Toadstool Tuesday
Blue cheese polypore (Cyanosporus livens)
Good evening, friends,
Yet another dry week. Even though we received a touch of rain on Sunday night (~.1 in), smoke from nearby wildfires blew across the Hudson River on Monday morning which reinforced just how dry it has been. The rain did little more than wet the leaves so we’re going to look at the blue cheese polypore (Cyanosporus livens) that I found on a cut log back on October 1st. I showed the folks on the New York Mycological Society mushzoom and was treated to the confusing taxonomic history that dates back to the quirky mycologist who first described the species. Lots of fun with this one.
Fun Facts
Cyanosporus is a genus first described by Curtis Gates Lloyd, an eccentric and outspoken mycologist from the turn of the 20th century. Early in life he founded a wholesale drug company with his brothers, but in his mid-thirties he was squeezed out because he just wasn’t that into the family business. Now unencumbered, he had more time to pursue mycology in full and took to the globe to look for mushrooms.
As his mycological collection grew, he bought a shoe store that was going out of business because he wanted to use the shoeboxes to store specimens for his herbarium. A man of strong opinions, he also needed an outlet to publish his research and mycological hot takes so he started his own publication, Mycological Notes. The original substack.
Lloyd resented the scientific status-quo of naming species and genera after scientists. He thought of the practice as more of a vanity project than anything productive (ironically, there’s now a Wildlife Management Area in Kentucky that bears his name). He went as far as to make a pseudonym for himself, N.J. McGinty. He used this pseudonym to publish some of his research in a “disrespectfully satirical” manner to the chagrin of his mycological contemporaries. The kids call it “trolling”. Cyanosporus was an N.J. McGinty creation.
A recent study out of Serbia looked at the potential neuroprotective compounds of the closely-related Postia caesia and seven other common, wild mushrooms (morels, blewits, artist conk were also in the study). In one test, P. caesia, blewits, and artist conk inhibited AChE (acetylcholinerase, an enzyme that breaks down the neurotransmitter acetylcholine) more than the control (the alzheimer’s medication Donepezil). This suggests potential medicinal applications for these mushrooms but, as always, more research is needed.
Ecology
C. livens is saprobic, predominantly on conifers but occasionally hardwoods, and creates a brown rot. Theoretically this mushroom is found in North America east of the Rockies, while Cyanosporus caesius is the European species, although the latter is also found in Tasmania and Chile. These blue cheese polypores are all part of a species complex of nearly identical mushrooms that are genetically unique. C. livens grows in the fall and observations on iNaturalist peak in October which is consistent with this find.
This mushroom was originally Postia caesia, then reclassified to Cyanosporus caesia in 2019, but that has been determined to be a European species, so we have landed at Cyanosporus livens. A similar species is Tyromyces chioneus, but I frequently see that on birch, not conifer, and it’s all white without any blueing.
Goes without saying but we need some rain. I have a good MM lined up for next week, regardless, so stay tuned for that.
Full moon on Friday,
Aubrey
References
Rašeta M, Kebert M, Mišković J, Rakić M, Kostić S, Čapelja E, Karaman M. Polyamines in Edible and Medicinal Fungi from Serbia: A Novel Perspective on Neuroprotective Properties. J Fungi (Basel). 2023 Dec 28;10(1):21. doi: 10.3390/jof10010021. PMID: 38248931; PMCID: PMC10816940.
https://www.mushroomthejournal.com/greatlakesdata/Authors/Lloyd902.html
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hudler-mushrooms.html
https://www.environmentandsociety.org/arcadia/what-fungus-mycologys-dada-moment