Wisconsin Mycological Society
  • Home
  • Events
  • Newsletters
  • Board
  • Myco Links
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Events
  • Newsletters
  • Board
  • Myco Links
  • Contact
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Mushroom
of the Month

8/1/2015 Comments

September 2015 Camarops petersii (Dog’s Nose Fungus)

Picture
[Ascomycetes > Boliniales > Boliniaceae > Camarops . . . ]by Michael Kuo
Have you ever seen those ridiculous “faces” that people put on trees in their yards? This mushroom represents what would happen if the Addams Family got hold of the idea.
It’s creepy and its kooky,
mysterious and spooky.
It’s altogether ooky . . .
Camarops petersii.


For more of Uncle Fester’s lawn decorations, see Pisolithus tinctorius and Scleroderma polyrhizum.
Camarops petersii looks like a bulging black eye, complete with eyelids, stuck to the side of a dead log. The eyelid is a veil that protects the young mushroom but soon ruptures to expose the spore-producing surface. The range of Camarops petersii in North America extends from eastern North America to at least Kansas and Cuba.

Description:
Ecology: Saprobic on the decorticated wood of fallen oaks (early records for the species also included wood of the now extinct American chestnut as a substrate); growing alone or in small clusters; late summer and fall; eastern North America to Kansas and Cuba.
Fruiting Body: 2-7 cm wide; up to about 2 cm high; sub-circular or broadly elliptical in outline; cushion-shaped, with a somewhat narrowed base; upper surface black and shiny, covered with pimple-like dots (and covered with black slime when the mushroom is producing spores); encased in a black, feltlike veil that soon ruptures and becomes a sheath around the sides of the fruiting body, with a ragged upper edge; interior tough and brownish, filled with black channels and pockets but not featuring concentric zones.
Chemical Reactions: Tissues from dried specimens brownish when crushed in KOH.
Microscopic Features: Asci 8-spored; deliquescing along with the paraphyses so that spores are exuded from the perithecia in a gelatinous black matrix (according to Nannfeldt [1972], “[t]he ascus has lost its gun function”). Spores 6-8.5 x 3-4.5 µ smooth; broadly elliptical at one end and broadly fusiform at the other; with a tiny pore at the narrowed end; usually biguttulate in KOH or water mounts; purplish gray in KOH.

REFERENCES: (Berkeley & Curtis, 1868) Nannfeldt, 1972. (Saccardo, 1882; Nannfeldt, 1972; Horn, Kay & Abel, 1993.) Herb. Kuo 10160407, 09190602.
Kuo, M. (2007, February). Camarops petersii. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/camarops_petersii.html

Comments

    Archives

    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

If You Suspect a Poisoning
If you suspect you have consumed a poisonous mushroom, contact a physician, the closest hospital ER, poison control center, or dial 911, depending on the severity of the reaction.

US Poison Control: 1-800-222-1222
The North American Mycological Association (NAMA) has information that may also be of help. Click here.
​
 We do not ID mushrooms through this website. 
If you are in need of an ID consider uploading quality photos with multiple views of your specimen and descriptions of your find to Mushroom Observer or iNaturalist including our projects or post in Wild Food Wisconsin or Mushroom Identification Group.

If you contact us and provide a way to get back to you, we may be able to provide suggestions for more identification resources you can use.
You are always responsible for your own decisions taken on the basis of identification resources.

Picture
Wisconsin Mycological Society

Wisconsin Mycological Society (WMS) is dedicated to the study and enjoyment of mushrooms and other fungi throughout the state of Wisconsin. Education, safety, sustainability, community, and connecting with nature are our goals. 

We are affiliated with NAMA, a society that covers all of North America and includes many affiliate clubs. We also love to support regional  Wisconsin clubs and fungi related events. This includes the Madison Mycological Society and the Northwestern Wisconsin MycoEnthusiasts.

If you run or want to start a regional group, or one focused on a unique mycological topic, please do reach out to us.