Ascomycetes in rivulets below water level

[Chris Yeates]

hello all

The "aquatic hyphomycetes" or "Ingoldian fungi" form a very interesting (and prolific) group. Unusual among fungi a considerable number can be named purely on the characters of the conidia (asexual spores) which often have (in comparison to the spores of most basidiomycetes) very distinctive shapes:

For the most serious level of study, cultures derived from single conidia are observed for details of the way in which the conidia are formed and develop. This can involve complicated techniques to simulate the water flow and foaming/oxygenation process, and is beyond the amateur.
To some degree this approach can be imitated by collecting rotting leaves which are beginning to skeletonise, and keeping them in petri dishes or similar with boiled and cooled water (tap water is fine in this part of the country, where the water is so soft, as a friend of mine says, "you can use the soap for a fortnight before you take the wrapper off"!). Conidia can be seen developing at leaf margins (a dissecting microscope is useful here) and carefully removed for study. Alder and sycamore leaves are rather good for this approach, oak less so, it but still produces stuff.
Another approach is the one hinted at in earlier posts. You collect foam from the natural foam-cakes which form where fast-flowing stream water meets obstacles:
The winter months are generally better (because of the presence of large numbers of fallen leaves), but other periods can still produce interesting results. A key factor in this method of study (and analogous to Andreas talking of the difficulty of getting material home in a satisfactory condition) is that the minute the spores come in contact with a hard surface – or any surface really – they start to germinate and soon become more or less unidentifiable. This is solved by ‘fixing’ the collection there and then, in a manner familiar to those who collect diatoms and other algae. The chemical used is Formol Acetic Alcohol – I collect the foam in old film canisters and then add a few drops of the fixative; after that once the collection has been labelled you can examine it days, or indeed years afterwards.

This is all you need – you don’t of course need to take along the large bottle! – which will last for years. I am looking into the possibility of utilising the fish-shaped soy sauce containers from supermarket sushi to keep the FAA, which you can then have in the collecting bag all the time – fish, film canister and teaspoon (plastic as good) and you have your equivalent of a foray basket! I generally take a walking pole with me when I foray now (helps fording streams, knocking down out of reach brackets etc.) a rubber band around the end means you have a long spoon handle – if I ever meet the Devil I will be able to sup with impunity.

More on this topic later

cheers

Chris

[FungiJohn]

Excellent information Chris

Now, how’s this for coincidence!

Les and I went to Longshaw on Sunday and whilst we were busy photographing fungi we were approached by a couple walking through the estate.

After a very interesting conversation it only turns out that he is the grandson of Professor T C Ingold. Terrence is now 103 years old!

It didn’t twig at the time but after your last post Chris it became very clear indeed.

Strange too, we looked in every rivulet we came across throughout the day.

We mentioned WAB and maybe they may visit … I forgot to ask their names

A small world we live in!

John

[Gerel]

After finding what Chris and Andreas ID'ed in another thread as a Vibrissea sp. (possibly V. flavovirens) last week,



I had a bit of a poke around in the same stream yesterday to see if there were anymore of these subaquatic fungi to be seen.

This is the river,



it rises few miles away in a peat bog and flows through a mixture of upland grazing (sheep not cattle) and forestry. The underlying rocks are sedimentary, a mixture of sandstones and shales, no chalk or limestone to my knowledge. The water is coloured by the peat and I assume, although I've not tested it, is probably acidic.

These fungi were all on submerged wood within a stretch of maybe half a mile of river.

1.

This looked like another example of the Vibrissea, I found quite a few logs with these on.



2.

Another branch showed these, a Mollisia sp. ?



3. At first glance I thought this densely crowded species was a Mollisia type, but when magnified it looks very puckered.



This doesn't really belong as it was at the edge of the stream rather than submerged, Hymenoscyphus sp?



Regards

Steve

[mollisia]

Hallo Steve,

nice findings! I'd love I would be there too!

The first one might be a Vibrissea, but because of the colour I would opt for Graddonia coracina. You will have to verify by microscope. In all cases dry it and send it someone, those species are not often recorded (at least as far as I have knowledge of, may be it's other in Britain)
The 2nd one is very very probably Mollisia rivularis, but as (nearly) always in Mollisia it should be verified by microscopy.
The 3rd could be Mollisia rivularis as well, it could also be the hitherto unnamed Mollisia "pulviniformis". But a Mollisia it should be I think, but may be microscopy turns out something else?
The last one is a Lachnum species (formerly Dasyscyphus). One can see that it has hairs.

best regards,
Andreas

[stickman]

Hi all,

Now some of the streams have started flowing again in the South of the country, today I finally got the chance to play with some aquatic fungi .

I was suprised at the sheer number of forms - many of them I couldn't identify with the sole book I have (Ingold Guide to Aquatic Hyphomycetes).

These conidia were by far the most numerous (and most impessive). At a quarter of a millimetre long I could easily see them on the slide with a hand lens :



I think I've got it right with Dendrospora erecta.

Chris - what stain/technique do you use with these? Although I had no trouble with the larger conidia, the smaller ones struggled to pick up the stain....(hence lack of other photos)

Cheers,
Nick

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by stickman

Hi all,

Now some of the streams have started flowing again in the South of the country, today I finally got the chance to play with some aquatic fungi .

I was suprised at the sheer number of forms - many of them I couldn't identify with the sole book I have (Ingold Guide to Aquatic Hyphomycetes).

These conidia were by far the most numerous (and most impessive). At a quarter of a millimetre long I could easily see them on the slide with a hand lens :



I think I've got it right with Dendrospora erecta.

Chris - what stain/technique do you use with these? Although I had no trouble with the larger conidia, the smaller ones struggled to pick up the stain....(hence lack of other photos)

Cheers,
Nick

Hi

yes - last November in a particular wood with huge foam-cakes in Calderdale (Yorks.) I found that Dendrospora tenella was the dominant Ingoldian fungus; and I think you have Dendrospora tenella there -
clues are the more slender branches and the fact that the branches effectively all come from a single original axis, as here:

the black line lies (approximately) along the primary axis - note how all the side branches arise very close to it - I think this is close to your conidium; Dendrospora erecta has far more side branches coming from their own side branches - the trouble is that a lot of these differences are quite subtle - perhaps we could do with a "pictorial atlas" of Ingoldian fungi - along the lines of what FungiJohn has proposed for other groups

as regards staining, the image above is in ammoniacal Congo Red, I think it is a little less extreme than Lactic Cotton Blue; Melzer's can be useful because it stains glycogen -I haven't experimented with weak and strong Lugol's - will get back on that one . . .

hope that helps (a bit )

Chris

PS there's no reason why this thread should come under "Microscopy" at some stage it needs moving (not urgent, mind)

[stickman]

Hi Chris

After a quick read of Descals & Webster (TBMS) you're clearly closer with D.tenella. This one was a bit better behaved:



I also found lots of these in the same sample - any ideas? They were roughly 20-30µm.



I like the idea of an online 'pictoral atlas' - by the looks of it some of the literature covering aquatic fungi is either expensive or out of print. Hopefully FJ will stumble upon this thread at some point and get the ball rolling!

Cheers,
Nick

[Chris Yeates]

Originally Posted by stickman

Hi Chris

I also found lots of these in the same sample - any ideas? They were roughly 20-30µm.



. . . . .
Cheers,
Nick

rather reminiscent of Tricladium attenuatum; if you PM me your email address Nick (which will be treated in strictest confidence) I'll send you some PDFs you might find useful . . .

cheers

Chris