Marbles in a net bag

Many of the common mushrooms I come across in our forests are Russulas; big white ones pushing up from underground, white with brown or red or purple skins on the caps, older 'shrooms going or gone black; mostly large, often half-eaten by slugs.

Probably Russula brevipes, the Stubby Brittlegill. They push up through the soil, carrying a load of duff.

Whatever colour they may be, there is one characteristic that makes them easy to identify, a trait that gives them their common English name: Brittlegills. Run a finger gently across the gills; they snap off, scattering little flakes. Of all the gilled mushrooms, only the Russulales (Russula and Lactarius sp.) break this way.

Russula, with gill flakes and broken stipe.

The stem is brittle, too. Bend it, just a little, and it snaps like a piece of chalk; it doesn't tear or twist.

Another mushroom, more gill flakes.

Why? It's all because of the shape of the cells. Most mushrooms are built of long, thread-like cells, or hyphae, so they intertwine and hold together like knitted fabric. The Brittlegills have round, "inflated" cells; a few hyphae hold them together; imagine marbles in a net bag. It doesn't take much to scatter them.

Cells of a Russula sp. Photo, Giancarlo Partacini

Thread-like cells of a typical agaric mushroom. (Photos from RussulalesNews)

Untouched, with a few snapped gills. A slug has made a pit in the cap.

This was a perfect, undamaged mushroom, but a gentle touch was enough to snap the stem.

The two mushrooms I picked to test the gills were sheltering banana slugs under the cap.

Slug and the broken stem of the mushroom.

I very carefully positioned the mushrooms where I had found them, leaving the slugs to eat in peace and privacy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Muchos de los hongos comunes que encuentro en los bosques son los hongos madroño, o sea, del género Russula; hongos blancos, grandes, que salen ya bien extendidos del suelo; hongos blancos con una capa de color rojo o café o morado encima del sombrero; hongos viejos que se están ennegreciendo, o que ya se han vuelto completamente negros; hongos grandes por lo general, frecuentemente ya desbaratados, habiendo servido de alimento de babosas.

Foto # 1: Un hongo madroño, probablemente Russula brevipes, el madroño breve. Estos salen del suelo llevando una carga de hojarasca encima.

De cualquier color que sean, todos los madroños se presentan con una característica en común, una característica que les ha dado su nombre en inglés: Brittlegills, o Laminillas Quebradizas. Pasa un dedo suavemente sobre las laminillas; no se doblan, sino que se rompen, esparciendo fragmentos que se han comparado con rebanadas de almendra. De todos los hongos con laminillas, solamente los Russula y sus primos los Lactarius se rompen de esta manera.

#2: Un hongo madroño de cabeza, mostrando los fragmentos de las laminillas. Y un pedazo del estipe.

El estipe también es quebradizo. Trata de doblarlo; se rompe como si fuera una barra de gis (tiza). Ni se tuerce ni se dobla.

#3: Otro madroño, más fragmentos de laminilla.

 

¿Y porqué pasa esto? Todo se basa en la geometría, en la forma de las células. La mayoría de los hongos se forman a base de células largas, parecidas a hilos, llamadas hifas. Estas se doblan y se entrelazan, de manera que forman una tela flexible. Las células de los madroños, en cambio, son redondas, pelotitas infladas. Unas pocas hifas las detiene en su sitio; imagínate canicas en una malla abierta. Facilmente se separan.

#4: Células de un madroño. (Foto de Giancarlo Partacini, tomada del sitio RussulalesNews.)

#5: Células de un hongo típico, este uno de los agaricales.

#6: Madroño; algunas de las laminillas se han quebrado. Una babosa ha estado comiendo el sombrero.

#7: Este era un hongo intacto, perfecto, pero un contacto leve fue suficiente para romper el estipe en la forma típica de estos hongos.

#8: Los dos hongos que coseché para hacer la prueba con las laminillas algergaban babosas debajo del sombrero. Después de sacar las fotos, volví a colocar los hongos en el sitio preciso donde los hallé, dejando a las babosas escondidas como antes.

The tree eaters

A mushroom is the fruiting, spore producing part of a much larger organism, with most of its body underground, or weaving its way through organic matter. Sometimes, turning over a rotting log, we see a mass of white root-like threads; the hyphae of a fungus. The mushroom they support may be quite a distance away.

The shelf fungi, aka bracket fungi or polypores*, live on wood, slowly decomposing it until it merges into the forest floor to support the next generation. Trees are slow growing, and so are the shelves that grow on them; some can live for decades, and develop growth rings like the trees they inhabit.

Three separate shelf fungi, growing together on a stump. With a "map" section between and a banana slug at the back. The green markings are caused by smaller algae. 

On the cut end of a log. 

Red belt conk, Fomitopsis pinicola. On a cut log.

Fomitopsis pinicola is probably the most commonly spotted fungus in the entire PNW. (PNWMushrooms)

A young red belt conk, weeping. With a few dabs of witches butter.

Lick the dewdrops, they're tangy. (From PNWMushrooms)

I'll have to try that next time.

And another, on a living tree.

*They're called polypores because they produce their spores in tiny, sometimes microscopic, pores on the underside. Each individual pore opens straight down, so that the spores can fall out without touching the sides.