A weird shaped mushroom that lures beetles by its smell
Do you know what this mushroom is？ Have you ever seen this mushroom？
This is a cute mushroom that looks exactly like a chestnut in size and shape. It occurs on only recently dead pine trees, according to a theory, within 1 year of death. Its surface is shiny.
Its scientific name is Cryptoporus volvatus, commonly known as the veiled polypore or cryptic globe fungus. Its Japanese name is "Hitokuchi-Take", literally means One Mouth Mushroom.
Actually, the Japanese name comes from the fact that it has one hole (one mouth) in the bottom.
However, what interested me most was its internal structure. This is a cut section with a knife. The inside is hollow. Due to the time passing, we can see the perforations caused by other insects. Please ignore this.
The upper ceiling of the cavity is the polypore tissues where spores of this fungus are formed. I think that its English name mentioned above, veiled polypore or cryptic globe fungus, is to the point.
It is said that this cavity smells like dried fish. So, some kinds of insect, in particular beetles, are attracted to the cavity through this hole. At that time, fungal spores will stick to the insect bodies. Then, beetles will escape from the cavity and fly away in order to spread the spores to another dead pine tree.
This is another cross-sectional photo. Can you imagine the cooperations between beetles and mushrooms?
This is a dead pine tree in early August last year. What looks white is a mushroom that is just growing, and there are only a few mushrooms noticed.
On the other hand, this is the current state of dead pine tree, on April 26th this year. We can notice many matured mushrooms on the trunk.
I think these many mushrooms had occurred from summer to fall last year. However, this year is the second year, if things are as the theory says they are, I don't think there will occur many mushrooms.
Photos were taken on April 27th except last two.
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