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The Corroboree
ZooL

Does mycelium survive the year in the wild or is the next year a new patch

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I've always wondered if a patch is actually the same patch as the year before or if it is the offspring from spores of the last season, also wondered if it is the spore offspring if then when do the spores in the wild actually germinate, as in do they just be dormant until the next year or do they begin growth ones they drop.

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As long as there's food for the mycelium to consume the patch will continue, it will spread outwards.

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8 hours ago, Glaukus said:

As long as there's food for the mycelium to consume the patch will continue, it will spread outwards.

 

And as long as there are no competitor organisms and the humidity and temps remain in the Goldilocks zone for that species etc etc

 

Actually that's a pretty cool question Zool and I don't think the answer has ever been found for all species. Some form underground storage organs like sclerotia which are basically compressed hyphae and hang there til conditions are right to keep growing, some species are always present as mycelia when they grow in symbiosis with trees, and whatever it is with the pseudosclerotia that some fungus form I do not know at all.

 

 

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Maybe this doesn't really apply to Aus but various species are able to survive frost by dehydrating some tissue in their myc and thereby making it less vulnerable to the damage from ice crystal formation due to frost.

 

Sclerotia of grassland species aren't simply for frost but for other / added stress factors like floods and drought and I think they are mostly guarded against dehydration + fatal hyperthermia. Idk though but afaik, dehydration alone is not really much of a problem because it alone may only really put a piece of myc in stasis.

 

Pseudosclerotia are similar to sclerotia but contain other matter and basically form around it instead of forming from existing myc that is supposed to colonize/consume whatever is in it?

Edited by Solipsis
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