Spring Rains Bring Wildflowers, Summer Rains Bring Fungi

The tremendous amount of rain in the eastern U.S. has foiled many a picnic and impacted anglers and sunbathers alike, yet underground, many organisms have been having a banner year. Water is, of course, one of the limiting factors of life, and while too much of this good thing can sometimes negatively affect plants and animals, many organisms in the fungi kingdom benefit.

This year's summer rains have encouraged a significant level of growth of many species of toadstools, mushrooms, molds and other fungi. As the wetter than average months have passed, they have been working underground or inside wood, where the body of the fungus, the roots-like mycelium, has been eating and growing, digesting and spreading out. Now in late summer, hikers and forest walkers are reporting an abundance of the above-ground phase of the fungi's life-cycle: the reproductive phase. These fleshy-bodies produce the spores that will disperse and become the next fungal generation. Although we are most familiar with the typical "mushroom" of pizza fame, the fungi represent many more species that exist as a wide variety of colors and shapes - almost any imaginable.

Hikers at WPC's Bear Run Nature Reserve in Fayette County have been in awe with the profusion of fungi along the trails. Last week, WPC's Museum Program Assistant at Fallingwater Clinton Piper snapped this photo of a bright orange one, which has not been fully identified, but is probably Clitocybe illudens (Schw.) Sacc., known as the Jack-o-lantern fungus, and is believed by some to glow in the dark with a bioluminescence.

E-mail Today's WPC Daily to a Friend!

Become a Western Pennsylvania Conservancy Member

 View the winning WPC Daily for June

 Review and vote for the best of July