Comments on: Impudence, Thy Name is Mushroom

By: Joannah

Joannah — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:56:49 +0000

I know it’s an older post but for some reason it doesn’t load fully for me in IE. It works ok in Firefox though…

By: DreamNest – Technology | Web | Net » Mushrooms and more

DreamNest – Technology | Web | Net » Mushrooms and more — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:57:31 +0000

[...] peach one (not quite impudent, how I wish it were)A purple [...]

By: Photography Watch » Mushrooms and more

Photography Watch » Mushrooms and more — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 02:53:34 +0000

[...] peach one (not quite impudent, how I wish it were)A purple [...]

By: Morel Dilemma

Morel Dilemma — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 06:41:11 +0000

Interesting that you noted the genealogy of trees in connection with fungi/mushrooms. Many fungi and trees have symbiotic relationships. Have you read any of Paul Stamets’ books?

By: Larry May

Larry May — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 02:28:32 +0000

The Cornell Mushroom Blog is at: http://hosts.cce.cornell.edu/mushroom_blog/

By: Mushroomz

Mushroomz — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 02:36:39 +0000

It’s hard to beat stinkhorns for school show-and-tell projects–an egg in a jar will “hatch” pretty reliably. They’re also irresistible in time lapse photography. Check out this 4-day stinkhorn time lapse on our new Cornell Mushroom Blog.

By: Celia

Celia — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 19:56:22 +0000

“Grok,” huh? That was a pretty good allusion.

Interesting post too.

By: dearkitty

dearkitty — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 11:08:45 +0000

Also on stinkhorns: here.

By: Steviepinhead

Steviepinhead — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 20:39:17 +0000

Ebonmuse, this may be one of those “too obvious, therefore wrong” responses, but it was my impression that the quote about fungi’s land-colonizing partnership referred to the humble lichen, a joint venture, symbiotic relationship between fungi and photosynthetic algae. While many lichens do derive sustenance from other ambiant organic matter, at least some of the time, others grow in inhospitable environments, such as on bare rock in desert and alpine zones (and, as your comment suggests, all of the land-surface was once effectively a “desert” area, devoid of life–though of course modern deserts may harbor a good deal of cryptic life).

According to an Encarta encyclopedia article on lichen, “In this partnership, the fungus furnishes the alga with water, prevents overexposure to sunlight, and provides simple mineral nutrients, while the photosynthesizing alga supplies food to the fungus even if no other organic material is available.”

Lichens of this kind ultimately assist in the process of breaking rock down into its mineral constituents, turning them into organic matter–in part, by way of the lichens themselves–and may perhaps have served as an initial food source for the next waves of colonists, such as plants and arthropods.

I like the seawrack idea too, though, as an initial bridge between sea and land…

By: ruidh

ruidh — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:34:38 +0000

Why immortalize yeast with yeast infections and not for beer? Yeast redeems the yuckiness of all the other fungi by giving us fermented beverages. Just remember next time you’re indulging that you are drinking the excrement of a fungus. Bartender, another round!

By: Left_Wing_Fox

Left_Wing_Fox — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 18:27:53 +0000

Ebon: The muck idea sounds plausable; shorelines are bound to be innundated with dead algae/bacteria, which becomes a resource that creatures can evolve to take advantage of.

By: Ebonmuse

Ebonmuse — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 02:27:00 +0000

Some studies suggest that fungi came ashore long before plants and animals. Plants owe their success on land to fungi, in fact, because they formed partnerships with some species. The fungi supplied nutrients from the soil and the plants supplied energy from the sun.

Possibly there’s an obvious answer to this question I’m not seeing, but how could fungi have come ashore before plants and animals? They can’t make their own food, and if they were first onto the land, what source of decaying matter was there for them to feed on? Bacterial mats? Dead vegetation washed up on the shore?

By: Steviepinhead

Steviepinhead — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:34:31 +0000

Thanks, O mighty Owlmirror!

By: Scott Belyea

Scott Belyea — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:16:06 +0000

… probably swam around in water with whip-like tails called flagella.

Ah, yes … those irreducibly complex, intelligently designed thingies.

On at least four separate occassions, early fungi lost their tails.

Well, if they had the poor taste to lose something which was designed (intelligently) specifically on their behalf by … someone, then they get no sympathy from me.

Fascinating item … thanks!

By: Owlmirror

Owlmirror — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:06:14 +0000

The link is to an article in Science: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/293/5532/1129 Molecular Evidence for the Early Colonization of Land by Fungi and Plants If you don't have a subscription (I don't), you won't be able to view the full article, but the abstract is viewable: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/293/5532/1129

By: Steviepinhead

Steviepinhead — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 19:49:26 +0000

The “billion years” link is still not working. By eliminating the “href” and various other combinations of characters toward the end of the link, I can get either “Not found,” or “Forbidden,” but I still haven’t found the secret combo that gets me wherever Carl wanted us to go!

By: jerith

jerith — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 19:02:26 +0000

Just a heads-up: The “billions years” link has an extra “

Thanks for the great blog.