Thelephora caryophyllea is a small, unique looking basidiomycete with a large distribution. It can be found popping up in North America, Europe and throughout Asia. This species acquires the sugars it needs to survive by forming mycorrhizal relationships with a diverse array of plants. In arid Mediterranean ecosystems, it is found near the shrubby rockrose (Cistus sp.) a plant that requires a fungal symbiote.
The critically endangered Cistus heterophyllus subspecies carthaginensis from Spain.
In demanding Mediterranean environments, mycorrhizal relationships help expand the niche width of many plant species, and it is no different with this Thelephora-Cistusmutualism. Without its plant partner, the carnation earthfan wouldn’t have a steady supply of carbohydrates. Without intact mycorrhizae, the plant would have to allocate more resources to the development to below ground root structures in order to access enough macro nutrients to carry out its lifecycle.
Besides having an important influence on plant communities around the world, Thelephora caryophyllea provides us humans with an ecological service. In a paper published in 2010, Christian Maurice and Anders Lagerkvist studied several fungi and their ability to accumulate pollutants. Their results suggest that Thelephora caryophyllea has an incredible ability to accumulate heavy metal pollutants. Compared to the other fungi analyzed in this study, Thelephora caryophyllea was the only species to actively accumulate the environmental pollutants.
Top and bottom view of Thelephora caryophyllea. Photo by Douglas Smith.
Bioindicators are tremendously important for us to gauge environmental conditions. It is possible to test the soil itself, but to actually see the uptake of pollutants in biological structures tells us more about the ecosystem and the pollutants that make their way into them. By collecting and analyzing Thelephora caryophyllea, we can assess the diversity and quantity of heavy metal pollutants that settle in natural ecosystems. With these data, we can then make changes, setting environmental regulations on nearby industrial plants.
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Editor’s note:
Hey loyal fans of Forest Floor Narrative! Thank you so much for all of the support along the way! I have learned so much here, and many of your emails and facebook comments have furthered my own ecological understanding, or have sparked even more questions. I just wanted to say thank you for reading and sharing these posts.
This particular edition of Fungi Friday is a bit short, because I’m getting married tomorrow, and I’m just too excited! I was going to apologize, but there really is no reason to.
Until next week! :)