OMPHALINAISSN 1925-1858 Vol. III, No 3 Newsletter of Mar. 21, 2012 OMPHALINA OMPHALINA is the lackadaisical newsletter of Foray Newfoundland & Labrador. There is no schedule of publications, no promise to appear again. Its primary purpose is to serve as a conduit of information to registrants of the upcoming foray and secondarily as a communications tool with members. Issues of OMPHALINA are archived in: is an amateur, volunteer-run, community, Library and Archives Canada’s Electronic Collection <http://epe. not-for-profi t organization with a mission to lac-bac.gc.ca/100/201/300/omphalina/index.html>, and organize enjoyable and informative amateur Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Queen Elizabeth II Library, mushroom forays in Newfoundland and where a copy is also printed and archived <http://collections. mun.ca/cdm4/description.php?phpReturn=typeListing.php&id= Labrador and disseminate the knowledge 162>. gained. The content is neither discussed nor approved by the Board of Directors. Therefore, opinions Webpage: www.nlmushrooms.ca expressed do not represent the views of the Board, the Corporation, the partners, the sponsors, or the members. Opinions are solely those of the authors ADDRESS and uncredited opinions solely those of the Editor. Foray Newfoundland & Labrador 21 Pond Rd. Please address comments, complaints and contribu- Rocky Harbour NL tions to the largely self-appointed Editor, Andrus Voitk: A0K 4N0 seened AT gmail DOT com, CANADA E-mail: info AT nlmushrooms DOT ca … who eagerly invites contributions to OMPHALINA, deal- ing with any aspect even remotely related to mushrooms. Authors are guaranteed instant fame—fortune to follow. BOARD OF DIRECTORS CONSULTANTS Authors retain copyright to published material, and submis- sion indicates permission to publish, subject to the usual editorial decisions. Issues are freely available to the public on the FNL website. Because content is protected by authors’ copyright, editors of other publications wishing to use any Michael Burzynski material, should ask fi rst. PRESIDENT COVER Geoff Thurlow MYCOLOGICAL TREASURER Cerrena unicolor photographed by Maria Voitk Dave Malloch Faye Murrin March 2, 2011, in the woods towards Barry’s Look- NB MUSEUM out, Humber Village, a reminder of the beautiful days SECRETARY we get in March. In Newfoundland and Labrador C. Andrus Voitk AUDITOR unicolor is commonly found on dead birch or alder, Past PRESIDENT Rick Squire both standing and fallen, where it causes white rot. SQUIRE & HYNES Randy Batten Woodpeckers prefer brown rot for nesting, and, in- deed, this hole was just a hole, not a nest cavity. The Jim Cornish LEGAL COUNSEL lead article gives a glimpse into the amazing life of Jamie Graham Andrew May this bracket fungus—another coevolutionary un- Anne Marceau BROTHERS & BURDEN broken chain linking many organisms with ties that Maria Voitk eventually bind us all together, provide us succor, but limit our freedom. Marian Wissink OMPHALINA V Vol. III, No 3 OMPHALIN ISSN 1925-1858 Mar. 21, 2012 CONTENT Editor’s comments ................................. 2 Cerrena unicolor Walt Sturgeon ................................. 3 Unbroken chain II Henry Mann .................................. 5 Fomitopsis ochracea Leif Ryvarden ................................ 6 Guttation revisited Andrus & Maria Voitk .......................... 10 The Bishop’s sketchbook ........................ 12 Addendum to 2011 species list Ryvarden & Voitk ............................... 13 Boyle’s pearls: sex and oysters David Boyle ...................................... 16 Mushroom photography: autofocus Jim Cornish ........................................ 18 Shiitake dermatitis Michael Beug ................................... 20 Killer conks Andrus Voitk ..................................... 20 Boreal felt lichen Mac Pitcher ...................................... 20 The mail basket ....................................... 24 Partners ......................... inside back cover Notice ...................................... back cover This issue and all previous issues available for download from the Foray Newfoundland & Labrador website <nlmushrooms.ca>. OMPHALINA The fi rst day of spring! Just needed food! However, they still have not grown A bit of a Polypore Issue, sprinkled with a few other pearls, like David’s cultured oysters. wood eaters from David Boyle’s mushroom growing The article by Michael Beug is followed by one workshop in 2010. For your information, we are try- inspired by another of his articles. Michael’s longer ing to bring David back this year for another Grow- discussion of both topics, as well as the 2011 Toxi- Op Workshop—details still pending. cology Report, appear in NAMA’s McIlvainea, and In addition to the amazing Cerrena unicolor story— a shorter one in NAMA’s Mycophile. You can fi nd another unbroken chain—followed by a short re- McIlvainea as well as Mycophile on NAMA’s web- http://www.namyco.org/>. Shiitake dermatitis minder of others in the chain that profi t from wood site < is suffi ciently interesting to warrant reporting here, rotting conks, we commend to your attention Leif even if it has been published elsewhere. Ryvarden’s article on Fomitopsis ochracea. This is a very signifi cant paper about a large and common Foray Newfoundland & Labrador is a NAMA mem- species, essentially unknown to the whole world. It ber, and Mycophile can be read on our website, was described in a journal even more obscure than along with newsletters of other sister organizations OMPHALINA, and unknown to anybody since. All that is with whom we share journals. That page is password known about it is in this article, and you get it fi rst! protected, and available to members only, to comply A nice thing about having a journal is the ability to with requirements by some of these organizations. publish updates to the Foray Report, if needed. So An e-mail was sent to members with the username far, we haven not needed it, but this time we did. and password to gain access to the members-only page. If you did not get this e-mail, please write Jim As mentioned, David Boyle’s mushroom growing Cornish <webmaster AT nlmushrooms DOT ca>. workshop from the 2010 Foray is still bearing fruit. Have alook. We now have four journals there, three Indeed, we have been the happy recipients of at replaced with new issues, since it was opened. least one crop of shiitakes from one of the partici- For the future, we think duplication of material freely pants. More people should keep the toiling Editor of available on our own website seems pointless. There- OMPHALINA in mind, when visited by such bounty of fore, no more, unless we run dry of material! That the edible kind.. On page 16 David Boyle answers OMPHALINA a question from Jeff Siddall about the vigour and is called an editorial decision. However, should serve its readers, not its Editor, so if you pre- virility of his culture. From this arose an idea: if you fer the reproduction of important information here, have any questions about how fungi lead their lives, even if it is freely available elsewhere, write in and particularly their love lives, we’ll gladly open our say so. Just be polite! pages to the mycological equivalent of Ann Landers. David has kindly agreed to take on the task of an- swering, but if your question is more appropriate to some other specialized interest, he can farm it out. So Happy mushrooming! do write in and ask. andrus By the way, the time lag between question and published answer was so great that Jeff had time to try his own solutions. He added more wood chips to the medium and the fl agging oysters picked right up. 2 OMPHALINA Walt Sturgeon The amazing life history of Cerrena unicolor, the mossy maze polypore Description for its larvae and also makes the wood more digest- ible for the grubs. The ovipositor of the horntail wasp Cap: Usually kidney to fan shaped, 3-9 cm across, contains asexual spores of the fungus. These are surface hairy, buff to brownish, often with a green al- called oidia. The structures holding the spores in the gal coating. Often zonate. At times resupinate. Pore ovipositor are call mycangium. The wasp deposits its Surface: Whitish, becoming gray, maze like, becom- eggs and the spores into the wood where the fungus ing spine-like in age. Flesh: White to gray, with grows quickly, providing nourishment for the lar- a dark line under the cap surface, leathery. Spore vae. This symbiosis is tenuous with the fungus both deposit: white. Spores: inamyloid, 5-7 x 2.5-4 mμ, benefi ting and suffering from the relationship. Nature smooth, elliptical to elongated. Ecology: A common has checks and balances. The old ditty “Big fl eas saprobe, causing a white rot of broadleaf trees. It is have little fl eas upon their backs to bite’em, And annual and grows in overlapping rows or clusters, little fl eas have lesser fl eas, and so on ad infi nitum” visible year around, widely distributed. applies here. Cerrena unicolor fi ghts back by emit- This species resembles Trametes versicolor and ting a pheromone which attracts another insect, the other common turkey tail polypores and stereums. ichneumon parasitoid wasp in the genus Megarhyssa. See OMPHALINA II (2) pp 6-8 for keys to identify these This wasp drills into the wood, depositing its own bracket fungi. eggs. The larvae when hatched, feed on the horntail The story wasp larvae. This protects the fungus from being totally consumed. Horntail woodwasps in the genus Tremex are propa- gators of this fungus which provides a food source There are other fungal species with similar insect OMPHALINA 3 connections. There is often a lot more than meets the Biodiversity of Fungi: Standard Methods for In- eye when admiring a pretty mushrooms. ventory and Monitoring. Eds. Mueller GM, Bills References GF, Foster M. Academic Press, New York. 2007. 1. Kuo M: Cerrena unicolor. Retrieved from the 3. Šrůtka P, Pažoutová S: Symbiotic relationship be- MushroomExpert.Com Web site. <http://www. tween Cerrena unicolor and the horntail Tremex mushroomexpert.com/cerrena_unicolor.html>. fuscicornis recorded in the Czech Republic.