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Spalting, Science, and Fungal Extracts – Retooling an Ancient Art for a Green Planet

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Spalting, Science, and Fungal Extracts – Retooling an Ancient Art for a Green Planet Spalting, Science, And Fungal Extracts – Retooling An Ancient Art For A Green Planet Sara C. Robinson little to no attention. North America where wood artists Fungus hunters are likely familiar with and crafters are using them as part of ungi come in a vast array of at least one of these pigment-producing a greater “spalting revival.” The word colors, from pale pinks to bright fungi, Chlorociboria aeruginosa or spalting is relatively new, having only blue-greens to dark blacks. its very similar cousin Chlorociboria been in the general English language FAnd yet, when most people think of aeruginascens (both known as “elf’s since the mid 1970s, and generally fungal colors they think of the fruiting cup”). The blue-green cup fungus refers to color in wood that came from body. Some, especially those in the grows on very decayed wood and a fungus (note the emphasis on in, as field of blue stain control, may think leaves behind the stunningly beautiful color found on wood from mold fungi of fungal mycelium and the melanin pigment called xylindein. Wood colored is not considered spalting). Three types bound within the hyphae that creates of spalting are recognized: the white that blue-grey color in wood. And an rot of hardwoods that leaves the wood even smaller group may think of the with a visibly lighter appearance, the extracellular pigments made by “Fungi zone lines (often black or brown, mold fungi such as Penicillium do not always play nicely but other colors exist) that and Trichoderma, whose with each other… The beautiful colors delineate fungal boundaries pigments can penetrate or are made as a response several centimeters into and boundary shapes produced by some of to changes in climatic and various substrates. these wood-colonizing fungi are a by-product of substrate conditions, But there is an even the means by which to protect their property. One and extracellular finer class of fungal major artifact left behind by white rot fungi is a zone pigments, such as colorants – a strange, line… composed of pigments, primarily melanin… What those discussed above. eclectic collection of ascomycetes that is well proven is that many white rot fungi will erect zone release extracellular lines if they detect the presence of another fungus of pigments deeply into comparable strength.”-Sara C. Robinson, 2014, in “The wood, resulting in a Fine Art of Decay,” American Scientist 102[3]: 206-213. completely penetrating What to learn more about spalting of wood? Check stain of their substrate. In temperate forests these out this article, you can find it at the link: fungi are sporadic at best, http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/ having a low presence on feature/the-fine-art-of-decay/1 both conifers and hardwoods. In the tropics they occur with a higher frequency, yet are still uncommon enough to have attracted by Chlorociboria has been used for Sara C. Robinson is an Assistant centuries in Europe to add natural color Professor in the anatomy of renewable to wood marquetry and intarsia. Brown materials at Oregon State University oak, oak colored a rich brown through in the Department of Wood Science the colonization and pigmentation of and Engineering. She is also an artist Fistulina hepatica (“beefsteak fungus”) and displays her work in juried shows has also been popular for several throughout the world. You can peruse hundred years for furniture making, her work at www.northernspalting.com. especially in England. Address: 119 Richardson Hall, Oregon Both the blue-green wood of State University, Corvallis, OR 97331 Chlorociboria species and the brown Email: [email protected] wood from Fistulina hepatica are still in use today, primarily in Europe and Brown and black zone lines in the Amazon. 20 FUNGI Volume 8:2 Summer 2015 Top Left: pink stain and black zone lines in the Amazon. Middle Left: brown and black zone lines in the Amazon. Bottom Left: wood blocks being tested with extracted fungal pigments. Top Right: purple and green stain on wood in the Amazon. Bottom Right: green stain and green zone lines in the Amazon. FUNGI Volume 8:2 Summer 2015 21 In the United States, zone lines have spalted wood? Can you make it? How been the dominant form of spalting fast can you make it? Is there a way found on woodworking objects, to avoid the softness that comes from especially turnings. The prevalence wood decay? is due to the pioneering work of the A quick Google search will turn Lindquists, father and son Mel and up any number of strange recipes Mark, who popularized the zone line for encouraging spalting in wood, in their wood turnings in the 1970s and several US companies have even through 1990s. In Europe, brown oak patented methods for inoculating remains popular, and the green stained veneer with fungal spores in the hopes wood of Chlorociboria species can be of producing zone lines. But all of these found still on English Tunbridgeware methods rely on direct wood inoculation and in jewelry from European artisans. and hope – hope that the fungi will It is noteworthy that interest in spalted colonize, hope that the substrate is wood is growing – not just in countries sterile enough to not kill them, and, in Five-point inoculation of Scytalidium where it was once popular, but also the case of zone lines, hope that the cuboideum on 2% malt agar. in places where it never truly had a fungi will interact enough to make the foothold. South America is currently a desired melanin boundary. Add to all hotbed of spalting development, with of that inoculation takes time to get a Chile and Peru beginning initiatives to decent result. Depending upon fungal find and characterize their own unique and wood species, the incubation time spalting fungi and market native woods can be a few weeks to a few years – a with the natural coloration. time scale that makes commercial With this growing worldwide interest scale (or even home scale) spalting an in spalting, artists and scientists find unattractive option in comparison to just themselves butting up against the same using an aniline dye. problems that the old intarsia masters As an artist who works in the sciences faced – how do you get access to enough (wood science, to be specific), I have long Five-point inoculation of Chlorociboria sp. on 2% malt agar. Five-point inoculation of Scytalidium Chlorociboria fruiting bodies. ganodermophthorum on 2% malt agar. Solubilized pigment from Scytalidium Solubilized pigment from Solubilized pigment from Scytalidium ganodermophthorum in DCM. Chlorociboria sp. in DCM. cuboideum in DCM. Multifiber test strip dyed with pigments from Scytalidium cuboideum. Wallpaper (made from 100% recycled paper), dyed with the fungal pigments used spalted wood in my wood turnings. low-toxicity solvent like acetone, the Unlike many woodturners, however, I pigments from spalting fungi are meant have a research lab at my disposal and a to be “sticky,” in that they have to persist number of undergraduate and graduate in their environment through all sorts of students eager to experiment with fungi. conditions. These fungi are also specific Over the past several years my lab has to woody substrates – meaning that worked on developing the pigment side simply growing them on malt agar in the of spalting so that it can compete on a lab isn’t going to yield a lot of pigment. global market with aniline dyes. We got around the growth issue The process hasn’t been as easy as we by simply including ground up bits had hoped. Unlike pigments produced of already spalted wood (sterilized, from mold fungi or lichens that can be of course) into the malt extract agar. extracted easily with water or a relatively With this new growth medium even Multifiber test strip dyed with xylindein. FUNGI Volume 8:2 Summer 2015 23 Boxelder bowl with a pigment wash from Scytalidium cuboideum to help maintain the native pink color. Chlorociboria, a very slow growing The fungi were grown on the amended fungus, would create a large volume wood malt agar plates, then extracted of pigment in a short time frame (two and filtered to yield a brightly colored weeks – which is pretty fast for a extract that could be reapplied to pigment-type spalting fungus). After wood directly and yielded the same max growth the plates were dried to color as if the fungus itself were get rid of the water, then the pigment colonizing the wood. was extracted using dichloromethane Having the pigments in a solution (DCM). Extractions were also done separate from the fungus opened new directly from found spalted wood – a doors to our research. Suddenly spalting nice time saving step if big enough pieces wasn’t completely about wood anymore. could be found. Because of the “sticky” nature of the Our early work focused mostly on pigments, applications like textile dyeing the two North American Chlorociboria (no mordants needed!), paint, glass dyes, Maple bowl with white rot and zone species, as well as Scytalidium wallpaper colorants – a huge range of lines, and light pink staining through cuboideum (red/pink) and Scytalidium dye opportunities presented themselves. a wash of extracted pigments from ganodermophthorum (yellow/purple). With the increase in application came Scytalidium cuboideum. 24 FUNGI Volume 8:2 Summer 2015 Knobcone pine with pigments from Chlorociboria sp. (blue-green), Scytalidium cuboideum (red), and Scytalidium ganodermophthorum (yellow). Bigleaf maple bowl with white rot, zone lines, xylindein (blue-green pigment) from Chlorociboria sp. and yellow pigments from Scytalidium ganodermophthorum. Magnolia bowl with a light wash of the yellow pigments from Scytalidium ganodermophthorum, done to help soften the silver sheen of the wood.
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