- Club-footed clitocybe, foto fitis, sytske dijksen
Ecology of mushrooms
If there weren't any mushrooms, our world would be one large garbage dump. Mushrooms play an important role in the world by breaking down plant and animal material. After degradation, the remains are reused by other plants and animals. Mushrooms are unable to produce their own energy to grow so they always live in relationship with other organisms. In exchange for energy from plants, many mushroom species provide various nutrients that the plants themselves are unable to produce sufficiently. Mushrooms can have three kinds of relationships with plants: those that clean up (saprophytes), those that kill (parasites) and those that work together (mycorrhiza symbionts). Recent studies (2011) showed that mushrooms also use meat, in the form of eelworms and other such creatures, to meet their nitrogen requirements!
On Texel
- , Sytske Dijksen, www.fotofitis.nl
Texel has lots of mushrooms. In fact, it is a very popular place for mushroom-lovers when it comes to waxcaps, which grow on all kinds of soils on the island. One place is in the grassy shoulder of the road leading to Den Hoorn. Fortunately, there was a mushroom expert on the island who was aware of this unique growing area. When there was a plan to lay down a bike path next to the road, he convinced the town to make a detour around this verge.
The woods contain all kinds of mycorrhiza mushrooms: amanitas, boletes, milk-caps and russulas. There are also many species of saprotrophs, including mycena, sulfur tufts and polypores. Parasites are less common: birch bracket, Heterobasidion annosum (destructive for conifers) and the honey fungus.
The dunes have particularly lots of saprotrophs, including puffballs, Psathyrellas and parasol mushrooms. They easily withstand mild winters. However, the first night frost will put an end to them.
- Saprophytes
- Parasites
- Trooping cordyceps, foto fitis, stytske dijksen
Parasitic mushrooms are the murderers among the mushrooms. They grow on living trees and other plants, extracting their nutrients. They give nothing in return, which means a slow death for the host. When the host-plant dies, a parasite continues to degrade the organic material, changing the relationship into a saprophytic.
As a rule, healthy trees easily resist parasites. A sick or weakened tree cannot and that is when a parasite strikes. Some species, such as bootlace (or honey) fungus and the conifer-base polypore, are capable of attacking healthy trees from an infected tree. When similar trees stand side by side, it is easy for these mushrooms to spread. Mushrooms can also parasitize on other mushrooms.
One exceptional mushroom is the caterpillar-eater or trooping cordyceps. This fungus grows on dug-in pupa of large moths.
- Myorrhiza mushrooms
- Laccaria amethystina, foto fitis, sytske dijksen
Mycorrhiza mushrooms work together with their host. Their underground fungi threads grow intermingled with the roots of living plants. The fungus provides minerals and essential elements to the plant and receives sugars and nutrients (carbohydrates) from the tree. Both plant and mushroom profit. Many mycorrhiza species have a pronounced preference for one tree species: the milky Lactarius quietus is always found under oak trees. The grayish-green milky Lactarius blennius is always found under beech. Other species are less fussy, for example, the Russula ochroleuca, the Laccaria amethystine (similar to the purple-gilled Laccaria) and the pigskin poison puffball. They grow near all sorts of trees.
- DNA and fungi
