Morphogroups illustrated
1. Basidiomycota
Agarics – have gills and usually fleshy
Chanterelles – have shallow gill folds and are fleshy
Boletes and polypores – fleshy boletes and tough polypores both have tubes (opening by pores)
Tooth Fungi – have downward pointing teeth or spines and vary in texture from fleshy to leathery, with or without a cap
Leathers – are leathery in texture and the spore-bearing surface is smooth or only a little wrinkled
Corals – are fleshy with spores formed on the entire surface of the upper part of a club-like or coral-like fruit-body. The clubs usually grow upwards, but occasionally hang downwards
Jellies – have a jelly-like or gelatinous texture, and come in various shapes such as brain-like. Spores are formed on the outside surface of the fruit-body or on spines under a shelf-like cap. Colours are often bright orange or yellow, but also white.
Rusts – are parasites which grow only on living plants, forming tiny disc-shaped yellow or orange spore masses. They have a special stage in their life-cycle called the cluster cup (aecium) which is a shallowly to deeply cylindrical fruit-body with spores formed at the base of the interior of the cylinder.
Earthstars – have an outer layer to their spore sac that splits into rays and the spores are liberated through the mouth (stoma)
Stalked Puffballs – have a distinct stem supporting the head which contains the spore mass
Stinkhorns – are initially completely covered by a membrane colloquially called an egg. The egg breaks to reveal a fruit-body which is phallic, cage-like or with arms. The spore mass is slimy and often foul-smelling and covers the inner surface of the cage, arms, egg or head when the fruit-body is phallic. In phallic stinkhorns an indusium may hang from the head, like a lacy net.
2. Ascomycota
Beech Oranges – rounded orange fruit-bodies with large pits
Morels – honey-comb-like head on a stem
Cups – a common form of Ascomycota with spores formed on the inside surface of a shallow to deep cup which may have a stem
Clubs – are club-shaped with a stem not much narrower than the head. This group can look very similar to the corals but are not as fleshy as the corals.
Crusts – form thick, thin or lobed fruit-bodies which lie directly on the substrate
Discs – are disc-like with a flat upper surface which is where the spores are formed
Pins – have a pin-shaped fruit-body with a definite head and narrower stem
3. Myxomycetes – plasmodial or acellular slime moulds
Myxomycetes belong to a different Kingdom from fungi but they are studied by mycologists, are covered by the same nomenclatural code and often appear together.
Ref. Where the slime mould creeps – the fascinating world of myxomycetes, Loyd, S (available in our shop here)
Dictyostelids – cellular slime moulds
Protostelids –
Plasmodial slime moulds – appear on rotting logs, stumps or live vegetation during summer, first as moist, bright yellow amorphous blobs