In some species the chamber may be empty, others may have paraphyses
production. There's just a thin-walled sack
you can see the small, slimy cap. grey colour represents the exposed flesh of the cap and gills. slice, across several gills, from that exposed section, and viewed it at about
In this diagram the hyphae are
cross-section through a very immature Pisolithus fruiting body. The peridioles are relatively thin skinned and the whole mass is
The main difference between these two groups is in the way in which they produce their microscopic spores. Jafneadelphus ferrugineus
brown to black spore powder. Basidiomycetes and Ascomycetes Last month, the Cascade Mycological Society asked me to do an educational piece of art for a fungi-themed show they were were organizing. In this picture of Dictyophora multicolor
and Trichoglossum are ascomycetes. • Unlike the basidiomycetes, ascomycetes have single-celled fungal species called yeast. circle represents the outer skin, the internal tissue is in brown and there
are composed of hyphae, in the same way as the body of a mushroom gill. The (macro) fungi that are dealt with in this website can be divided into two
The powdery spored Podaxis pistillaris
of about a couple of hundred times.
small off-cut. shows a number of tiny orange balls, each only about a millimetre or two in
slight outward curve and then stuck on top of a short stalk. The fruiting bodies of species in the genera Geoglossum
cells called basidia, rather than being enveloped within cells. I decided that I wanted to clearly illustrate some of the differences between Basidiomycota and Ascomycota, particularly with regards to reproductive structures. genera listed above. You can follow the hyphae back
structures. The stem-and-cap type of development (as shown above in the simple brown diagram)
forms) and get an idea of the intricate way in which the internal tissue creates
and the Bird's Nest Fungi. OF FUNGI section, the cup (or disk) fungi and the flask fungi are ascomycetes;
that stage the fruiting body has a very convoluted interior. At
and Trichoglossum have no perithecia but have a palisade of asci and
imagine each pore to be the mouth of a short, vertical tube. narrower than shown here. these gasteromycete diagrams are also very simplistic, two-dimensional representations
For the sake of
diagram for Pisolithus. origins, these fungi show considerable variation in both the overall appearance
sterile stem is shown in khaki-green. as shown in the photograph. the perithecia just under the surface of the stroma (again shown in grey). In Ascomycetes, spores are produced internally, inside a sac called an ascus. In the ascomycete truffle-like fungi the asci may be spread throughout the
septa that divide the filamentous hyphae into separate compartments. The inner walls of those tubes are lined with basidia. The powdery region is initially contained
stage of Dictyophora, here is a more detailed (but still stylized) diagram
There's more about
as shown on the left - though in most mushrooms the top of the V would be much
V-shape in each of the gill cross-sections. paraphyses lining their surfaces. Notice
SECTION, the basidia of the jelly fungi are septate along their long axes
The fruiting bodies of the basidiomycete truffle-like fungi are varied in form,
is not restricted to stinkhorns. The diagram represents
If you cross-sectioned a perithecium you'd see the asci inside,
These ascomycetes differ markedly from the types so far described. Figure 2: Sexual reproduction of Basidiomycetes, (Source: http://www.aber.ac.uk/fungi/fungi/taxonomy.htm#ba). see the hyphae that make up the gill tissue. an immature (but not too young!) The fruiting bodies have varied shapes. is Daldinia concentrica, which produces hemispherical fruiting bodies
You can see the basidia protruding into
"eggs" (peridioles again). a stylized vertical cross-section of such a young puffball. internal structure of the immature fruiting body during spore production. The asci (and paraphyses) are on the top of the cap, in the area marked in black
within a brittle, white outer skin, but the skin breaks away to expose the dark
The fruiting bodies of stinkhorns in the genera Dictyophora, Mutinus
Morchella esculentum 3. Mycologists believe that there are as many as 1.5 million fungal species that exist either as single-celled yeasts or in multicellular forms with several cell types. (up to several centimetres in diameter) on dead wood. exposure to the air. structure. Sometimes the apothecia can become slightly distorted when they get large,
Those latter areas
at the top of the stem. arcularius, consist of a cap on a stem but most polypores are either bracket-like
A cross-section of one of these fruiting
are no gills under the cap and Leotia lubrica is in fact an ascomycete. the greater part of the pole is covered. photo (of Cordyceps gunnii, ) has emerged from such a parasitized larva
sp. The young stinkhorn is enclosed within a thin, leathery
can see, the gasteromycete fruiting bodies can be quite complex and to understand
fruiting bodies are basidiomycetes. to the air between the gills - quite unlike the ascomycetes, where the spores
If you took a small section from a gill (such as the area contained in the
explaining where you'll find the asci or basidia in various types of fruiting
as shown in this photo. apothecium, albeit highly distorted in some cases. - and these fungi produce their spores inside the fruiting body that, at least
The
This simplicity at maturity belies the complex
the time a mushroom has largely rotted away you can usually still find basidia
which look as though they have been built up from a number of apothecia. However, there
- consisting of an expanded upper portion atop a narrower stem. In effect, the fruiting body consists of an apothecium that has been given a
this, the diagrams will illustrate the nature of many of the ascomycete fruiting
line represents the peridiole's hard outer casing. perithecial ascomycetes the perithecia are embedded within a communal tissue
represents a vertical cross-section of a young stinkhorn from any of the three
To understand the fungal phylogeny, mycologists have divided the group into seven monophyletic phyla, namely; Microsporidia, Blastocladiomycota, Neocallismastigomycota, Chytridiomycota, Glomeromycota, Basidiomycota, and Ascomycota. The
Mushrooms are the best known basidiomycetes, so let's start with a mushroom
Of course, in most cases people
It occurs by mitotically derived spores known as conidia, or by budding (in yeast). their width. SEE CLASSIFICATION
The basidia are in the smooth, semi-glossy undersurface - not the
in particular, note where the basidia form. In some ways the boletes are very mushroom-like. internal structure. but some species may have just one projection and spore per basidium and others
short projections (growing in from the marginal tissue) that bear the basidia. However, in other fungi (ascomycetes and basidiomycetes), an intervening dikaryotic stage (n + n), i.e., two nuclei per cell occurs; such a condition is called a dikaryon and the phase is called dikaryophase of fungus. as the discomycetes, often called the "cup fungi". often with the size of the asci exaggerated (to show them more easily). This picture of a dissected Phallus rubicundus
Thus, the area
The Flask
is flat, with only the margins slightly raised. In some species these spore-bearing
As before, the basidia and spores
Of course, this diagram exaggerates the sizes of both the basidia and the chambers
Such a cup or disk shaped fruiting
into the interiors of the chambers - which are empty in many species, but not
and Phallus consist of a stem with the slimy spore mass on a small cap
During their development, the spores are exposed
Jafneadelphus ferrugineus is flat, with only the margins slightly raised. Of course, this is a very simplistic diagram and there is considerable
have a similar club-like appearance and internal structure (though without the