Extension to PLT Activity 11 Can It Be Real? Lesson Summary (singular: hypha). Hyphae fuse together to form thicker threads or sheets called mycelia (singular: mycelium). Hyphae can also aggregate to form fruiting bodies, the The original Can It Be Real? introduces students to creatures mushrooms, or hardy, root-like structures called with bizarre environmental adaptations. It allows students to rhizomorphs that spread through soil. appreciate the diversity of organisms on the planet. b. Gypsy moth: I begin as a tiny larva, hatched from an egg. This variation upon Can It Be Real? focuses on some of the I spin a long thread of silk that I attach to a tree, and hang extraordinary insects, fungi, and other soil organisms found in from the other end. When the wind picks up, the thread acts the forests of Florida. Although hundreds of organisms have like a parachute, letting me travel to new feeding grounds. amazing life histories, this extension introduces a few Some of my brothers and sisters hitchhike on cars, trailers, creatures that may damage trees or cause disease. Though people, and planes! I eat the leaves of hardwoods such as many people are unaware of their existence, these organisms oak trees. I grow into a fuzzy, blue and red spotted are commercially important or integral to the ecosystem. caterpillar and eventually metamorphose into a moth. Gypsy moths (Lymantria dispar) are not native to the Doing the Activity United States. They were accidentally introduced when some escaped from a laboratory that was raising them for silk. Since then, they have grown in exponential numbers 1. Read the original Can It Be Real? on page 54 of the PLT and attack whole forests of hardwoods. When outbreaks Activity Guide, including the Background Information, Getting of gypsy moths occur, they can defoliate swathes of Ready, and Doing the Activity sections. forests during the growing season. Some trees may survive such defoliation if they have enough energy stores Doing the Activity includes two parts, A and B. The following to put on a second flush of leaves. However, other trees instructions provide a variation to Part A—Stranger Than may not have such stores, or may have been so weakened Fiction. For a variation upon Part B—The Adaptables, see by previous defoliations that they cannot survive the attack. Resources and References. c. Pine-cone willow gall midge: You might think I live on pine cones, but surprise! I am actually found on willow 2. Follow the Doing the Activity instructions, but read from the following examples instead of those on the PLT Activity Guide’s leaves. My mother, a gall midge, is a tiny fly that lays my egg page 56, and hand out the Student Page provided here. First inside a willow tree leaf. When I hatch, I release a chemical read only the text in italics. The non-italicized text provides into the leaf that causes it to form a pine cone-like swelling further factual information. As with the original activity, all the around me. This structure, called a gall, is my new home and organisms in this variation do exist and are found in Florida. food source all in one—I live and feed inside it all through winter. During the warm spring I metamorphose into a tiny fly, just like my mother. a. Honey mushroom: I am a fungus and live in roots and Gall-forming insects like the gall midge (Rhabdophaga stumps and under the bark of trees. My body is a collection strobiloides) lay their eggs within plants to protect their of microscopic, branching threads. I can fuse these threads young from predation. The young release chemical together and push them out from the base of trees in the triggers that affect the surrounding plant cells—so cells shape of honey-colored mushrooms. My mushrooms release that originally formed leaf tissue might suddenly make spores that spread to other trees. I can also spread woody tissue instead. The swellings protect and nourish underground—my threads fuse and grow like roots through growing larvae, but life is still not easy—there are the soil in search of new homes. Sometimes my threads fuse specialized predators that can find gall-dwelling insects to form white sheets that glow in the dark! and parasitize them! For instance, some species of wasp Honey mushrooms belong to the genus Armillaria, a use long, saw-like ovipositors to deposit their eggs inside group of wood-rotting fungi. They are commonly found in gall midge larvae. So what emerges from the galls the next dead logs, roots, and stumps, but may occasionally season is not a young fly but a wasp that has fed upon the colonize weakened or stressed living trees. The fly larva all winter. microscopic threads of the fungus are called hyphae 40 What Is a Healthy Forest | Section 2 | Forest Insects and Diseases Extension to PLT Activity 11 | Can It Be Real? d. Pine bark beetle: I am only the size of a grain of rice, but leaves. You may think I can’t make up my mind, but that’s with my brothers and sisters I can kill an entire forest of pine not true, I’m just very, very particular. I am usually trees! I tunnel through pine trees eating the yummy inner microscopic and hard to see, but when I am visible, I look bark and lay my eggs there as well. I also introduce a fungus out of this world! I make huge globs of orange, gooey horns into the trees that can prevent the transport of water and on cedar twigs, and much smaller blisters on apple leaves. nutrients, and stain the inner wood blue. Cedar-apple rust (Gymnosporangium juniperi- Bark beetles are a significant problem in many parts of virginianae), like other rust fungi, has an elaborate life the United States. Although many of them only colonize cycle involving two host trees and five spore stages dead trees, live trees may be targeted by beetles if the specific to each host. This fungus’ most showy feature is trees are not able to defend themselves against attack. the fruiting body it produces on cedars, a cluster of horn- Forests that are underharvested, drought-stressed, or like extensions called telia (singular: telium). The telia overcrowded hold stands of stressed, weakened trees. become extended and jelly-like in moist conditions before When bark beetles attack such trees, there is no releasing spores; telia are analogous to mushrooms resistance, and epidemic explosions of beetles may result. because they are a kind of fungal fruiting body. e. Root knot nematode: I may be microscopic but I am very highly developed, with a wormlike body, digestive tract, 3. Reveal to students that all the organisms on the Student skin, and muscles. I live inside plant roots, making them Page are real, supplementing your explanation with the extra swell abnormally to create a home for me. These swellings, information provided here, and with pictures from the SFRC called galls, give me food and shelter. I affect many different Extension website for educators (see Resources and plants, including crops, by decreasing their ability to take up References). water and nutrients. As the plants suffer, I flourish. Nematodes are a hugely diverse phylum of animals, 4. Wrap up the activity by discussing with students why it potentially outnumbering all other animal species might be important to understand the life cycles of these combined. As a group, the nematodes are the most strange creatures. Point out that many of these organisms abundant living organisms on the planet, and may be can reproduce in large numbers, causing uncontrollable found everywhere from ocean floors to forest soils. Many damage to forests if left unchecked. Learning what they look nematodes are plant parasites. The root knot nematode is like, where to find them, and how they travel is a first step to particularly devastating to plants. Other nematodes, controlling outbreaks before they happen. however, are beneficial. f. Fusiform rust: I am a very picky fungus. Some of the year, Also discuss with students whether such organisms are “bad” I can live only on oak trees leaves. Other times of the year, I or “good.” While they may cause commercial damage, they can live only inside pine tree stems. I make five different are also integral ecosystem components. Consider, for types of spores during my two-year life cycle. Some of my example, what would happen to a gall wasp if its prey, the spores can travel over 300 miles. When I land on oak leaves, I pine cone willow gall midge, was eradicated. Exotic invasive make spore-producing blisters on the leaf surfaces. When I pests and pathogens like the gypsy moth are more harmful land on pine stems, I make them swell up and erupt with than native ones, often because they don’t have specialized yellow-orange spore-producing pustules. predators to keep their populations in check. Rust fungi are unusual organisms—many of them require two different hosts to complete their life cycles, Resources and References and produce up to five different types of spores that can only germinate at specific times and on specific host trees. Fusiform rust (Cronartium quorum f. sp. fusiforme) is a • The University of Florida’s SFRC Extension website for commercially devastating fungus in Florida, as it can educators includes several related resources. reduce the value of pines grown for timber. The swollen . To introduce students to insect adaptations for plant galls that the fungus induces upon pines cause the stems herbivory, see Beyond the Trees, Activity 3: How to Eat a to warp, making them unsuitable for timber.