Myco-Blog

Who am I?

Hello! I'm Vee (he/him), a chemical ecologist with a love and fascination for fungi. This blog is brand-new but nowhere near shiny, as I am very new to coding. Check out the list on the side to get an idea of the topics I plan to explore in the future. Want an idea for what I'll be posting here? Read below an excerpt for a column I wrote for my former campus' newspaper, Endangered Mycology!

Endangered Mycology

Native to Northeast America is an endangered mushroom-producing species named Echinodontium ballouii. There are only around half a dozen species in this genus described worldwide, leaving some to colloquially refer to it as a genus living fossils. This specific specimen only grows on one species of tree in Northeast America, the Atlantic White Cedar (Chamaecyparis thyoides). This mushroom is considered a biotroph that becomes necrotrophic in its later life cycle, which can take up to 40 years. While it is classified as parasitic, the goal is not to kill the host plant, as it is in fungi that are solely necrotrophic. Rather, this species keeps the host alive while establishing itself in its tissue.

The main reason for its classification as endangered is the destruction of its host species for logging purposes. While its host species is no longer used as heavily for logging and is classified as Least Concern, ballouii seems to have never recovered from the effects of logging and has an estimated 250 individuals or less which exist today, and has only been observed growing on 20 trees. This is likely due to the fact that this is an old-growth polypore, meaning that the production of fruiting bodies can take up to 40 years. This mushroom was originally thought to be severely deadly to Atlantic White Cedar, but it is likely that this is not the case. The greatest threat to Atlantic White Cedar is both logging and the pollution/draining of its natural wetland habitat.

This mushroom was also thought to be totally extinct for decades, before being found again in the early 2000s. There are many species of old growth polypores similar to this one which are under threat of extinction. This is because the destruction of old growth forests had led not just to the decline of tree species, but also to the endangerment and, in some cases, total extinction of the old growth mushrooms which grow on them. Even in cases like ballouii, where the species is parasitic, old growth polypores have amazing potential to teach us about the life cycle and genetics of fungi.