Lecture #10
Gasteromycetes & False-truffles
Gasteromycetes - stomach fungi
- puff-balls, earth stars, stinkhorns and bird's nest
- polyphyletic assemblage
Do not forcibly discharge their spores
peridium - outer wall of basidioma
gleba - inner fertile portion
capillitium - sterile filamentous element among gleba
basidia of gasteromycetes are all one-celled holobasidia
Lycoperdales, Tulostomatales, Sclerodermatales, Phallales and Nidulariales
Literature and keys emphasized from bibliography on page 561
- Dring (1973)
- Smith (1973)
- Smith et al. (1981)
- Miller and Miller (1988)
- Fungi Without Gills by Ellis and Ellis (1990)
Lycoperdales.
common puffballs and earthstars
At maturity the powdery gleba, consistes of typically with light colored
spores and a
well-developed capillitium. The gleba is surrounded by a peridium
consisting of
from two to four layers. The order has been divided into either four or
five families. Members of the families Lycoperdaceae (puffballs) and
Geastraceae (earthstars) are easy to recognize.
Lycoperdaceae
- common puffballs
- grow on tree stumps, decaying logs, or on the ground in the woods,
city lawns, golf greens, and grassy, open fields
- most species are considered edible, best when pure white inside
- the fruiting bodies of the Lycoperdaceae are enclosed by an
exoperidium and an endoperidium.
Calvatia
- both layers are quite thin and fragile and no special structure
exists for
the liberation of the spores. The exoperidium breaks into flakes and
falls away, revealing the endoperidium that degrades to
expose the spores.
- Calvatia gigantea, ("giant puffball,") is
white, nearly
round, and sometimes exceeds a long diameter of from 70 to 80 cm or more.
- Calvatia cyathiformis with basidiocarps that are
pear-shaped and not so large as those of Calvatia gigantea.
- Each has a sterile base that remains intact even after the spores have been released.
- The peridium is sculptured over the top and becomes brown with age.
- The gleba usually has a purplish tinge at maturity.
Lycoperdon
- includes some of the most common puffballs
- both the endo- and exoperidium are quite distinct.
- exoperidium-which may be warty, spiny, or granular-weathers away leaving the thin, membranous endoperidium, intact.
- endoperidium is provided with a small central opening (ostiole) from which the spores are puffed when anything strikes the surface of the basidiocarp (e.g. rain).
Geastraceae
- commonly known as earthstars.
- small puffballs that possess three peridial layers.
- exoperidium and the mesoperidium, the latter of which is usually inseparable from the former, split along radial fissures and, when wet, open in the form of a star with 4-12 rays.
Radiigera the endoperidium simply erodes away while in
Geastrum, the more common of the two genera, an ostiolar
opening develops through which the spores escape.
Tulostomatales.
- stalked puffballs.
- Basidiocarps usually are epigeous, although the early stages of
basidiocarp development in some species may be hypogeous, a
characteristic that is hypothesized to give such species an adaptive
advantage in dry environments.
Calostomataceae containing the single genus Calostoma
- Calostomais distinguished by a gelatinous, evanescent
exoperidium. In Calostoma cinnabarina the exoperidium layer is
transparent and covers a distinctive bright orange-red inner layer.
Tulostomataceae with eight genera including Tulostoma and Battarrea.
- Tulostomaconsists of species with small basidiocarps;
stipes usually do not exceed 4-5 cm in length and support small
heads sometimes reaching a centimeter in diameter.
- Battarrea- the basidiocarps are much larger than those
of Tulostoma. The stipe of Battarrea may exceed 30 cm in
length and support a puffball from 2.5-5 cm in diameter.
Battarrea is common in the southwestern United States from
Texas to California and in some areas of Mexico.
Sclerodermatales.
- thick, typically hard peridium and usually dark gleba
- Scleroderma- resemble puffballs but have a hard outer wall
- Pisolithus - fruiting body club shaped; peridium disintegrates from top to bottom releasing powerdy mass of spores; gleba consistes of locules or peridioles that contain basidia and spores
- Pisolithusis a gasteromycete derived from bolete ancestors. Gill and Watling (1986) made this suggestion primarily on the basis of the presence of pulvinic acid pigments, pigments that help to define the boletes. More recently Bruns obt
ained rDNA sequence data to support a close relationship between Pisolithus tinctorius and the bolete Gyrodon.
- Pisolithus tinctorius is an important ectomycorrhizal partner with pine trees and has been developed commercially for use in reforestation efforts.
Phallales. - the stinkhorns
- descriptive of their fetid odor
- odor caused by the combination of several chemicals including hydrogen sulfide and methylmercaptan
- odor functions in attracting flies and other invertebrates that disperse their spores
- Phallus, Mutinus, Dictyophora
- development - "egg" = volva; gleba = fertile spore bearing region atop a receptacle; indusium = veil (analogous to Amanita)
The "Doctrine of Signatures" and the stinkhorns
- Phallus impudicus was hunted by smell then
burned behind locked doors by Charles Darwin's eldest daughter Etty to
"preserve the morals of the maids".
Nidulariales.
This order contains six genera that are commonly referred to as "bird's
nest fungi" and the "cannon ball fungus,"Sphaerobolus.
Nidulariaceae
- bird's nest Nidularia and Cyathus most common
- at maturity, each basidiocarp is a hollow cup-like structure containing a number of neatly arranged, lens-shaped peridioles that are knocked out of their cups by splashing rain
- each glebal chamber becomes separated from the 1-3 layered peridium and is surrounded by several walls; the outer layer is hard and waxy
- each glebal chamber contains a hymenium comprised of basidia and sterile structures and becomes converted into a small lentil-shaped peridiole.
- gelatinous material then is produced in the cortex of the peridiole and diffuses into the central cavity, along with the released spores eventually filling it completely
- several peridioles are formed per basidiocarp
- in Cyathus each peridiole is attached to the inner surface of the cup by means of a slender mycelial connection, the funiculus which consists of three distinct regions referred to as the sheath, midpiece and purse
- the fruiting bodies of these fungi are constructed so as to act as splash-cups from which raindrops eject the peridioles to a distance of a meter or more
- when wet the funiculus greatly expands and may reach a length of 15 to 20 centimeters. The very base of the cord, the hapteron, is sticky and adheres to solid objects after it is released from the cup
- the force of ejection causes the purse to burst and release the funicular cord and hapteron
- the hapteron, on striking a solid object (e.g. a plant) adheres to it; as the peridiole continues in flight, the funicular cord expands to its full length; the peridiole soon hangs down vertically or is wound around the object to which the hap
teron is attached
- peridioles in Mycocalia, Nidularia, and Nidula lack funiculi; the outer layer of the peridole is sticky
Other Gasteromycetous Fungi.
Hymenogastrales
