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Classification

Macroscopic features

There are numerous macroscopic features of the fruiting bodies that are useful in classification or identification. So, what are they? Think of what you can see when you look at a mushroom, puffball, polypore or any other fungal fruiting body. Better still, get a couple of specimens and study them carefully. Chances are that whatever feature you can think of (or see) has been used - shape, size, colour, texture, smell, feel, habitat, manner of growth, substrate. And lots more. Of course different features are used for different types of fruiting bodies. Something that is very important in one type may be irrelevant or unimportant in another.

After you’ve given it a bit of thought and written down as many features as you can think of, take a look at the {{EXAMPLES OF MACROSCOPIC FEATURES SECTION}}.

It is worth stressing that macroscopic features are helpful and that fungi of the same macroscopic appearance are often closely related, but there are many exceptions. Just as things that look the same aren't always closely related, so things that look different may sometimes be more closely related than you'd first think. The example of the orange and white versions of Flammulina velutipes, given above, showed the effect that different growing conditions could produce. You might argue that the Flammulina example was a highly contrived example, not reflecting natural conditions.

Ganoderma australe

Consider the polypores. Many of these fungi usually produce fruiting bodies that look like short shelves or brackets, protruding from the sides of fallen logs. Ganoderma australe <<051>> is an example of such a bracket-like growth form. The underside of the bracket has tiny pores, each of which is the opening of a short tube that extends a short distance back into the bracket. The structure of polypores is explained in the {{POLYPORE PART OF THE ASCOMYCETES AND BASIDIOMYCETES SECTION}}.

However, sometimes the same mycelium may produce different-shaped fruiting bodies, depending on where the fruiting body is formed. If the mycelium begins forming a fruiting body on the side of the log, then the result will be a typical bracket-like fruiting body as shown above. At some other time the mycelium may start developing a fruiting body at the top (rather than the side) of the log. In such a case the fruiting body may have a short stem-like base. A fruiting body, from the same mycelium, but developing near the bottom of the log may be simply a thick, pored sheet on the wood. The following simplified diagram shows cross-sections of these varieties, in addition to the bracket form. The tube layers are shown by the closely packed-vertical stripes, the rest of the fruiting body in solid brown and the large grey circle represents the cross-section of a log lying on the ground.

DIAGRAM - polyporeg

The following photos show two fruiting bodies of Pycnoporus , a polypore. One shows the usual bracket form while the other shows a fruiting body that grew out from the upper surface of a fallen log.

GET PICS OF BOTH PYCNOPORUS

The examples given here should give you some idea of why macroscopic features are not enough. There's more about relationships a little later in RELATIONSHIPS THAT ARE AND ARE NOT, but before that it's necessary to explain some of the other features that are used in classification or identification.