Fungi Field Trip-Day in the sun!

On the 18th of April we had a Fungi field trip. We ditched our slide watching for a day and went to Pine Ridge Park down at Edmonds to see the real deal instead. I made my way to the park with Thinh and on our way to meet with everyone down at the parking lot, we stumbled upon our very first lichen sighting of the day.

Figure 1: This little twig which probably has a crusty lichen on it.

Here is my recap of our fun filled fungi adventure.
Let me start by introducing all the participants in this fungi adventure, the students of the Biology 213 Section 1120, the teacher Dr. Gwen Shlichta as well as our fungi leader of the day, Korena.

We saw this tree as we began our trek through the park.

Figure 2: Korena pointing out the lichen on the tree.

Figure 3: Close up of the lichen on the tree.

Korena explained that there were two types of lichen that we could see with our bare eyes which was the crusty lichen and the powdery lichen.

Figure 4: A patch of a parasitic fungus.

Korena also pointed out this black patch on the tree. This was a type of parasitic fungus that was eating its way into the tree, weakening the tree as it goes. So on the same tree, we have our friendly lichen that is just using the tree as a home as well as a parasitic fungus which is killing the tree. A lichen is a combination of either a fungus (usually a fungus from the phylum Ascomycota) and an algae or a cyanobacteria. The cyanobacteria or algae provides the fungus with carbohydrates while the fungus provides the cyanobacteria or algae protection and some nutrients.
Another type of friendly fungi would be our arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and endomycorrhizal fungi although we cannot see them because they usually live underground in close association with the roots of the tree. The endomycorrhizal fungi forms a sheet around the root tip while the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi penetrates the cell wall of the root. These two friendly fungi help to break down the peptide bonds in amino acids and nucleic acids to free the nitrogen present in these two molecules. The plants can use the nitrogen to make the compounds they need and in return they provide the fungi with some of their carbohydrates.

Figure 5: Look at how fine these roots are! (All the better to absorb all the water from the ground, my dear..)

Figure 6: Some conchs growing out from this decaying log.

The conch in the figure above (Fig. 6) is an example of a saprophytic fungus. A saprophytic fungus is a decomposer. It breaks down the tough lignin that is encasing the cellulose in the tree. By breaking the lignin apart, this allows the fungus to have access to the cellulose underneath it. 

After trekking for quite a bit, we decided to take a break and admire some ducks. 

Figure 7: Ducks!

When we resumed our trek, we came across this tree.

Figure 8: A poor sick tree.

This tree has been invaded by a fungus which formed a brown layer on it. The fungus has been slowly eating away at this poor tree until it looked like this. 

Figure 9: Danger! Poisonous mushroom in the hand. 

The mushroom in the figure above is a mushroom from the Amanita genus. Even though it may be delicious but it can be deadly. So don't go around eating mushrooms that look even remotely like this. Or better yet, don't eat any mushrooms growing in the forest if you cannot tell the difference because you might be fine for a couple days and then before you know it, you're suffering from liver failure. 

Some fun facts that I learned from the trip

-I learned about different kinds of lichen. 

-I also learned that a tree can break off their mycorrhizal relationships when they don't have enough resources to give their fungi partner. However when they are able to take care of themselves again, they would form a relationship with the fungus again. 

-I also learned that the mycelia of a fungi can span from one side of the forest to another.

-And that if one side of the forest is not conducive for growth, it will send signals to the other side to warn them. And the fungus on the side that is suffering will die off.

I wish that we could have a field trip once every week so we can see with our own bare eyes what we learn in our textbook.