Forest Mycology 101

(intro logo music) [SANFORD SMITH] Hi. Sanford Smith here with Penn State Extension. Today, the topic is forest mycology, and I'm joined by David Geiser, a professor of mycology here at Penn State. And we're gonna be talking about the fungi in forests. Dave, what does mycology mean? [DAVID GEISER] It means the study of fungi. [SANFORD SMITH] Okay, so mycological and mycology are fungi, right? [DAVID GEISER] Right, yeah. Referring to, myco means fungus in Greek. [SANFORD SMITH] Oh, okay. I got you. I never knew that. So, we're gonna talk a little bit about the different types of fungi found in forests, and how common they are. Are there many different fungi in our forests? [DAVID GEISER] Oh, there are many, many different fungi doing many different things. [SANFORD SMITH] All right, what are some of the things, in general, that fungi do? [DAVID GEISER] Well, there are sort of three things. One is that often they live inside of the plants here, including the trees, in the roots, in the stems and trunks, and in the leaves. [SANFORD SMITH] Okay. [DAVID GEISER] That's one thing that they're doing. [SANFORD SMITH] Yeah. [DAVID GEISER] Another thing that they're doing is when the trees die, they leave behind debris. [SANFORD SMITH] Yeah. [DAVID GEISER] And the fungi are the most important organisms that break down that debris. And then finally, some of the fungi infect the plants and cause diseases. [SANFORD SMITH] Oh, wow. So, that's a lot of different things. Let's start with those ones that live inside of other organisms. Which kind of organisms are they in? [DAVID GEISER] Well, all of the plants, pretty much. And there are some that live in the roots, undergoing a kind of interaction with, that we call mycorrhizae. [SANFORD SMITH] Yeah. [DAVID GEISER] And those fungi get into the roots, and they're good for the plant, and the fungus benefits as well. [SANFORD SMITH] Okay, so mycorrhizae fungi, they're living inside of other plants. I suspect that's blowing some people's minds. It does mine every time I think about it. Then what about those ones that are involved in decay? Is there a name for those? [DAVID GEISER] Saprophytic fungi, or except a lot of people just call them decay fungi. [SANFORD SMITH] Okay, so decay fungi. There again are there many of those, and are they specific to specific species? [DAVID GEISER] Some are and some aren't, in terms of their being specific to particular plants or plant hosts. Virtually all of the material that you see on the ground in a forest that is the leaves, the branches, the logs that are left behind, fungi play the most important role in degrading that and returning it into the soil. [SANFORD SMITH] Yeah. Wow. And then, there are those fungi that are parasitic in nature, right? So, they're attacking plants or other things? [DAVID GEISER] That's correct. [SANFORD SMITH] Yeah. [DAVID GEISER] And they can cause diseases of the roots. They can infect at the bases of trees- [SANFORD SMITH] Yeah. [DAVID GEISER] rotting out the wood, making them susceptible to windfall. Others infect the foliage. A huge diversity of parasites of trees. [SANFORD SMITH] So, when we're talking parasitic, we're saying that the fungi actually attack living plants? [DAVID GEISER] Correct. [SANFORD SMITH] Whereas the saprophytes or saprophytic fungi, they're attacking things that are already dead. [DAVID GEISER] Exactly. [SANFORD SMITH] Oh, interesting, okay. So, mycology is an area of study at Penn State. Can you get a degree in mycology? [DAVID GEISER] Yes, in a way. It's not gonna be called a mycology degree. [SANFORD SMITH] Yeah. [DAVID GEISER] Most people who study fungi at Penn State are in the Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology Department. [SANFORD SMITH] Okay. [DAVID GEISER] Because it's a little bit different from what you see with animals, where viruses and bacteria are the major causes of infectious disease. For plants, it's fungi. [SANFORD SMITH] It's fungi, wow. You'll see here in the video, the students that are out in the forest learning about fungi, and identifying them, and getting expert guidance from Dave on what they're looking at, and how it lives, and how it behaves, so to speak. There's a fungi in Pennsylvania that's very popular, and it's called morels. [DAVID GEISER] Yes. [SANFORD SMITH] Especially in the springtime. Can you tell us a little bit about those? [DAVID GEISER] Yeah, they're some of the most interesting fungi that we have. These come up well, where we are in Centre County right now usually the last couple of weeks in April. And they are associated with certain trees either old apple trees, or old elm or ash trees. [SANFORD SMITH] So, they're associated with those trees 'cause they're perhaps working in the roots, doing something? [DAVID GEISER] Yeah, they get in, we know that it's really not very well understood. We know that they get into the roots, and they do some things that make them look like they're mycorrhizae. [SANFORD SMITH] Yeah. [DAVID GEISER] But nobody's really proven that. [SANFORD SMITH] Okay. Interesting. Well, thank you, Dave, for teaching us a little bit about mycology today, or fungi science, right? [DAVID GEISER] Yeah. [SANFORD SMITH] It's been interesting. I have learned a few things. I hope the people listening have. And if they wanna learn more about fungi and mycology, where do they go? [DAVID GEISER] Where do they go? They can go to a lot of places. If you're looking on the internet, I recommend a website called mushroomexpert.com. [SANFORD SMITH] Uh-huh. [DAVID GEISER] Which has really good information and reliable information about just about any kind of a fungus that you're gonna see out in the woods. [SANFORD SMITH] Again, we wanna underscore that we're not trying to teach you about which mushrooms are edible, and I don't think just using the internet to identify mushrooms would be a good way to go. [DAVID GEISER] No. You need to have experience, and you need to know the fungi that you can eat, and you also need to know the fungi that you can't eat, and you need to be able to tell them apart. [SANFORD SMITH] Okay. Thank you very much, Dave, for joining me today. [DAVID GEISER] My pleasure. Thanks for having me. [SANFORD SMITH] And thank you folks for listening.