Nature in the Ozarks: fungus

Showing posts with label fungus. Show all posts

Monday, February 07, 2011

Macro Monday: Fruticose Lichen

Fruticose lichen covered with ice after freezing rain.

Fruticose lichens are the most three-dimensional lichen type. They're usually round in cross section, and most are branched, looking like small shrubs. The lichens in the lower right are foliose. They are leaf-like and look something like foliage. Neither are harmed by ice nor freezing temperature, though dry conditions will cause them to go dormant.

Fruticose lichen with apothecia (fruiting bodies).

The same type of lichen a few inches up the branch are "blooming", producing fruiting bodies called apothecia. All lichens are an alga and fungus living in a symbiotic relationship. Most (but not all) of the fungi involved in producing lichens are Ascomycetes, which reproduce by growing a cup-like fruiting body called an apothecium. The apothecium's spores will only reproduce a fungus. To form a lichen it must combine with the appropriate algae.

Macro Monday is hosted by Lisa's Chaos. Please visit this site to participate and/or see more macros.

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Monday, September 08, 2008

Fungus Kills Grasshoppers

Late June and early July of 2007 were warm (typical) and wet (atypical). One result of these warm and moist conditions was a fungi population boom. I don't know if I've ever seen so many mushrooms on the forest floor and alongside the road. Another result was a lot of dead grasshoppers. As it turned out, a fungus was also responsible for killing the grasshoppers.

As I understand it, the grasshopper killing fungal spores are always present, but under the right warm and moist conditions, they too experience a population boom and corresponding increase in the rate of grasshopper mortality. I've noticed maybe a half dozen grasshoppers in the typical fungal death pose this past summer. In 2007, I'd see four or five per day.

An interesting aspect of the grasshopper fungus is that as it multiplies within the hopper's body, the fungal infection causes the grasshopper to climb as far as it can get toward the top of a plant stem or stalk where it holds on tenaciously even after death. Fungal spores are released as the dead grasshopper's body decomposes. Being high on a stem or stalks helps the wind borne spores spread over a wider area.