Teratologic forms - morel-like growth

[mollisia]

Hallo,

as the thread "" turns away fromm its former sense, I open a new thread about those aberrant forms we were talking about in that former thread.

Here are two more pictures of those aberrant growth forms, which are called "teratologic" in Botany:



They are taken from a publication by G.J. KRIEGLSTEINER, which is called (translated) "Morphological aberrations or regular taxa. About sense and nonsense of taxonomic fixing."

In this article amonst other those forms are discussed, especially their taxonomic value. KRIEGLSTEINER states - and I agree fully with him - that there is no sense in giving taxonomic names to them. They don't reproduce themselfes, so they are not "varieties" (var.) but only "formes" (f.). I personally agree completely in this matter with KRIEGLSTEINER, that "forma" in mycology is in most cases useless and only adding more taxa to the nomenclature.
But nevertheless they are nice to look at and sometimes quite spectacular: Think e.g. of the teratologic forms of Peziza proteana, called "sparassoid forms".
So these teratologic aberrations may occure in all groups of fungi, although they are reported only for a few species acc. to my knowledge. There are appr. two handful of Agaricales I have heared of (Laccaria spp., Tubaria sp., Clitocybe sp. e.g.) and additionally Aphyllophorales (Hydnum repandum) and Ascomycetes (Peziza proteana).

best regards,
Andreas

[NickCantle]

Brilliant and in depth information about a quite common sight (amongst members of Laccaria anyway ) I shall remember the word 'teratologic' best I can

Cheers Andreas, great stuff

Nick

[cybershot]

Excellent topic thank you Andreas, and by way of further illustration I have extracted a couple of images from the WAB Gallery/Forum for inclusion in this thread:


Teratologic form of Laccaria proxima.
Photo by Nick Cantle


Teratologic form of Tubaria sp.
Photo by Cybershot

Cheers
David

[KeenTeen17]

pretty interesting stuff people I remember seeing an entoloma that had this growth. I shall upload a photo when I've found it

[KeenTeen17]

Originally Posted by cybershot

Excellent topic thank you Andreas, and by way of further illustration I have extracted a couple of images from the WAB Gallery/Forum for inclusion in this thread:


Teratologic form of Laccaria proxima.
Photo by Nick Cantle


Cheers
David

I found this photo of a similar situation of Laccaria Lacarta

[NickCantle]

Very hygrophanous are these Laccaria They show salmon tones when dry.

..and that's Laccaria Laccata KT No excuse with your new literature

[KeenTeen17]

oops

[cybershot]

In view of Andeas' remarks regarding the taxonomy of these abberations, is the distinction between the teratologic form and what appears to be just an old dilapidated specimen something more than just a subjective opinion based on morphology? From observations in the field, in my opinion KT's specimen is typical of the latter.

David

[flaxton]

I would agree with you David. Those with the "Teratologic" growth are almost unrecognizable. Those of KT and Nick are just what you would expect of an old fruitbody.

Mal

[NickCantle]

I've seen vast amounts of both Laccaria laccata and Laccaria proxima and the specimens in my photograph was by far the most wretched I've ever seen! I agree with you though, that it is just an old specimen, whereas the images by Andreas and David seem to show a different phenomenon altogether