Since I
study mushrooms I sometimes receive images from people asking for
identifications. One of those images was something I had never seen, nor seen
anything in the literature that vaguely resembled it. It was a rose coloured
cup fungus with a papilla in the centre, and was growing on the trunk of a
living shrub. The bark of this shrub was perfectly healthy, showing no signs of
pathology.
The
first possibility that came to mind was a species of ascomycete cup fungus, but
to my knowledge none of those has a little bump in the middle. The next
possibility was a bird’s nest fungus. These often grow on wood, and have
peridioles, spore bearing structures, in them. They, however, have more than
one peridiole, and do not grow on living trunks. It was a total mystery to me,
so I advised the enquirer to contact several people with a better mycological
knowledge than mine.
I was
very intrigued by this fungus. Maybe it was a totally undescribed genus. The
description of its location was beside a trail close to where I live, so I
decided to set out on an expedition to locate it. Such a find should be
documented with a herbarium voucher. Since I walk this trail, and know its
fungal flora very well, it was perplexing that such a unique species could be
growing there.
Upon
setting out I met somebody who asked me where I was going, and I explained that
this very unusual cup fungus had been seen along the trail, and I was going on
a search for it. She replied that she had seen them a few days earlier, and
that they were very clever. Somebody with a knowledge of mycology must have
made them!
After a
careful search along the trail, there they were. Seven of them on a vine maple
(Acer circinatum) trunk surrounded by the cat tail moss (Isothecium
myosuroides). Creatively constructed from pink plastic, with long stems
inserted into the epiphytic moss carpet.
Piltdown Mushroom
Photo by Rosemary Taylor
The
amazing plastic cup fungi. Artificial ascomycetes in the prime of maturity. It
brought to mind the Piltdown man hoax of a century ago, or the photos of flying
saucers that used to intrigue me when I was young. The images certainly looked
very real. How long will they fruit on that tree?
