/PSMS FIELD TRIP Russ Kurtz
Saturday, October 11, 55 people assembled at the forest camp,divided up into five groups, and took off for a day of pursuing thewild mushroom. Sara Clark, Brandon Matheny, Ron Post, HaroldSchnarre, and Russ Kurtz acted as guides and identifiers, one guidefor each group. Everyone found some good edibles, much of which wasdonated to the kitchen at Meany Hall. Saturday evening’sdinner featured Gomphus clavatus diced in biscuits andchanterelles in beef sauce over fresh-made noodles. Mmmm, good!
Coleman Leuthy gave an excellent slide presentation Saturdaynight. Sunday, Lorraine Dod talked on how to clean, care for, andpreserve mushrooms. Sunday lunch was outstanding, with matsutakesoup and small pitas cut in half and filled with a Leccinumbeef sauce.
One-hundred and twenty species of fungi were identified byColeman, Brandon, Sara, Harold, Ron, and Russ.
SEPTEMBER 27–28 FIELD TRIP Larry Baxter
September 27 and 28 was a beautiful weekend to be in the easternWashington Cascades. Although the larch were not changing yet, thevine maples certainly were. It rained hard Friday night, but therewas no rain for the rest of the weekend. Only 11 people signed infor this field trip, but you wouldn’t have known it from thenumber of specimens at the ID table. Over 80 species wereidentified by Sara Clark and Larry Baxter.
Of the most often eaten species, white chanterelles wereubiquitous and in prime condition. There were also severalmatsutake, Leccinum scabrum, Hydnum repandum, Agaricussilvicola, Coprinus comatus, Rozites caperata, Gomphusclavatus, and Lyophyllum decastes. Some of thenot-so-common species included Hygrophorus chrysodon, Armillariaalbolanaripes, Pholiota humii, and Boletus mottii.
Ed Foy, Mike Lovelady, Al Osborn, Peter Miller, and the Baxtersstayed over Saturday night. Ed sautéed several differentspecies of mushrooms during the potluck. Near dark, we got aroaring fire going and enjoyed the camaraderie into the wee hoursof the morning. Saturday night, those sleeping outside could hearelk bugling near camp.
MUSHROOM MONOCULTURE, ANT STYLE Mushroom Log, viaDuff, via Arizona Fun-Gi, Fall 1997
Archaeologists think that humans have been farming for about10,000 years, but according to an item in the weekly magazineScience, leaf cutterants have been growing fungi for some 23 million years. Evenmore amazing is that there is evidence that they have been tendingthe same lineage of fungus this whole time. Some 190 species ofthese ants live mostly in Latin America. The ants cut pieces ofleaves, cart them off to their hills, and pull them down into theirchambers where they chew the leaves up into a pulp. The ants thenpluck a tuft of fungus and plant it in the pulp. Soon fungi growand the ants eat the new hyphal threads. When queens leave the nestto start a new colony, they take along a little starter culture inthe form of pellets. DNA studies reveal that the fungi in leafcutter colonies throughout Latin America and three southern statesof the USA are from the same clone.
FAIRY RINGS Spores Illustrated, ConnecticutWestchester Mycological Society, August 1997 via Mycelium,Newsletter of the Mycological Society of Toronto
The name fairy ring comes from an old folk-tale. People oncebelieved that mushrooms growing in a circle followed the path madeby fairies dancing in a ring. Fairy rings are found in open grassyplaces and in forests.
In grass, the best known fairy ring fungus is Marasmius oreades. The body of this fungus, itsmycelium, is underground. It grows outward in a circle. As itgrows, the mycelium uses up all the nutrients in the soil, starvingthe grass. This is the reason a fairy ring has dead grass over thegrowing edge of the mycelium. Umbrella-shaped fruiting bodies,called mushrooms, spring up from just behind the outer edge of themycelium.
Large rings are created when the older mycelium in the centerfinally exhausts the soil nutrients and dies. On the death of thecentral mycelium, the nutrients are returned to the soil and grasscan grow again.
The living edge of the mycelium continues to grow outward. Asit grows, it secretes chemicals into the ground ahead. Thesechemicals break down the organic matter, releasing nutrients sothat the mycelium will have food when it reaches this area. For abrief time, the grass at the outer edge of the ring also benefits.The extra nutrients make the grass darker green, taller, andthicker than the rest of the lawn or pasture. This lush grass dieswhen the mycelium grows under it and steals the nutrients.
Fairy rings made by fungi like Marasmius oreades are called“free” rings. They will continue to grow outward until abarrier is reached. Sometimes the barrier is another fairy ring!Rings can grow into each other’s territory and die as eachreaches the other’s “dead zone.”
If there are no barriers, free rings can grow outward up to 8inches(20 cm) per year. They can reach a diameter of over 30 feet(10 m). One ring formed in France by the fungus Clitocybegeotropa is almost a half mile (600 m) in diameter. Thisring is thought to be 700 years old.
Mycorrhizal fungi, which live in symbiotic partnership withtrees, also form fairy rings. Their rings are called“tethered” rings. A tether is like a leash. The fungusand its mycorrhizal partner tree need each other to survive. Themycelium of these fungi always remain joined to the tree’sroots. Roots are the “tether” that keeps the fairy ringsof mycorrhizal fungi from growing too far from their tree.
INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS Boston Mycological ClubBulletin, Sept. 1997
Excerpted from Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet ofWonder
Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast and Other Marvelsof Jurassic Technology by Lawrence Weschler
Copyright 1995, ISBN 0-679-43998-6, Vintage Books, division ofRandom House, Inc., NY
Deep in the Cameroonian rain forests of west-central Africathere lives a floor-dwelling ant known as Megaloponerafoetens, or more commonly, the stink ant. This largeant—indeed, one of the very few capable of emitting a cryaudible to the human ear—survives by foraging for food amongthe fallen leaves and undergrowth of the extraordinarily richrain-forest floor.
On occasion, while thus foraging, one of these ants will becomeinfected by inhaling the microscopic spore of a fungus from thegenus Tomentella, millions of which rain down upon theforest floor from somewhere in the canopy above. Upon beinginhaled, the spore lodges itself inside the ant’s tiny brainand immediately begins to grow, quickly fomenting bizarrebehavioral changes in its ant host. The creature appears troubledand confused, and presently, for the first time in its life, itleaves the forest floor and begins an arduous climb up the stalksof vines and ferns.
Driven on and on by the still-growing fungus, the ant finallyachieves a seemingly prescribed height whereupon, utterly spent, itimpales the plant with its mandibles and, thus affixed, waits todie. Ants that have met their doom in this fashion are quite acommon sight in certain sections of the rain forest.
The fungus, for its part, lives on. It continues to consume thebrain, moving on through the rest of the nervous system and,eventually, through all the soft tissue that remains of the ant.After approximately two weeks, a spikelike protrusion erupts fromout of what had once been the ant’s head. Growing to a lengthof about an inch and a half, the spike features a bright orangetip, heavy-laden with spores, which now begin to rain down onto theforest floor for other unsuspecting ants to inhale.
NAMA DUES Lorraine Dod
To join or renew membership in the NorthAmerican Mycological Association, send a check for $17.00(it’s officially $20, but Society members get a $3 discount)to Lorraine Dod at the PSMS Office, Center for Urban Horticulture,Box 354115, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. Get yourmoney to Lorraine by November 10 to ensure you will receive all theissues of the NAMA newsletter, Mycophile.
BROILED MATSUTAKE Cindy Kerr
Matsutake mushrooms
2 TBs soy sauce
2 TBs mirin
2 TBs water
2 TBs sugar, or to taste
1 tsp flavored sesame oil (optional)
1/4–1/2 tsp fir or pine needles, chopped fine (or substituterosemary)
Put soy sauce, mirin (a sweet Japanese cooking wine available inthe oriental section of most stores), water, sesame oil (if used),and sugar in a Ziploc bag and shake well to mix. Slice thematsutake 1/4 to 1/3 inch thick and put in Ziploc with marinade.Shake. Put in refrigerator for 1–2 hours, shaking every halfhour or so. Remove matsutake, place on aluminum foil under broiler,and sprinkle with chopped needles or rosemary. Broil until done,turning once.
Instead of broiling, you can also bake the matsutake at400ºF on a cookie sheet lightly coated with cooking spray.Check every 5 minutes. The baked matsutake will puff up andcan be eaten straight, with dipping sauce, or as croutons in asalad. A good dipping sauce is equal parts soy sauce, mirin, andrice vinegar. Sprinkle on sesame seeds for looks.
FUNGI & SOIL REMEDIATION Alfred R. Conklin
adapted from an article appearing in Soil eproduced inNJMAnews, Sept.–Oct. 1997
Because of their large diameter and ext& GroundwaterCleanup, July 1997, pp. 37–38, rensive filament network,fungi are a significant part of the soil’s microbial biomass.They also have several attributes that make them good candidatesfor soil remediation work: They grow over a wide pH range; they areparticularly adapted to the decomposition of complex organicmolecules; they decompose compounds that are present in highconcentration; and they are very versatile in adapting to hostileenvironments.
The fungi in soil consist of thread-like branching cells calledhyphae. An intertwined mass of hyphae is called a mycelium. A gramof soil commonly contains fungal filaments from 10 to 100 meters inlength. Lengths up to 1000 meters have been reported. The fruitingbodies called mushrooms that appear above the soil are only thereto produce spores which, when they settle in an appropriateenvironment, develop into new hyphae and mycelium. Although themushroom is the more visible part of the fungus, the hyphae aremore important in carrying out reactions in the soil, particularlyin relationship to bioremediation.
Because fungi do not contain chlorophyll, they must get allneeded cell components from either living or dead plants oranimals. Fungi utilizing living matter can be harmful, such aspathogenic fungi, or beneficial, such as mycorrhizal fungi. Themost important type involved in bioremediation, however, are thefungi living on decaying organic matter, called saprophytes. Theyare most abundant during the initial stages in decomposition oforganic matter. The addition of organic matter in soil results inan immediate increase in fungi. During early stages ofdecomposition, organic matter is seen to be permeated with hyphae.As organic matter is decomposed, fungi decrease.
All fungi are aerobic, and all decomposition carried out byfungi is oxidative in nature. However, a fungus can have hyphae inanaerobic environments if some of the organism is in an aerobicenvironment. Fungi can also survive and grow in environments with ahigh osmotic pressure that would kill or inhibit othermicroorganisms if the hyphae live partly in and partly outside ofareas of high osmotic potential. Using the same mechanism, they canlive and grow in fuels such as gasoline, kerosene, and diesel. Thegrowth of fungi in aviation fuel is quite dangerous because themycelium can block filters and tubing, preventing the flow of fuelto the engines. They can also foul hydraulic lines.
Fungi often decompose compounds that are very low in nutrientssuch as nitrogen and phosphorus. Cellulose, cellophane, starches,pectin, fats, chitin, and keratin are examples of complex, lownitrogen compounds commonly attacked by fungi. Lignin, which isvery resistant to decomposition, is also attacked by fungi.
In remediating contaminated soil, the importance of fungi isoften overlooked. These versatile microorganisms can benefit theremediation effort by breaking down complex organic molecules andcompounds.
Not only can hyphae penetrate inhospitable environments, andthereby carry out the decomposition of compounds found in theseconditions, but they also benefit the remediation effort byimproving physical conditions such as air and water movement. Theyalso produce humus-like molecules that contribute to better soilconditions and may bind organic and inorganic compounds, makingthem less likely to move off site. Fungi are a group of organismsone should not forget when carrying out a remediation project.
CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? Alan Bessette
Arkansas Fungi, via Fungifile, viaMycelium
Alan Bessette received a call from a local hospital about a yearago to help determine the species of mushroom connected with a caseof poisoning. Alan interviewed the patient and various familymembers. Evidently, the patient, a middle-aged male, had collectedand eaten the mushrooms and became ill. No other family members ateany of the fungi. The patient was able to direct family members tohis collecting spot, from which they gathered specimens for Alan toidentify. They were Galerina autumnalis.
The patient stated that he had used Edible Wild Mushroomsof North America, by David Fisher and Alan Bessette, toidentify the fungus as “honey mushrooms.” When asked ifhe had prepared a spore print, he said, “Yes, it wasbrown.” When further questioned, the patient admitted that thebook said the honey mushroom’s spore print must be white. Whenasked why he ate the fungi anyway, knowing that the spore print wasbrown, he said he thought that the book was wrong!
AMANITA PHALLOIDES IN THE ARBORETUM Brandon Matheny
A collection of six or seven specimens of the deadly mushroomAmanita phalloides was unearthed by Joy Spurr in the
To date this is the first recorded instance of Amanitaphalloides, called the Death Cap, in the Arboretum.However, a few records of the species do exist from Seattle. In1966 Dr. Stuntz identified an A. phalloides that was growingunder a birch tree on Mercer Island, and Ben Woo monitored a patch,probably associated with Northern Red Oak, in his Mt. Bakerneighborhood from 1976 until it stopped fruiting in 1986. Anunconfirmed sighting is also reported at the Jackson Park golfcourse. Given that no new oaks have been planted for quite sometime in the Arboretum, speculation arises regarding thespecies’ arrival. Has it been fruiting inconspicuously for thepast 70 years, or is the fungus a recent immigrant?
Its characteristic features include a smooth, greenish yellowcap, free white gills, ample white ring, and membranous, saclikevolva (from The New Savory Wild Mushroom). One specimenalone may be enough to kill a human adult. And as the San Franciscoarea can attest, and as we ourselves are beginning to find here,the geographic distribution of this species is certainly notrestricted. Amanita phalloides specimens have even shown upin Mission, B.C., for the past two years.
For those mushroom collectors who do not happen to receive theNorth American Mycological Society’s bulletin, TheMycophile, I will reiterate a stark reprimand from a posterthat features drawings of the Death Cap and Death Angel (Amanitaverna) against a shadowy and slightly out of focus human skullagainst a blood-red backdrop: WARNING! PICKING AND EATING WILDMUSHROOMS CAN KILL YOU!
All mushroom collectors, wherever you may be collecting, takeheed. Note: Mushroom collecting in the Arboretum is prohibited as amatter of policy.
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