Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science Volume 92 Number Article 7 1985 Fungi of the Iowa Loess Hills L. H. Tiffany Iowa State University J. F. Shearer Iowa State University A. W. Gabel Iowa State University G. Knaphus Iowa State University Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy Copyright © Copyright 1985 by the Iowa Academy of Science Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias Recommended Citation Tiffany, L. H.; Shearer, J. F.; Gabel, A. W.; and Knaphus, G. (1985) "Fungi of the Iowa Loess Hills," Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 92(5), 180-185. Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/pias/vol92/iss5/7 This Research is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa Academy of Science at UNI ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science by an authorized editor of UNI ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Tiffany et al.: Fungi of the Iowa Loess Hills Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci. 92(5):180-185, 1985 Fungi of the Iowa Loess Hills L. H. TIFFANY,). F. SHEARER, A. W. GABEL, and G. KNAPHUS Department of Botany, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011 From 1981 through 1983 biological surveys of the Loess Hills were spoonsored by the Iowa State Preserves Advisory Board. Twenty-four sites in 7 counties were visited during the first week in June during these years. Collections were made of all macrofungi producing identifiable fruiting structures or represented by recognizable weathered fruiting structures developed the previous fall. Plane parasitic fungi and corticolous lichens were also recorded. Fungi of the Loess Hills of Iowa had been previously documented primarily by Gilman's and Gilman and Archer's reports of plant parasitic fungi. This report includes 3 species ofOomycetes, 18 species ofMyxomycetes, 67 species of Ascomycetes, 75 species ofBasidiomycetes, 27 species of Fungi Imperfecti (Deuteromycetes) and 15 species of corticolous lichens. INDEX DESCRIPTORS: Fungi, Loess Hills, lichens The fungi of Iowa, particularly the macrofungi and the plant immediate vicinity of a particular vascular plant species could give parasitic fungi, have been observed, collected and interpreted since presumptive evidence for an ectomycorrhizal association. Endomycor­ the 1870s. However, much of this work was in the eastern and central rhizal fungi could be detected only by a detailed microscopic study. portions of the state. Gilman and Archer's ( 1929) catalog of the plant Both the litter-dwelling species and the mycorrhizal fungi may be parasitic fungi of Iowa does include some information on occurrence of seasonal. Some species fruit only at specific times, the morels in these fungi in western Iowa. Also, G. W. Martin's students, working spring, certain mushrooms in summer, other mushrooms and puff­ at the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory on Lake West Okoboji in Dickinson balls only in fall. Some fungal structures, such as sterile bases of larger Counry, documented the local Myxomycetes and the Tremellales as puffballs or the perennial and annual brackets of wood inhabiting part of their intensive taxonomic studies of these groups of fungi. fungi, are persistent enough to be recognizable beyond the season in The Loess Hills of western Iowa are especially interesting for studies which they develop. Other species may not be limited, but can of fungal distribution. The eastern Iowa forests, with more rainfall develop fruiting bodies throughout the growing season whenever and a more diverse vascular plant population, have a larger number of environmental conditions are favorable. Some Asomycetes, both plant species of fungi than do the western Iowa forests. However, in the parasitic and saprophytic species, produce ascocarps only an overwin­ Loess Hills where remnants of the eastern deciduous forest occur in tering plant debris. These small fruiting structures are seldom obvious scattered stands and where western plant species are at the eastern in the field. edge of their ranges, what fungi are also successfully established? The Many fungi occur predominantly or exclusively in only one of the Loess Hills forays provided an opportunity to obtain data about the vegetational associations in the Loess Hills. We have, therefore, fungi of this area. presented our observations in three lists: 1) those fungi encountered in This paper reports the Loess Hills fungi as we have observed and the prairie sites or as parasites on the prairie plants (Table 2), 2) those collected them, primarily for several days in early June, 1981 through fungi found in the wooded slopes and ravines of prairie areas and in the 1983. These studies were part of biological surveys sponsored by the contiguous wooded areas and as parasites of the plants of these sites Iowa State Preserves Advisory Board. Data from incidental collections made by various people working in the area during the last few years have also been included. However, these collections are even less Table 1. Collection sites in the Iowa Loess Hills region. representative of other seasons and situations than our limited obser­ SITE LEGAL DESCRIPTION COUNTY vations are of the early summer fungal population. We have also Banks Property Sec. 20, T91N, R49W ~lymouth included the reports from this area of plant parasitic fungi of Gilman Stone Seate Park Sec. 2, T89N, R48W Woodbury and Archer (1929), and of the larger Discomycetes by Jensen (1977). Brown's Lake Sec. 33, T87N, R47W Woodbury During the surveys, we concentrated on the macrofungi, the plant Joy Hollow Road Sec. 24, T91N, R49W Plymouth parasites, and the lichens. However, the rusts (Uredinales) which are Smithland Co. Park Sec. 26-27, T86N, R44W Woodbury plant parasitic fungi and the soil-inhabiting lichens are discussed in Preparation Canyon Sec. 24, T82N, R44W Monona separate papers. The plant parasites reported here include only those Boy Scout Camp Sec. 28, T82N, R44W Monona that could be identified from fungal fruiting structures already present Railroad track T83N, R45W Monona Turin Wildlife Area Sec. 33-34, T84N, R44W Monona on the diseased host at the time of collection, or from fruiting Dahm Property WY, Sec. 18, T85N, R44W Monona structures that developed during a 48 hour incubation in a moist Raglan Property EY, Sec. 21, T80N, R44W Harrison chamber during the week following collection. Thus our observations Roden Farm NWY4 Sec. 23, T81N, R44W Harrison are biased in that only the plant parasites that develop relatively early Deer Island Sec. 21, T81N, R45W Harrison in the growing season are represented. Tyson Bend Wild!. Area NW Sec. 29, T79N, R45W Harrison The macrofungi we identified probably include two different Crescent Ski Area Sec. 12, T76N, R44W Pottawattamie ecological groups of fungi: 1) the litter-dwelling and wood-inhabiting Seep Sec. 11, T71N, R43W Mills saprophytic fungi, and 2) the mycorrhizal fungi. Because both groups Roadside Ditch T73N, R43W Mills may produce their fruiting bodies on or through the ground litter, Wearin Prairie Sec. 13, T72N, R41W Mills Flood Plain Prairie Sec. 26, T67N, R43W Fremont only an intensive study of fruiting bodies of a fungus species in the Roadside Ditch Sec. 25, T67N, R43W Fremont Thurman south Sec. 13, T69N, R43W Fremont Knox Church Site SE Y4, Sec. 32, T68N, R42W Fremont Journal Paper No. J-11862 of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Possum Creek Sec. 18, T69N, R42W Fremont Station, Ames, Iowa. Project No. 0110. Waubonsie Seate Park Sec. 31, T67N, R42W Fremont Published by UNI ScholarWorks, 1985 1 Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, Vol. 92 [1985], No. 5, Art. 7 FUNGI OF LOESS HILLS 181 Table 2. Fungi of the prairie areas of the Iowa Loess Hills. Gasteromycetes Fungus County" Cyathus stercoreus (Schwein.) de toni in Sacc. 2 Disciseda candida (Schwein.) Lloyd 1,3 Myxomycetes Geastrum mammosum Chev. 4 Physarum vernum Somm. 4 Geastrum minus (Pers.) Fischer 3,4,6,7 Oomycetes Lycoperdon ericetorum Pers. 4 Peronospora parasitica Pers. ex Fr. 3,6 Lycoperdon pusillum Pers. 3,4 Plasmopara pygmea (Unger) Schroter 6 Tulostama brumale Pers. 1,2,3,4 On Anemone canadensis L. Secotium agaricoides (Czern.) Hollos 1 Ascomycetes Hemiascomycetes • County symbols: 1 = Plymouth, 2 = Woodbury, 3 = Monona, Taphrina potentillae (Farlow) Johanson 4 = Harrison, 5 = Pottawattamie, 6 = Mills, 7 = Fremont On Potentilla sp. Taphrina pruni Tu!. On Prunus americana Marsh. 5 (Table 3), and 3) saprophytic and plant parasitic fungi of the Missouri Pyrenomycetes River flood plain at the western base of the Loess Hills bluffs (Table 4). Claviceps purpurea (Fr.) Tu!. 1,2,4 We recognize that somewhat different but interrelated wooded On Phalaris arundinacea L. situations occur in group 2. One involves the eastern deciduous forest Erysiphe polygoni DC. 3 remnants in Stone State Park and Smithland County Park in the On Oxytropis lamberti Pursh. northern Loess Hills area, Preparation Canyon State Park in the Gibberella pulicaris (Fr.) Sacc. On Morus sp. 2,4 central region, and Waubonsie State Park in the south. The other is Phyllachora luteomaculata (Schwein.) Orton 3,5,7 the groups of scattered bur oaks restricted to the lower portions of On Andropogon gerardi Vitm. protected loess slopes noted in early government land surveys. These Phyllachora boutelouae Rehm On Bouteloua sp. 2 have changed since settlement of the Loess Hills. Natural fires are Loculoascomycetes rare, and the dense bur oak stands, with junipers and dogwood at the Elsinoe panici Tiffany & Mathre 2,3,7 edges, now occupy many ravines throughout the Iowa Loess Hills. On Panicum virgatum L. The prairie vegetation, unlike that found in other remnant prairies l)euteromycetes in Iowa, includes species more typical of the central Great Plains. In Ascochyta brachypodii (Sydow) Sprague & 4 the dry environment enhanced by the soils and steep slopes of the loess A.G. Johnson On Schizachyrium bluffs, some of these Great Plains plant species are at the eastern edge scoparium (Mich x.) Nash of their range.