Jungle ads

Over a month ago, I was on a short trek in the jungle heading back to Juara beach on Tioman Island after spending the afternoon at a waterfall in the jungle. As I walked, I spotted a polypore that had been broken off a log and placed on top of it, perhaps by a passing group of hikers. Some of the shelf mushrooms that have very fine pale pore surfaces can be used to write messages. The most famous example of a fungus with this characteristic is Ganoderma applanatum, known as the Artist's Conk. I'm not sure what species this example is. 

Of note: many of these larger, very solid polypores can continue to release spores for seasons, so please resist the urge to break them off the substrate.

I scribbled a message on the underside, leaving this diminutive billboard with one of the smallest possible audiences--hikers with good eyes taking the difficult route to a particular waterfall off the less-trafficked beach of a small Malaysian island in the South China Sea.

Today I received an email from a vertebrate/invertebrate researcher with this picture attached. Not exactly guerrilla marketing, but probably about as close as I'm going to get. 

(Thanks for the email, Reuben.)

[Currently working on a more detailed post about contract mushroom farming in developing countries, sorry for the delay in posting]

Termite mushrooms!

Mushroom fruiting from a subterranean termite "fungus farm." Certain species of termites (there are at least half a dozen species in the Sakaerat biosphere reserve) feed leaf litter to a mass of fungal mycelium and harvest small lumps from the farm. The coevolutionary relationships and history of the termites+Termitomyces fungi are quite complex, but generally the two are in an obligate symbiosis--that is, the termite can't survive without the fungus, and the fungus can't survive without the termite.

While Termitomyces do have somewhat distinctive morphology, to absolutely identify them as such and to see which species of termite they are associating with the farm and stipe of the fruiting body are carefully excavated.

A different species of Termitomyces. For this species of termite, the farms are in multiple small chambers. Most of the time, the farm exists in this form. The formation of a mushroom is an irregular occurrence, and the presence of a mushroom may indicate that the farm wasn't harvested enough or the termite colony as died off.

Yet another species. These "farms" are larger. 

The small white lumps are almost ready to be harvested. 

The brown mushrooms on the left are a species of Termitomyces (called "Het Kohn") for sale at a roadside stand. They are sought-after culinary mushrooms and demand high prices, largely because people aren't as good as the termites at cultivating Termitomyces.

Many thanks to termite researcher Dr. Yamada, who took me out to see the local termites and Termitomyces.