I had a photo of this mushroom and four others of the same kind (hiding under our butterfly bush) and I edited it for ID’ing by my plant systematics expert,* and then decided it would be my 365 post for today. I did an Undo of a resizing edit so I could crop the image differently and the resizing highlighted how interesting this particular mushroom looks.
From the University of California Museum of Paleontology,
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/fungi/fungi.html » “The Kingdom Fungi includes some of the most important organisms, both in terms of their ecological and economic roles. By breaking down dead organic material, they continue the cycle of nutrients through ecosystems. In addition, most vascular plants could not grow without the symbiotic fungi, or mycorrhizae, that inhabit their roots and supply essential nutrients. Other fungi provide numerous drugs (such as penicillin and other antibiotics), foods like mushrooms, truffles and morels, and the bubbles in bread, champagne, and beer.
“Fungi also cause a number of plant and animal diseases: in humans, ringworm, athlete’s foot, and several more serious diseases are caused by fungi. Because fungi are more chemically and genetically similar to animals than other organisms, this makes fungal diseases very difficult to treat. Plant diseases caused by fungi include rusts, smuts, and leaf, root, and stem rots, and may cause severe damage to crops. However, a number of fungi, in particular the yeasts, are important ‘model organisms’ for studying problems in genetics and molecular biology.”
Since I post a lot of insect and plant photos and I know that mushrooms are neither “animal” nor “plant,” this post has prompted me to look at the taxonomy for all living things. After visiting Stockholm last fall, at least I know the name Carl von Linne. From
http://faculty.fmcc.suny.edu/mcdarby/animals&plantsbook/History/02-Explaining-Life-Classification.htm » von Linne was “a Swedish botanist (plant scientist) known as ‘Carolus Linnaeus’ (Latin was the common language for European science, so writings and often names were Latinized), [who] began work in 1735 on a system that would organize descriptive classification from the smallest of related groups up to the very largest. The system he developed, with revisions, is the basic system still used today to systematically organize types of living things with their relatives. The basic structure was similar to how human organizations of the time worked, with groups-contained-within-groups, be they feudal power structures or military structures. Each particular type of living thing would be designated a species (from the same root word as ‘specific’). Closely-related species could be collected within a larger grouping, a genus; related genera are grouped into a family, families into an order, orders into a class, classes into a phylum, and phyla into a Kingdom, the biggest and most general group. In Linnaeus time, there were just the Animal Kingdom and the Plant Kingdom, but later discoveries convinced biologists that some distinctly different types of organisms, such as Fungi and some tiny single-celled organisms, should be given their own separate Kingdoms.”
Although scientists recognized only 2 Kingdoms well into the 20th century, there are now 6 Kingdoms (still from the above URL):
1. Monera: Prokaryotes (no nucleus); always unicellular (single-celled). Bacteria. May have plant, fungus, or animal characteristics.
2. Archaea: Prokaryotes; always unicellular. Adapted to unusual and/or extreme conditions, such as very hot, very salty, or no-oxygen environments. Have several different cellular chemistries from Monera.
3. Protista: Eukaryotes (nucleus in cell); mostly unicellular, or collections of very similar cells. May have plant, fungus, or animal characteristics.
4. Plantae: Eukaryotes; multicellular; capable of photosynthesis, production of complex molecules from simple molecules using light.
5. Animalia: Eukaryotes; multicellular; must obtain complex food molecules from external source, broken down and absorbed internally. Usually capable of movement.
6. Fungi: Eukaryotes; almost all multicellular; must obtain complex food molecules from external source, absorbed through external surface. Almost never capable of movement.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* Obviously, mushrooms aren't “plants,” but Dan happens to know fungi as well as plants and there are fungus photos at PhytoImages,
http://phytoimages.siu.edu/cgi-bin/dol/dol_terminal.pl?taxon_name=Agaricales&rank=order
1 year ago (“Crape myrtle busting out”):
http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2015-08-21
2 years ago (“Hosta Regal Splendor”):
http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2014-08-21
3 years ago (“Don’t know why I pressed the button…”):
http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2013-08-21
4 years ago (“Back on the water…”):
http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2012-08-21
5 years ago (“Semi-desperation”):
http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-08-21
[ DSCN1548S105x75Atm :: P&S ]
![A ‘school photo’ portrait [Filler]](https://media.365project.org/1/9434205_hijklnqsv2_sq.jpg "A ‘school photo’ portrait [Filler]")
![On the monkey bars [Filler]](https://media.365project.org/1/9434496_eijmty2367_sq.jpg "On the monkey bars [Filler]")
