6.25.26 Oak Woods Cemetery (fungi), Chicgo, IL

 


White Jelly Fungus

Growing on strange-looking wood

Little clump of White Jelly fruting body

Very small white jelly

Some brownish White Jelly Fungus

A very large patch of White Jelly

Growing under bark

Hidden in a hole in wood

Wood fragments on White Jelly

Sprout from white jelly

Mycelium

Very fuzzy mycelium

Mold on beetle tunnels

Cool fungus

Weird mycelium or slime mold

Lots of it

Black crust-like fungus

Trichoderma viride. The blue-green surface is the spores

The genus Trichoderma is very fascinating. Like many molds, they can be endophytes (plant mutualists that live between their hosts cells) or soil decomposers. But it gets weirder from there. They are also parasitic on many other fungi. This, along with their being endophytes, means the genus is used as a biological fungus control agent for managing fungal plant pathogens. This also makes them a pest for the mushroom agriculture industry. Finally, they are parasites on insects, penetrating the exoskeleton and eating the insides. Like many other endophytes, they eat their plant host when its dies.

Mycelium

More mycelium

Weird fungus on some very porous wood.


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