Thursday, May 26, 2011

Two fungi in top ten, 2011

The International Institute of Species Exploration (Arizona State University) each year publishes a list of the ten most astonishing species described during the year. For the 2011 list, two fungi were included: Mycena luxaeterne and Psathyrella aquatica.

Mycena luxaeterna Desjardin, B.A. Perry & Stevani is a strongly bioluminescent agaric described from Brazil (Desjardin, D.E., B.A. Perry, D.J. Lodge, C.V. Stevani, and E. Nagasawa. 2010. Luminescent Mycena: new and noteworthy species. Mycologia 102(2):459- 477. LINK).

Psathyrella aquatica R.A. Coffan, J.L. Frank & D. Southw. is a species of Psathyrella apparently growing under water in a river i Oregon (Aquatic gilled mushrooms: Psathyrella fruiting in the Rogue River in southern Oregon. Mycologia 102(1): 93-107 LINK. -- alas, behind a paywall).

Candidates for the next list can be nominated here.

4 comments:

  1. Do you know how many fungal species actually have been found growing under the water? I've only seen one by myself, that was in Saxnäs last year, as far as I know it was a Mitrula sp.

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  2. There are a lot, especially "pyrenomycetes". The unique here is that this is an agaric.

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  3. I've seen shiitake fruting underwater when I shocked my logs and left them in the water for too long. I know it's not their true environment to bear fruiting bodies, but the fact that they came to full size before I pulled the logs out of the water was interesting to me.

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  4. They actually developed under water?

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