Mushroom Monday
White Tubelet (Henningsomyces candidus)
Good evening, friends,
This week’s mushroom is perhaps the smallest visible mushroom we’ve seen on MM: the White Tubelet (Henningsomyces candidus). We found these tiny, igloo-shaped mushrooms yesterday on the NYMS Gary Lincoff Backyard Mushroom walk in Central Park. The park had endured some dry conditions in the days and weeks leading up to the walk, but our energy helped conjure up moisture as storms rolled through later in the afternoon. Hopefully that rain gives birth to some fleshy fungi, but until then we’ll look at a tiny little mushroom you can find now, or anytime of the year.
Fun Facts
Henningsomyces candidus, like many of these taxonomic names, doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. The genus was described by a German botanist, Carl Ernst Otto Kuntze, and he named these diminutive fungi after a 19th century German amateur mycologist, Paul Cristoph Hennings. The latin candidus means “white” or “clear".
The individual fruiting bodies are 0.5 to 2 mm in length and 0.2-0.4 mm in width. That’s around 1/20th the size of a peanut. Perhaps to compensate for their small stature, they usually fruit in large clusters.
Henningsomyces are known as cyphelloid fungi; minuscule mushrooms that are cup, saucer, or bell shaped. Fungi of this build are typically ascomycetes - a distinct branch of fungi that eject their spores using ballistics - but cyphelloids are basidiomycetes - a phylum that uses gravity and/or wind to disperse their spores. Cyphelloids are not necessarily closely related to each other, but this niche of fungi are studied together and subsequently categorized together.
Ecology
The mushrooms are saprobic (decomposers) that prefer hardwood. They can be found on the underside of hardwood logs and branches (seldom conifers) on the east coast, but prefer pines on the west coast. The mushrooms will grow year-round but seem to be found most commonly spring through summer. The mushrooms aren’t as reliant on rain - perhaps because they grow under logs which are naturally moist areas - and can be found during dry conditions.
While H. candidus is basically the only species acknowledged on iNaturalist, a microscope would be needed to confirm the identification as there are at least four other species of Henningsomyces.
Schedule
It’s the first of July, here’s what we’ve got going on the rest of the summer:
7/27: For the Love of Fungi Festival at the Ashokan Center in Olivebridge, NY. I’m going to lead a walk in the AM and then hang out in the afternoon.
7/28: A walk with the New York Mycological Society at Manitou Point Preserve (where I work) at 10 AM.
8/2-8/4: Mycofest. One of my favorite weekends of the year. I have a presentation on ecological restoration this year, too.
8/18: A walk with the Mid-Hudson Mycological Association at Fahnestock State Park at 11AM.
8/24: Mushroom Mania Festival at the Adirondack Experience. I’ll be leading a couple walks at this mushroom festival with other, much more capable mycologists, in the Adirondacks.
10/11-10/14: NEMF Foray in Cape Cod.
I’ll keep it short today so we can enjoy the sunset,
Aubrey
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