Mapping A Tiny World: Cannibal Fungus
Yesterday's AM post was all about a tiny fungal mold growing on Sycamore bark. But Zygomycota and Ascomycota molds encompass a broad range of fungi growing on an even broader range of mediums.
Here we see a fairly large fungal fruiting body, relatively speaking, which has already aged quite a bit. However, in the moist chamber conditions, suddenly we can identify the filamentous hyphae of a second fungus beginning to form on the edge of the first fungus.
Over the next few days and weeks I will have to check back in on the filaments to see whether they continue to develop. One possibility is that they form into a totally different tiny sporangia. But another real possibility is that they are a result of careless cross contamination, and effectively are the same species.
However, even if they were cross contaminated, it seems likely they would be a different species based on their growth medium alone. Anecdotal reading seems to support the idea of many of these micro fungi have fairly specific growth medium preferences. Time will tell.
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It's weird to imagine any creature as a cannibal - even one as far removed from ourselves as the fungus. But I guess that's just my limited human brain perspective doing the talking.
Arguably though "cannibal" is a misnomer in this context - or a least hyperbole - depends onwhether you define cannabilism as intra species ingestion. In which case his is not quite it. :)
As macabre as it might sound, nutrients are nutrients. And sadly people are not exempt, historucally speaking. Thoughit takes a lot to get us there.
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Fungus is an intresting plant, the most intresting is that is cannibal :o
Fungus is not a plant actually - it's in a completely different Kingdom. There's the Plant Kingdom and the Fungi Kingdom.
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