Split Gill

Description:

The species name "commune" actually does refer to shared ownership, in an odd way; Schizophyllum commune is one of the most widely distributed and common mushrooms on the planet. Not only is it found from sea to shining sea on our continent, it is found on all six of the others. As a result of its omnipresence, it is also one of the most studied mushrooms on earth; see below for more information. ---Schizophyllum commune is easily recognized. Its tiny fruiting bodies lack stems, and they attach themselves like tiny bracket fungi on the dead wood of deciduous trees. Unlike a bracket fungus, however, Schizophyllum commune has what appear to be gills on its underside, rather than pores or a simple, flat surface. On close inspection the "gills" turn out to be merely folds in the undersurface--and they are very distinctively "split" or "doubled" ( http://www.mushroomexpert.com/schizophyl... ), ( http://www.mycobank.org/MycoTaxo.aspx?Li... )

Habitat:

location: North America, Europe edibility: Inedible fungus colour: Grey to beige normal size: Less than 5cm cap type: Other stem type: Lateral, rudimentary or absent spore colour: White, cream or yellowish habitat: Grows on wood Schizophyllum commune Fr. Gemeiner Spaltblättling Schizophylle commun Split-gill or Common Porecrust. Cap 1–4cm across, fan-shaped, often lobed or fused with others, sessile or on a short stem-like base, densely covered in greyish-white down with a purplish tinge. Gills radiating from the point of attachment, splitting lengthwise and rolling back covering the space between the gills, and protecting the hymenium from desiccation. Spore print white. Spores cylindric, 6 x 3um. Habitat on dead wood of deciduous trees and also on cut timber. Season all year. Uncommon. Not edible. Distribution, America and Europe. ( http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/D... )

Notes:

If you want a fun time, try explaining sex in fungi to reporters someday-- over the phone. They actually got it pretty well, I thought. I told them I would put up a web page dealing with sex in fungi, so I chose Schizophyllum commune as the fungus of the month-- since it is known to have more than 28,000 distinct sexes.---In order to understand something about sex in fungi, we need to look at the general nuclear cycle of fungi. Comparing this to the life cycle of an animal or plant you'll notice some big differences. For the most part fungi are either haploid, with one set of chromosomes in a nucleus, or dikaryotic, with two sets of chromosome, each set in a separate nucleus. Most animals are diploid, with two sets of chromosomes in a single nucleus. You'll notice the three major steps in the life cycle of a fungus to the left are plasmogamy (joining of cytoplasm from two parents), karyogamy (fusion of the two parental nuclei) and meiosis (reduction division, returning to the haploid state.) In most fungi the diploid consists of only a single cell in the life cycle. There are four phyla of fungi, each of which is distinguished by its sexual reproductive structures and the amount of time spent in each of the phases. Notice that in animals and in plants we usually talk about plasmogamy and karyogamy as a single event called fertilization, since the two events occur in rapid succession. In fungi plasmogamy may be separated from karyogamy for several minutes up to several centuries! This means that in some fungi the dikaryon may be the most long-lived part of the life cycle ( http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/... )