Stereum sanguinolentum
Description
Stereum sanguinolentum is a species of fungus in the Stereaceae family. It is an inedible crust like a mushroom with the wrinkled surface, finely hairy when young, then smooth, grayish to brown, margin whitish, bruising bright red. Habitat on dead wood from coniferous trees including spruce, larch, and pine.
It can be the host of the parasitic jelly fungus Tremella encephala.
Common names: Bleeding Conk Fungus.
Mushroom Identification
Fruit Body
Thin (typically less than 1 mm thick) leathery crust on the surface of the host wood. Often, the upper edge is curled to form a narrow shelf (usually less than 10 mm thick). When present, these shelves can be fused to or overlap neighboring shelves.
Surface
The surface of the fruit body consists of a layer of fine felt-like hairs sometimes pressed flat against the surface.
Color
The color ranges from beige to buff to dark brown in mature specimens; the margin is lighter-colored. Fresh fruit bodies that are injured exude a red juice or will bruise a red color if touched. The fruit bodies dry to a grayish-brown color.
Spores
The spores are ellipsoid to cylindrical, amyloid, and typically measure 7–10 by 3–4.5 µm.
Stereum sanguinolentum Symptoms
Stereum sanguinolentum is a basidiomycete that causes both brown rot and white rot on conifers. The primary symptom is the red streaking discoloration. It is a white-rot basidiomycete that causes extensive decay resulting from wounds, logging extractions, bark peeking, or branch pruning. Stereum sanguinolentum forms territorial clones while spreading by vegetative growths between spatially separated resource units; Armillaria spp, Heterobasidion annosum, Phellinus weirii, Inonotus tomentosus, and Phellinus noxius all work with Stereum sanguinolentum to attack the host. The combinations of these pathogens work together to form territorial clones that can cover up to several hectares and survive for hundreds of years while infecting trees.
White rot causes a gradual decrease in cellulose as the decay continues to affect the tree. The white-rot fungi consume the segments of cellulose that are released during the decay as quickly as they are produced. White rot is also known as “wound rot of spruce” and is when the spores create open wounds on the host.
In Brown Rot, the cellulose is degraded. The rapid decrease in cellulose chain length implies that the catalyst that facilitates depolymerization readily gains access to cellulose chains.
Life Cycle
Stereum sanguinolentum is an amphithallic basidiomycete. Monospore intrabasidiome pairings are always compatible when reproducing making it easy for the fungus to spread. The monobasidiospore and trama isolates are plurinucleate and bear clamp connections and are often dikaryotic. Basidiospores are heterokikaryotic indicating that they are amphithallic. The mycelia that spreads the fungi grow from the heterodikaryotic spores that originate from the basidiospores. Either mating between homokaryons originating from the monokaryotic basidiospores or by the parasexual process results in recombination.
Stereum snaguinolentum is an extremely fast colonizer of newly dead or wounded conifer sapwood. Being amphithallic allows this cycle to have selective advantages upon such organisms by enhancing survival and dispersal.
Dispersal occurs by basidiospores only and the most common way they are dispersed in this cycle is wind blown dispersal. The wind blown basidiospores are produced parthenogenically which is reproduction from an ovum with out fertilization. In white rot, the infection occurs from spores landing near the wounds or the transmission of mycelial fragments by wood sap. The rot extension spreads extremely fast in the first years after infection but spreads even quicker if the injuries are at the root collar are infected rather than the stem.
History
The species was first described scientifically by Albertini and Schweinitz in 1805 as Thelephora sanguinolenta. Other genera to which it has been transferred throughout its taxonomical history include Phlebomorpha, Auricularia, Merulius, and Haematostereum. The fungus is commonly known as the "bleeding Stereum" or the "bleeding conifer parchment".
Synonyms
Thelephora sanguinolenta Alb. & Schwein. (1805)
Phlebomorpha sanguinolenta (Alb. & Schwein.) Pers. (1822)
Thelephora sericea var. sanguinolenta (Alb. & Schwein.) Pers. (1822)
Auricularia sanguinolenta (Alb. & Schwein.) Grev. (1826)
Merulius sanguinolentus (Alb. & Schwein.) Spreng. (1827)
Stereum balsameum Peck (1875)
Haematostereum sanguinolentum (Alb. & Schwein.) Pouzar (1959)
Photo sources:
Photo 1 - Author: Andreas Kunze (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Photo 2 - Author: Sarah DeLong-Duhon (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Shape: Corticioid
Surface:Velvety