Mushroom-Forming and Non-Mushroom-Forming Fungal Life Cycle Traits

Summary: The April 2018 Arborist News article Biology and Identification of Fungi covers mushroom-forming and non-mushroom-forming fungal life cycle traits.

ISA Arborist News authors Balk, Abbott and Ali note basidiomycetes, which bear their four spores on a club (basidium), as generally mushroom-forming fungi and as typically encompassing rusts and wood decay fungi; basidiomycete fungi include the giant puffball (Calvatia gigantea); size comparison of giant puffball mushrooms with a human head; Darien, Fairfield County, southwestern Connecticut; Oct. 4, 2016: Nowa, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Fungi, with mushroom-forming and non-mushroom-forming fungal life cycle traits from 100,000 of an estimated 5.1 million species accepted, afflict trees pathologically more than bacteria and viruses, according to Arborist News April 2018.

Co-authors Chelsi Abbot, A.D. Ali and Christine Balk, Davey Institute regional Technical Advisors, broach fungi as, like animals and plants, eukaryotic ("[one] true nut [nucleus]") organisms. They consider fungi closer to heterotrophic ("another [for] nourishment") humans, that cannot create their own consumables since they contain no chlorophyll, than to autotrophic ("self-nourishing") plants. They describe their benefiting Earth's ecosystems and landscapes by decomposing organic matter and drawing recycled "valuable nutrients back into the forest floor for plants to use."

Fungi exist symbiotically (mutually beneficially) as mycorrhizae ("fungi [extant on a plant's] root") by extracting carbohydrate-rich exudates in exchange for expanding absorptive surfaces of plant roots.

Mycorrhizal fungi fit onto plant roots a mycelium ("mushroom") of filament-like, fine, fuzzy, gray to white, long, nutrient- and space-seeking underground vegetative structures called hyphae ("webs").

Underground-grown hyphae gather among mushroom-forming and non-mushroom-forming fungal life cycle traits whereas fungi generate above-ground capped, gilled, stemmed, veiled mushrooms, "only when environmental conditions are right." Mushrooms, as reproductive parts along with acervuli, chasmothecia, cleistothecia, pycnidia and spores, hold spores in gills on cap undersides for initial spring and secondary summer infections. Optimal environments for mushrooms inundating above-ground surfaces include damp, "cool, shady locations with high humidity (e.g., under trees), and a food source (e.g., dead plant material)."

Woody fruiting-bodied conks perennially juggle above-ground mushrooms and below-ground hyphae despite improper environmental conditions even though incorrect light, moisture and temperature jeopardize other fungi's above-ground journeys.

Arborists, master gardeners, master naturalists and tree stewards know of non-mycorrhizal, parasitic, pathogenic ascomycetes (fungi [with] eight "sac-borne" spores) and basidiomycetes (fungi [with] four "club-borne" spores). Basidiomycetes such as rusts lead "complex life cycles that require more than one host" whereas ascomycetes such as the foliar disease apple scab lodge on one.

Mycologists (fungus specialists) move mushroom-forming and non-mushroom-forming fungal life cycle traits among family-specific overwintering patterns, reproduction capacities and spore types even though all maintain spore-dispersing stages. Fungal life cycles necessitate soil-borne, vectored, vegetative or wind-spread spore dispersals and directly infected plant cells through haustoria (armlike "drains") or indirectly colonized, wounded plant tissue.

Fungal life cycles obtain the penetrated/wounded host's nutrients through enzymes that obstruct resistance to direct and indirect colonizations and infections until environmental conditions optimize dispersal elsewhere.

Growth-unfriendly environmental obstacles promote energy-intensive, time-intensive sexual reproduction to pursue survivalist genetic adaptations and sustainable genetic modifications even as growth-friendly environments prompt asexually reproduced, fast-growing populations.

Asexual and sexual fungi queue species-specific bruisability; cap, gilled/non-gilled, non-pored/pored, non-toothed/toothed spore and non-skirted/skirted, non-veiled/veiled stem colors, shapes and surfaces; growing-season biogeographies; hosts; odors; and tastes. Magnifiers reveal mushroom-forming fungi even though leaf-pathogenic, non-mushroom-forming fungi's clear/colored, divided/non-divided, elliptical/round spores, divided/non-divided hyphae and spore-holding acervuli, chasmothecia, pycnidia require deoxyribonucleic analysis, magnifiers and microscopes. Arborist, master gardener, master naturalist and tree steward nature walks and laboratory analyses stress fruiting-bodied caps, spores and stems for mushroom-forming, and spores for non-mushroom-forming, fungi.

The Arborist News article Biology and Identification of Fungi takes arborists, master gardeners, master naturalists and tree stewards through mushroom-forming and non-mushroom-forming fungal life cycle traits.

Ascomycete fungi produce spores within elongated sac-shaped cells known as asci (Ancient Greek ἀσκός, askós, “a sac”); spores of Venturia inaequalis, an ascomycete fungus that causes apple scab, erupt through the cuticle of a crabapple (Malus spp.) leaf, in a 1500x magnification: Charles Krause/USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Public Domain, via U.S. Department of Agriculture

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to:
talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet;
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for superior on-campus and on-line resources.

Image credits:

ISA Arborist News authors Balk, Abbott and Ali note basidiomycetes, which bear their four spores on a club (basidium), as generally mushroom-forming fungi and as typically encompassing rusts and wood decay fungi; basidiomycete fungi include the giant puffball (Calvatia gigantea); size comparison of giant puffball mushrooms with a human head; Darien, Fairfield County, southwestern Connecticut; Oct. 4, 2016: Nowa, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giant_Puffball_with_Head.jpg

Ascomycete fungi produce spores within elongated sac-shaped cells known as asci (Ancient Greek ἀσκός, askós, “a sac”) and mostly account for arboreal foliar diseases; spores of Venturia inaequalis, an ascomycete fungus that causes apple scab (Malus spp.), erupt through the cuticle of a crabapple leaf, in a 1500x magnification: Charles Krause/USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Public Domain, via U.S. Department of Agriculture @ https://www.ars.usda.gov/oc/images/photos/dec00/k9209-1/

For further information:

Balk, Christine; Abbot, Chelsi; and Ali, A.D. April 2018. "Biology and Identification of Fungi." Arborist News 27(1): 12-16.

Gilman, Ed. 2011. An Illustrated Guide to Pruning. Third Edition. Boston MA: Cengage.

Hayes, Ed. 2001. Evaluating Tree Defects. Revised, Special Edition. Rochester MN: Safe Trees.

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