Good evening, friends,
Brr, it’s not warm. We got some snow over the weekend and we’ll learn today that even when you can’t see the forest floor there are still fungi to find in the woods. I was able to get out in the snow yesterday and look for a particular fungus that I learned about last week at the NYMS walk. Diatrype decorticata, waiting politely for a common name, is an ascomycete (a phylum of fungus that develops spores internally) which you can find right now wherever you can find an American beech (Fagus grandifolia).
Fun Facts
The fungus grows on American beech, so it’s helpful if we all know how to identify one. Beech have smooth, grey bark which tends to get carved up in parks or along trails with the names of teenagers and their sweethearts. My old boss in Central Park, Jerry, told me that the German words for “beech” and “book” have the same etymological root. I finally sat down to fact check that one and shockingly that’s right. In German, Beech is “Buche” and book is “buch”—they’re thought to be derived from the Old English “bóc”, or Norse “bók”, which meant both “book” and “beech”.
The American Beech in this area have been hammered by afflictions like Beech Bark Disease, more recently by Beech Leaf Disease, and even more recently by the spongy moth caterpillar (Lymantria dispar). Impressively, the beech are still leafing out each spring but the future of the species in the area is uncertain.
Right now you can’t look at their leaves to identify them, but even more useful than their leaves is their buds. They have long, conical, auburn-colored buds which don’t look like any other tree we have in the area. Beech also have marcescent leaves, so they're one of the only trees still holding onto their dead leaves right now.
Once you’ve gotten a handle on identifying a beech tree, there are fifty-nine species in the genus Diatrype (not all grow on beech, though). There are likely even more that have yet to be described since these fungi are easy to overlook.
The etymology of Diatrype comes from Ancient Greek. The prefix Dia- which means “through” and -trype which comes from the verb trypan which means “to bore”. “To bore through” aptly describes how the fungus fruiting bodies erupt through the wood of the tree. The species epithet decorticata comes from the Latin decorticare which means to peel and is a reference to how those erupting fruiting bodies cause the bark to peel off the branch.
Ecology
The fungus is saprobic (a decomposer) on branches of American Beech (Fagus grandifolia), but in Europe can be found on European Beech (Fagus sylvatica) and Norway maple (Acer platanoides). Norway Maple is one of the more prominent invasive trees in the region, so I’m going to start looking at those branches to see if I can’t find the fungus (European Beech are occasionally planted as ornamentals in yards as well). D. decorticata appears to be found in temperate forests across the northern hemisphere (where the host trees grow) and the fruiting bodies aren’t too hard to find once you find some beech trees.
This mushroom certainly doesn’t look like a toadstool, there’s no discernible cap nor stem, but it does have other important structures. What’s visible is the stroma (pl. stromata) which is a cushion-shaped mass of mycelium that holds the spore-bearing structures. In this case, those spore bearing structures are the perithecia and they’re embedded in the stromata. Those little dots you see above are the ostioles - the openings where the spores are released. When the stroma develops below the bark and then erupts through it, we call that erumpent. Start making your flashcards today, folks.
Housekeeping
You may have noticed we have a new look with the newsletter. We’re trying to have a consistent aesthetic across the Substack and the personal website so the transition between the two is fluid, or something like that. I’m the on the erumpent stromata side of the operation, Ciara’s on the IT/UI/UX side. I have been actively updating my events page on the website, too. A couple to watch out for this Spring, both of which I will be attending for the first time:
Morelfest on 4/26-27 in Gettsburg, PA.
Maine Fungi Fest in Standish, Maine.
Layer up this week,
Aubrey
PS. Could “Beech Maze” be a good common name? The fruiting bodies kind of make a maze on the wood. Just spitballing here.
References:
Chlebicki, Andrzej. (2005). Some species of the genus Diatrype from the Czech Republic preserved in PRM, BRNM and KRAM.. Czech Mycology. 57. 117-138. 10.33585/cmy.57107. http://www.czechmycology.org/_cm/CM57107.pdf pages 122 and 123
Vasilyeva, Larissa & Stephenson, Steve. (2009). The genus Diatrype (Ascomycota, Diatrypaceae) in Arkansas and Texas (USA). Mycotaxon. 107. 307-313. 10.5248/107.307. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233627936_The_genus_Diatrype_Ascomycota_Diatrypaceae_in_Arkansas_and_Texas_USA
https://trees.stanford.edu/ENCYC/FAGsyl.htm#:~:text=In%20Roman%20times%2C%20the%20North,English%20b%C5%8Dc%20stood%20for%20both.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/decorticate#:~:text=decorticate%20(v.),:%20Decorticated;%20decorticating;%20decortication.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/trepan#:~:text=trepan%20(v.),:%20Trepanned;%20trepanning;%20trepanation.
https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/881500-Diatrype-decorticata