Once a snag falls over, it's called a log!
This flat crep was spotted while out for a hike in Brown County State Park in Indiana. My wife and I were soaking in the moderate heat that was a nice respite from the upper 90-degree days we had experienced for most of July 2022. We had camped the night before and were out enjoying a hike through one of the many heavily wooded trails within the park. That’s when I saw this collection of mushrooms that were clinging to a quite decomposed snag. What’s a snag, you say? A snag is the remaining trunk of a tree that has died. Once a snag falls over, it is called a log! As I lined up to take the photo I realized there was a great opportunity to get the sunlight shining through the cap and gills of the fungi.
The flat crep is a type of mushroom. It is found in the Crepidotaceae family which is where the second half of its common name comes from. Its scientific name is Crepidotus applanatus. Christian Hendrik Persoon was the first to describe it in 1796, and it was renamed by Paul Kummer in 1871. The flat crep is hygrophanous. Hygrophanous describes the color change of mushrooms when they are wet versus dry. When they are wet, the mushroom is transparent; and when they are dry, the mushroom is opaque.
There are a lot of interesting things to learn about mushrooms. Let’s talk about their anatomy. In this photo we’re looking up through the gills of the mushroom. These are thin plates that produce the spores. The spores are released as a part of the reproduction process. Among the gills, you’ll see the spores that the pores are released through. The topside of the mushroom is referred to as the cap. It is the uppermost part of the fruiting body of the mushroom. The cap of the flat crep grows to be about five centimeters wide.
Below the surface of the tree, you will find the network of hyphae, known as mycelium, that make up the rest of the flat crep. Mycellium are a root-like structure that connect to the stalk of the fruiting body. The mycelium provides the nutrition for the mushrooms in the Crepidotaceae family through saprotrophism of woody or herbaceous matter. Saprotropic nutrition is the process in which nutrition is gained through extracellular digestion (the digestion takes place outside of the mycelium).
Mycellium is the root-like structure of a mushroom
Did you know?
- Flat creps are pleurotoid fungi, which means they are laterally attached to the decay that they are growing from.
- The spore print of this species of mushroom is brown.
- These mushrooms are inedible.
- They don’t have a stipe, which is the stalk-like feature seen on many mushrooms.
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