Good evening, friends,
Today we’ve got quite a funky fungus on our hands. This morning I found the Dog’s Nose Fungus (Camarops petersii) on the same log I discovered these mutt muzzle mushrooms last July. As we’ll see when that drab outer veil gets peeled back, there’s a lot more to this mushroom than meets the eye.
I should add that you too have the opportunity to check out this fungus in real life during the New York Mycological Society walk at Manitou Point Preserve this Sunday. I am also leading a walk Saturday morning at the For the Love of Fungi Festival in Olivebridge, NY. Hope to see you at one of them… or, if you’re a real fungal freak, both.
Fun Facts
This mushroom looks like a dog’s nose, that’s pretty fun to start. The mushroom is an ascomycete which means they produce spores internally in sac-like structures called asci. The basidiomycetes, the mushrooms we typically look at, use club-shaped basidia to produce spores. In an attempt to drown you in more vocab, Camarops are technically pyrenomycetes which means their asci are located in small, flask-shaped fruiting bodies known as perithecia. Make sure to have all this nailed down by the walks this weekend ;)
It’s uncommon to see an ascomycete with a veil, the tan-colored membrane that unfurls to reveal the vivacious fertile surface, but C. petersii produces one. The veil helps protect the reproductive surface as it develops and before spores are ready to be released. The veil can also be used by humans to distinguish C. petersii from other species in the genus Camarops.
The fungus is named after Thomas Minott Peters who was a 19th century attorney, politician, and botanist from Alabama. Although he was born and raised in Alabama during the 1800s, he was not rocking with the confederacy during the Civil War which is always nice to see. Despite that, after the Civil War he managed to get elected to the Alabama Supreme Court where he served from 1868 to 1875, and was even Chief Justice for a couple years. Outside of the office he was a well renowned botanist and naturalist. He discovered this species of fern, and promptly spiked the ball in the endzone by naming the species after himself. Must have been a fascinating guy.
Ecology
P. camarops is an endophyte, at least according to this study, which means the fungus symbiotically lives inside plants while they’re alive and then becomes a decomposer upon their death. They can be found growing on well-decayed hardwoods. The mushroom grows in the summer, particularly in July, and is a fairly uncommon find. At this point it looks like the mushroom is only found in North America east of the Rockies.
The mushroom’s distinct shape lends itself to a unique method of spore dispersal. Instead of ejecting their spores like most ascomycetes, the reproductive organs (asci) of the mushroom deliquesce and the spores ooze out from the perithecium (the bumps on the surface). The spores create a thick, black spore slime which adheres them to the surface of the mushroom instead of launching them into the air. The hypothesis is that insects feed on the spore slime which they subsequently transport (hopefully) to another viable plant partner.
Bonus Moth
Olympics start on Friday,
Aubrey
References:
Kuo, M. (2022, February). Camarops petersii. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/camarops_petersii.html
Gubiani JR, Zeraik ML, Oliveira CM, Ximenes VF, Nogueira CR, Fonseca LM, Silva DH, Bolzani VS, Araujo AR. Biologically active eremophilane-type sesquiterpenes from Camarops sp., an endophytic fungus isolated from Alibertia macrophylla. J Nat Prod. 2014 Mar 28;77(3):668-72. doi: 10.1021/np400825s. Epub 2014 Mar 4. PMID: 24588269.
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