Spores - Blog Posts

Not flowers :D

These flowers are not flowers, but rather a parasitic fungi's "pseudo flowers" it uses to spread its spores

The fungi infects the plant and siphons off its nutrients. In order to reproduce the fungi sterilizes the host plant, preventing it from making its own flowers.

It then forces the plant to grow yellow "pseudo flowers" that contain the fungi's spores. These spores are collected by pollinators same as the plant's own pollen would be and transferred from plant to plant, spreading the infection.

Fun fact, there are mushrooms living in your lungs right now!

Humans breathe anywhere from 500 to 100,000 spores daily depending on local environmental conditions. The fungi have a variety of ways to survive the immune response of the human body. Most are harmless and either die or do nothing at all. However, some fungi spores inhaled are possible pathogens or cause respiratory issues, and others are essential to a healthy microbiome .

So, if you’re breathing right now, just know that there's spores in that air, and your lungs are a nice cozy environment for them :)

Funguary Day 21: Birds Nest Fungi

The bird's nest fungi is named for its nest-like appearance, with “eggs” inside the main cup. The “eggs” are actually called peridioles and they're where the mushroom stores its spores. They're usually attached to the peridium (the main cup structure of the fungi) by a thin cord called the funicular cord. The cord is coiled inside a purse (see diagram below) until spore dispersal occurs. 

Bird's nest fungi are reliant on rain to disperse its spores. Raindrops trigger the spore release by splashing the peridoles out of place, as visible in this video. The purse ruptures and the cord uncoils as the peridoles are splashed into the air. Sometimes the funicular cord will wrap around a branch or twig and attach to the new substrate via the hapteron (see diagram below).  

See the rest of my posts for funguary here!

Funguary Day 15: Puffball

Puffball mushrooms develop their spores inside their hollow fruiting bodies. Once mature a hole opens in the top to release spores when compressed, usually by animal activity, human intervention, or rain. 

If you want to see a video of the spore release, which I highly recommend, you can find a video here!

See the rest of my posts for Funguary here!

I am having too much fun making infected.  o_o