Mycena polygramma
Encyclopedia
Mycena polygramma, commonly known as the grooved bonnet, is a species of mushroom
in the Mycenaceae
family. The inedible fruit bodies
are small, pale gray-brown mushrooms with broadly conical caps
, pinkish gills. They are found in small troops on stumps and branches of deciduous
and occasionally coniferous trees. The mushroom is found in Asia, Europe, and North America, where it is typically found on twigs or buried wood, carrying out its role in the forest ecosystem
by decomposing
organic matter, recycling nutrients, and forming humus in the soil. M. polygramma contains two uncommon hydroxy
fatty acid
s and is also a bioluminescent
fungus whose intensity of light emission follows a diurnal pattern.
in 1789, the species was later sanctioned
under that name by Elias Magnus Fries
in his Systema Mycologicum
. It was soon after transferred into the genus Mycena
in 1821 by Samuel Frederick Gray
, who raised many of Fries' sub-generic divisions to the genus level. Agaricus chloroticus, described by Friedrich Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn in 1830, is the only known taxonomic synonym. The specific epithet is derived from the Greek
πολυς meaning "many" and γραμμα, or "foot". It is commonly
known as the "grooved bonnet".
of the M. polygramma fruit body is 2 to 4 cm (0.78740157480315 to 1.6 in) in diameter, and initially egg- to cone-shaped, but expands to become conic to bell-shaped or nearly convex with an abrupt small umbo
, or at times plane with a conic umbo. On young fruit bodies, the cap margin is slightly curved inward, and frequently has scalloped edges; in maturity the margin flares out, or is recurved and wavy. The surface of the cap is initially covered with short, fine whitish or grayish hairs that often persist until near maturity. With age, the cap surface becomes smooth, the color dark brownish-gray to black beneath the bloom, fading slowly to a pale gray, and nearly pinkish-buff at times. The cap margin is opaque and frequently has narrow, deep furrows or grooves, with the surface often more or less uneven and appearing as if streaked with glistening lines. The flesh
is very hard and cartilaginous, watery grayish to white, rather thin, and with no distinctive odor and a mild taste.
The gills are narrowly adnate (attached squarely to the stem) or have a short decurrent tooth, and are packed close together, with 30–38 gills reaching the stem. They are broad anteriorly (4–7 mm), white or whitish, in age flushed with pink, often with sordid-brownish stains, and with edges pallid and even. The stem
is 6 to 15 cm (2.4 to 5.9 in) long, 0.2 to 0.5 cm (0.078740157480315 to 0.196850393700787 in) thick, very brittle and cartilaginous, equal, and tubular. It sometimes has a well-developed pseudorrhiza that resembles white cotton, and the base is covered with stiff white hairs, and often it stains reddish brown. The surface has fine straight or sometimes twisted longitudinal striations. The surface is ashy-gray or paler grayish-brown beneath the silvery covering, at times nearly smooth, with the apex pallid and faintly powdered.
Mycena polygramma is a bioluminescent mushroom, although the extent of luminescence can vary considerably. The mushroom is inedible, and has a mild to slightly acrid taste and a "pleasant" odor.
, the spores
appear white. Viewed with a light microscope, the spores are broadly ellipsoid in shape, smooth, amyloid
, with dimensions of 7.5–10 by 5–6 µm
. Occasionally the spores contain oil droplets. The basidia
(pore-bearing cells) are four-spored, 26–30 by 7–8 µm. The cheilocystidia are scattered to abundant, aciculate or with the midportion somewhat enlarged and the apex forked or branched, and give rise to two or several contorted finger-like projections. Pleurocystidia are not differentiated.
.
s, particularly deciduous trees such as oak
, maple
, and basswood. In North America, it has been collected from North Carolina
, Massachusetts
, New York
, and Michigan
, where it fruits from June to October. The fruit bodies are susceptible to attack by the parasitic
fungi Spinellus fusiger
and S. macrocarpus.
Typically found on twigs or buried wood, the fungus is known to be a vigorous decomposer of lignin
and cellulose
in leaf litter. Mycena polygramma is a saprobic fungus, and is one of many fungi that contribute to plant litter
decomposition in forest ecosystems through nutrient recycling and humus formation in soil. It is a lignocellulose decomposer of larch
litter, and can break down both lignin
and carbohydrate
s, although it has a preference for carbohydrates. In an experiment testing the ability of several litter-decomposing fungi to remove lignin from leaves of the perennial grass Miscanthus sinensis
, under pure culture conditions, M. polygramma showed limited ability to cause the mass loss of lignin.
Rare in North America, the fungus is common in Europe, including Great Britain. They have been collected on the Falkland Islands
, and Japan.
fatty acid
s 7-hydroxy-8,14-dimethyl-9-hexadecenoic acid (0.05% of the total fatty acids) and 7-hydroxy-8,16-dimethyl-9-octadecenoic acid (0.01%).
The fungus is one of several dozen Mycena species that are bioluminescent. Unlike most luminescent organisms, M. polygramma has a diurnal rhythm of luminescence intensity, and has rises and falls of light intensity as high as 35 percent. However, this light emission is not typically noticed, as it can not be detected visually by the dark-adapted eye; sensitive photomultiplier
s or long exposure times are required to measure the phenomenon. The wavelength of spectral emissions from the fungus grown in pure culture is in the range 470–640 mμ.
Mushroom
A mushroom is the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food source. The standard for the name "mushroom" is the cultivated white button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus; hence the word "mushroom" is most often applied to those fungi that...
in the Mycenaceae
Mycenaceae
The Mycenaceae are a family of fungi in the order Agaricales. According to the Dictionary of the Fungi , the family contains 10 genera and 705 species. This is one of several families that were separated from the Tricholomataceae as a result of phylogenetic analyses...
family. The inedible fruit bodies
Basidiocarp
In fungi, a basidiocarp, basidiome or basidioma , is the sporocarp of a basidiomycete, the multicellular structure on which the spore-producing hymenium is borne. Basidiocarps are characteristic of the hymenomycetes; rusts and smuts do not produce such structures...
are small, pale gray-brown mushrooms with broadly conical caps
Pileus (mycology)
The pileus is the technical name for the cap, or cap-like part, of a basidiocarp or ascocarp that supports a spore-bearing surface, the hymenium. The hymenium may consist of lamellae, tubes, or teeth, on the underside of the pileus...
, pinkish gills. They are found in small troops on stumps and branches of deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means "falling off at maturity" or "tending to fall off", and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally, and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...
and occasionally coniferous trees. The mushroom is found in Asia, Europe, and North America, where it is typically found on twigs or buried wood, carrying out its role in the forest ecosystem
Forest ecology
Forest ecology is the scientific study of the interrelated patterns, processes, flora, fauna and ecosystems in forests. The management of forests is known as forestry, silviculture, and forest management...
by decomposing
Decomposer
Decomposers are organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms, and in doing so carry out the natural process of decomposition. Like herbivores and predators, decomposers are heterotrophic, meaning that they use organic substrates to get their energy, carbon and nutrients for growth and...
organic matter, recycling nutrients, and forming humus in the soil. M. polygramma contains two uncommon hydroxy
Hydroxyl
A hydroxyl is a chemical group containing an oxygen atom covalently bonded with a hydrogen atom. In inorganic chemistry, the hydroxyl group is known as the hydroxide ion, and scientists and reference works generally use these different terms though they refer to the same chemical structure in...
fatty acid
Fatty acid
In chemistry, especially biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with a long unbranched aliphatic tail , which is either saturated or unsaturated. Most naturally occurring fatty acids have a chain of an even number of carbon atoms, from 4 to 28. Fatty acids are usually derived from...
s and is also a bioluminescent
Bioluminescence
Bioluminescence is the production and emission of light by a living organism. Its name is a hybrid word, originating from the Greek bios for "living" and the Latin lumen "light". Bioluminescence is a naturally occurring form of chemiluminescence where energy is released by a chemical reaction in...
fungus whose intensity of light emission follows a diurnal pattern.
Taxonomy
First called Agaricus polygrammus by French mycologist Jean BulliardJean Baptiste François Pierre Bulliard
Jean Baptiste François Pierre Bulliard was a French physician and botanist....
in 1789, the species was later sanctioned
Sanctioned name
In mycology, a sanctioned name is a name that was adopted in certain works of Christiaan Hendrik Persoon or Elias Magnus Fries, which are considered major points in fungal taxonomy.-Definition and effects:...
under that name by Elias Magnus Fries
Elias Magnus Fries
-External links:*, Authors of fungal names, Mushroom, the Journal of Wild Mushrooming.*...
in his Systema Mycologicum
Systema Mycologicum
Systema Mycologicum is a systematic classification of fungi drawn up in 1821 by the Swedish mycologist and botanist Elias Fries. It took 11 years to complete....
. It was soon after transferred into the genus Mycena
Mycena
Mycena is a large genus of small saprotrophic mushrooms that are rarely more than a few centimeters in width. They are characterized by a white spore print, a small conical or bell-shaped cap, and a thin fragile stem. Most are gray or brown, but a few species have brighter colors. Most have a...
in 1821 by Samuel Frederick Gray
Samuel Frederick Gray
Samuel Frederick Gray was a British botanist, mycologist, and pharmacologist. He was the father of the zoologists John Edward Gray and George Robert Gray.-Background:...
, who raised many of Fries' sub-generic divisions to the genus level. Agaricus chloroticus, described by Friedrich Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn in 1830, is the only known taxonomic synonym. The specific epithet is derived from the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
πολυς meaning "many" and γραμμα, or "foot". It is commonly
Common name
A common name of a taxon or organism is a name in general use within a community; it is often contrasted with the scientific name for the same organism...
known as the "grooved bonnet".
Description
The capPileus (mycology)
The pileus is the technical name for the cap, or cap-like part, of a basidiocarp or ascocarp that supports a spore-bearing surface, the hymenium. The hymenium may consist of lamellae, tubes, or teeth, on the underside of the pileus...
of the M. polygramma fruit body is 2 to 4 cm (0.78740157480315 to 1.6 in) in diameter, and initially egg- to cone-shaped, but expands to become conic to bell-shaped or nearly convex with an abrupt small umbo
Umbo (mycology)
thumb|right|[[Cantharellula umbonata]] has an umbo.thumb|right|The cap of [[Psilocybe makarorae]] is acutely papillate.An umbo is a raised area in the center of a mushroom cap. Caps that possess this feature are called umbonate. Umbos that are sharply pointed are called acute, while those that are...
, or at times plane with a conic umbo. On young fruit bodies, the cap margin is slightly curved inward, and frequently has scalloped edges; in maturity the margin flares out, or is recurved and wavy. The surface of the cap is initially covered with short, fine whitish or grayish hairs that often persist until near maturity. With age, the cap surface becomes smooth, the color dark brownish-gray to black beneath the bloom, fading slowly to a pale gray, and nearly pinkish-buff at times. The cap margin is opaque and frequently has narrow, deep furrows or grooves, with the surface often more or less uneven and appearing as if streaked with glistening lines. The flesh
Trama (mycology)
In mycology trama is a term for the inner, fleshy portion of a mushroom's basidiocarp, or fruit body. It is distinct from the outer layer of tissue, known as the pileipellis or cuticle, and from the spore-bearing tissue layer known as the hymenium....
is very hard and cartilaginous, watery grayish to white, rather thin, and with no distinctive odor and a mild taste.
The gills are narrowly adnate (attached squarely to the stem) or have a short decurrent tooth, and are packed close together, with 30–38 gills reaching the stem. They are broad anteriorly (4–7 mm), white or whitish, in age flushed with pink, often with sordid-brownish stains, and with edges pallid and even. The stem
Stipe (mycology)
thumb|150px|right|Diagram of a [[basidiomycete]] stipe with an [[annulus |annulus]] and [[volva |volva]]In mycology a stipe refers to the stem or stalk-like feature supporting the cap of a mushroom. Like all tissues of the mushroom other than the hymenium, the stipe is composed of sterile hyphal...
is 6 to 15 cm (2.4 to 5.9 in) long, 0.2 to 0.5 cm (0.078740157480315 to 0.196850393700787 in) thick, very brittle and cartilaginous, equal, and tubular. It sometimes has a well-developed pseudorrhiza that resembles white cotton, and the base is covered with stiff white hairs, and often it stains reddish brown. The surface has fine straight or sometimes twisted longitudinal striations. The surface is ashy-gray or paler grayish-brown beneath the silvery covering, at times nearly smooth, with the apex pallid and faintly powdered.
Mycena polygramma is a bioluminescent mushroom, although the extent of luminescence can vary considerably. The mushroom is inedible, and has a mild to slightly acrid taste and a "pleasant" odor.
Microscopic features
Collected in deposit, such as in a spore printSpore print
thumb|300px|right|Making a spore print of the mushroom Volvariella volvacea shown in composite: mushroom cap laid on white and dark paper; cap removed after 24 hours showing pinkish-tan spore print...
, the spores
Basidiospore
A basidiospore is a reproductive spore produced by Basidiomycete fungi. Basidiospores typically each contain one haploid nucleus that is the product of meiosis, and they are produced by specialized fungal cells called basidia. In grills under a cap of one common species in the phylum of...
appear white. Viewed with a light microscope, the spores are broadly ellipsoid in shape, smooth, amyloid
Amyloid (mycology)
In mycology the term amyloid refers to a crude chemical test using iodine in either Melzer's reagent or Lugol's solution, to produce a black to blue-black positive reaction. It is called amyloid because starch gives a similar reaction, and that reaction for starch is also called an amyloid reaction...
, with dimensions of 7.5–10 by 5–6 µm
Micrometre
A micrometer , is by definition 1×10-6 of a meter .In plain English, it means one-millionth of a meter . Its unit symbol in the International System of Units is μm...
. Occasionally the spores contain oil droplets. The basidia
Basidium
thumb|right|500px|Schematic showing a basidiomycete mushroom, gill structure, and spore-bearing basidia on the gill margins.A basidium is a microscopic, spore-producing structure found on the hymenophore of fruiting bodies of basidiomycete fungi. The presence of basidia is one of the main...
(pore-bearing cells) are four-spored, 26–30 by 7–8 µm. The cheilocystidia are scattered to abundant, aciculate or with the midportion somewhat enlarged and the apex forked or branched, and give rise to two or several contorted finger-like projections. Pleurocystidia are not differentiated.
Similar species
Tall and slender forms of Mycena polygramma somewhat resemble M. pullata or M. praelonga. The former species is distinguished by its color, and the latter by its relationship to M. alcalina and its habitat on sphagnumSphagnum
Sphagnum is a genus of between 151 and 350 species of mosses commonly called peat moss, due to its prevalence in peat bogs and mires. A distinction is made between sphagnum moss, the live moss growing on top of a peat bog on one hand, and sphagnum peat moss or sphagnum peat on the other, the...
.
Ecology, habitat and distribution
The fruit bodies of M. polygramma grow in groups or sub-clusters under hardwoodHardwood
Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...
s, particularly deciduous trees such as oak
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
, maple
Maple
Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
, and basswood. In North America, it has been collected from North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
, where it fruits from June to October. The fruit bodies are susceptible to attack by the parasitic
Parasitism
Parasitism is a type of symbiotic relationship between organisms of different species where one organism, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the other, the host. Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host . These are now called macroparasites...
fungi Spinellus fusiger
Spinellus fusiger
Spinellus fusiger, commonly known as the bonnet mould, is a species of fungus in the Zygomycota phylum. It is a pin mold that is characterized by erect sporangiophores that are simple in structure, brown or yellowish-brown in color, and with branched aerial filaments that bear the zygospores...
and S. macrocarpus.
Typically found on twigs or buried wood, the fungus is known to be a vigorous decomposer of lignin
Lignin
Lignin or lignen is a complex chemical compound most commonly derived from wood, and an integral part of the secondary cell walls of plants and some algae. The term was introduced in 1819 by de Candolle and is derived from the Latin word lignum, meaning wood...
and cellulose
Cellulose
Cellulose is an organic compound with the formula , a polysaccharide consisting of a linear chain of several hundred to over ten thousand β linked D-glucose units....
in leaf litter. Mycena polygramma is a saprobic fungus, and is one of many fungi that contribute to plant litter
Plant litter
Plant litter, leaf litter or tree litter is dead plant material, such as leaves, bark, needles, and twigs, that has fallen to the ground. Litter provides habitat for small animals, fungi, and plants, and the material may be used to construct nests. As litter decomposes, nutrients are released to...
decomposition in forest ecosystems through nutrient recycling and humus formation in soil. It is a lignocellulose decomposer of larch
Larch
Larches are conifers in the genus Larix, in the family Pinaceae. Growing from 15 to 50m tall, they are native to much of the cooler temperate northern hemisphere, on lowlands in the north and high on mountains further south...
litter, and can break down both lignin
Lignin
Lignin or lignen is a complex chemical compound most commonly derived from wood, and an integral part of the secondary cell walls of plants and some algae. The term was introduced in 1819 by de Candolle and is derived from the Latin word lignum, meaning wood...
and carbohydrate
Carbohydrate
A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...
s, although it has a preference for carbohydrates. In an experiment testing the ability of several litter-decomposing fungi to remove lignin from leaves of the perennial grass Miscanthus sinensis
Miscanthus sinensis
Miscanthus sinensis Miscanthus sinensis Miscanthus sinensis (Chinese silver grass, Eulalia grass, maiden grass, zebra grass, Susuki grass, porcupine grass; syn. Eulalia japonica Trin., Miscanthus sinensis f. glaber Honda, Miscanthus sinensis var. gracillimus Hitchc., Miscanthus sinensis var....
, under pure culture conditions, M. polygramma showed limited ability to cause the mass loss of lignin.
Rare in North America, the fungus is common in Europe, including Great Britain. They have been collected on the Falkland Islands
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
, and Japan.
Chemistry and bioluminescence
Mycena polygramma contains the unusual hydroxyHydroxyl
A hydroxyl is a chemical group containing an oxygen atom covalently bonded with a hydrogen atom. In inorganic chemistry, the hydroxyl group is known as the hydroxide ion, and scientists and reference works generally use these different terms though they refer to the same chemical structure in...
fatty acid
Fatty acid
In chemistry, especially biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with a long unbranched aliphatic tail , which is either saturated or unsaturated. Most naturally occurring fatty acids have a chain of an even number of carbon atoms, from 4 to 28. Fatty acids are usually derived from...
s 7-hydroxy-8,14-dimethyl-9-hexadecenoic acid (0.05% of the total fatty acids) and 7-hydroxy-8,16-dimethyl-9-octadecenoic acid (0.01%).
The fungus is one of several dozen Mycena species that are bioluminescent. Unlike most luminescent organisms, M. polygramma has a diurnal rhythm of luminescence intensity, and has rises and falls of light intensity as high as 35 percent. However, this light emission is not typically noticed, as it can not be detected visually by the dark-adapted eye; sensitive photomultiplier
Photomultiplier
Photomultiplier tubes , members of the class of vacuum tubes, and more specifically phototubes, are extremely sensitive detectors of light in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum...
s or long exposure times are required to measure the phenomenon. The wavelength of spectral emissions from the fungus grown in pure culture is in the range 470–640 mμ.