All posts tagged: fungi

This phallic fungus also smells like rotting flesh

This phallic fungus also smells like rotting flesh

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Animals are not the only stinky living things on this planet. The putrid corpse flower blooms with  the stench of rotting flesh, as does the lesser-known (but equally pungent) Bulbophyllum phalaenopsis. Then there is the elegant stinkhorn (Mutinus elegans), a fungus known for its phallic appearance and spores that give off the odor of rotting meat. Also called the devil’s dipstick, elegant stinkhorns are found across most of eastern North America, particularly from spring to the earliest days of winter. It has also been found in parts of Europe and Asia. They typically prefer temperate climates and looser soils, springing up in gardens, mulch beds, forests, and wood debris during warm and wet weather. They can grow to about four to six inches …

Pee changes how some mushrooms ‘talk’

Pee changes how some mushrooms ‘talk’

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Mushrooms are social butterflies. Seemingly small communities of fungi separated by hundreds of feet are frequently connected via vast underground webs known as mycelial networks. While these allow the fungi to share vital information about their surroundings and environmental conditions, researchers still know very little about how these networks truly function. A team of mycologists in Japan recently highlighted one fungi group’s remarkable, highly dynamic communications. Their particularly unique type of mushroom chatter that can be easily influenced by one thing that all animals release—urine. Their findings are published in the journal Scientific Reports. Ectomycorrhizal fungi belong to a larger group known as ammonia fungi. As their name implies, they heavily depend on soil ammonia levels to grow and spread. Urine contains large amounts of urea, a chemical predecessor to ammonia. With this in mind, researchers led by Yu Fukasawa at Tohoku University in Sendai attached electrodes to 37 ectomycorrhizal mushrooms growing on the floor of an oak forest. …

Fungi have been ‘zombifying’ insects for 99 million years

Published by Miika Tikkanen

3-D: Short for three-dimensional. This term is an adjective for something that has features that can be described in three dimensions — height, width and length.   amber: Fossilized tree resin (not sap). Researchers think most of this gemstone likely comes from conifers, or evergreen trees that bear cones.  ancestor: A predecessor. It could be a family forebear, such as a parent, grandparent or great-great-great grandparent. Or it could be a species, genus, family or other order of organisms from which some later one evolved. For instance, ancient dinosaurs are the ancestors of today’s birds. (antonym: descendant)  behavior: The way something, often a person or other organism, acts towards others, or conducts itself.  caterpillar: The larval stage of moths and butterflies. Somewhat wormy-shaped crawlers, caterpillars tend to eat leaves and other plant bits. Some will, however, dine on other insects.  fossil: Any preserved remains or traces of ancient life. There are many different types of fossils: The bones and other body parts of dinosaurs are called “body fossils.” Things like footprints are called “trace fossils.” Even specimens of dinosaur …