Life on the Outer Coast

September 13th
Sunny
Went up the Indian river trail to the first muskeg with Marty Johnson's High School class to collect root, soil and water samples. We decided to limit ourselves to three projects; plants with possible VAM mycorrhizae, looking for laccase gene in swales, hummocks, ecotone and forest soils and a survey of archaea. The laccase gene (involved in lignin degradation) shows up in many ectomycorrhizal fungi. Is this just a carry-over from a former saprophytic life style or do these fungi obtain nutrients from their vascular plant hosts and from lignin degradation? Not sure if anyone has shown that the gene is expressed in a fungus with an active mycorrhizal connection. Always more questions.

The mycorrhizal study groups collected Carex plurifolia, Trichophorum caespitosum, Drosera rotundifolia, Triantha glutinosa and Cornus suecica. The class didn't quite have enough time to finish the collecting, so Marisa and I finished up. I collected Gentiana douglasiana, Coptis trifoliata and Carex livida as back-ups and because I'm just as curious about the mycorrhizal status of those plants. Lots of Juncos in the muskeg and thrushes flying over.

In the forest we collected some soil from the top of a barkless log that was still sound and some of the cuboidal lignin for additional samples to look for laccase activity.

After putting our samples in the refrigerator, I went out to Starrigavan to collect more mushroom samples for the evening class. Walked around the Mosquito cove trail then down the Estuary trail to the campground. Despite the heavy mushroom harvesting over the weekend, there was ample numbers of samples to collect for keying practice. Found an especially nice example of an Amanita vaginata still contained in its universal veil and a pseudo chanterelle. Couldn't resist crawling under the Hemlock tree for the rest of the Hydnums.

Also found an attractive bleeding Mycena, M. haematopus. It has a maroon cast to the brown cap and stem color, "bleeds" reddish-brown when picked and grows on decaying wood. Each sporocarp is about 4 to 5 inches tall, so are a little larger than the average LBM.

Birds weren't terribly intriguing, but I suspect that they felt the same way about me.

My afternoon collecting run also took me out to the Blue Lake campground for Clitocybe dilatata and to St. Peter's church for several Leccinum The species is most likely rotundifoliae, but I didn't test it with FeSO4. When I first came to town several people told me that they collected and ate the Clitocybe which they assumed was Lypophyllum decastes. This always made me a little nervous because the Clitocybe is reported to be poisonous. I couldn't ever bring myself to try it out and had a hard time convincing them to be cautious. It would be interesting to get a definitive answer on whether or not it contains muscarine, but it isn't a high priority.
A Boletus mirabilis, Plogiotis helvelloides, and a very old Lycoperdon were the highlights of what were brought in by students. Unfortunately, the Hygrophorus didn't make it back.