Odd Fungi

 

An Elegant Stinkhorn (Mutinus elegans) fruiting body.
As the name suggest, these fungi have an 
offensive odor.  McIntosh County, Georgia. 

Some might say all fungi are odd but I think some are odder than others.  A standard fungus is microscopic most of the time but on occasion, it make a respectable mushroom.  A mushroom made by one of these typical fungi is a reproductive structure, a fruiting body, with a stalk, cap and gills.  The fruiting body makes spores and sends them out into the world. But some fungi have dramatically different fruiting bodies.  Some of these odd fruiting bodies look like fingers, or coral or jelly or ears or horns.   These odd fungi are Basidiomycetes, the same group that also contains those respectable mushrooms.

  

Amber Jelly Roll (Exidia resica), a jelly fungus growing on
a maple branch.  These fruiting bodies are about 2 inches
in diameter.  Rowan County, North Carolina. 

 

Amber Jelly Roll.

Jelly fungi look like a dab of jelly on a tree limb and are traditionally classified in the class Tremellomycetes.  This name means trembling fungi.  However, their consistency is more like rubber than jelly.  We have a nice jelly fungus on the maple tree in our front yard.  Often when a dead limb falls from the tree, it has Amber Jelly Roll, Exidia resica growing on it.  This fungus is a wood decomposer and starts its work before a dead branch falls.  When the fruiting body is wet, it looks like jelly.  When it dries out it looks like a shriveled black mass. 

 

Tree Ears (Auricularia auricula-judae) on a 
dead limb.  Rowan County, North Carolina. 

Tree ears or wood ears really do look like ears growing from dead wood.  Auricularia auricula-judae is a common Tree ear with a worldwide distribution.  This scientific name is both descriptive and fraught with racist history.  The genus and first part of the specific name are both from the Latin for ear.  The second part of the species is derived from a familiar New Testament story.  Tradition has it that Judas Iscariot committed suicide by hanging after betraying Jesus.  Auricularia auricula-judae growing on a tree is reminder of Judas and his perfidy.  A common name for this fungus, Judas’ Ear and has been used for hundreds of years.  This name was corrupted to Jew’s Ear but in our more woke time, Tree Ear is preferred.  

 

A coral fungus (Ramaria sp.) on old leaves. This group of fruiting bodies was
about 3 inches tall.  Rowan County, North Carolina. 

Coral fungi make upright branched or unbranched fruiting bodies that resemble marine corals.  These fungi come in a variety of colors and may grow on soil, wood or in symbiotic association with plant roots.  Ramaria is a large genus of coral fungi with a global distribution.   Another coral fungus is Clavaria fragilis. It makes delicate, unbranched white fruiting bodies with the marvelous common name, Fairy Fingers. Golden Spindles, Clavulinopsis fusiformis, is another coral fungus that resembles Fairy Fingers but the fruiting bodies are deep yellow in color.

 

Fairy Fingers (Clavaria fragilis).  These delicate white structures are
two inches tall.  Watauga County, North Carolina. 

Golden Spindles (Clavinopsis fusiformis) fruiting bodies
are about 2.5 inches tall and bright yellow. 
Rowan County, North Carolina

Perhaps the oddest fungi are the stinkhorns. The fruiting bodies of these fungi smell like rotting flesh or feces.  These fungi attract beetles and flies that disperse the spores.  The spores are produced at the end of the stalk.  The fruiting body of stinkhorns resembles a penis and one genus is even named Phallus.  Mutinus elegans, the Elegant or Headless Stinkhorn, has an orange stalk and grows throughout Eastern North America. A mass of green spores are borne in a slimy mass at the end of the fruiting body. These spores can be removed by insects or washed away by rain leaving the bare stalk. 

 

The remains of the green spore mass of this Elegant Stinkhorn
are visible on the tip of this seven inch fruiting body. 
McIntosh County, Georgia. 

Scientists estimate that more than two million species of fungi share the Earth with us.  There is still much work to be done on this fascinating group, because only about 120,000 species have been described.  It is no surprise, that with these vast numbers, some fungi are odd.