Mitrula paludosa

Description

Mitrula paludosa can grow up to 5 cm tall and has a yellow or orangey swollen ‘head’ area held aloft on a white or translucent stem. The yellow head is the fertile section and as this is one of the Ascomycetes (spore shooters) this fruiting body should be particularly efficient at distributing its spores – the fertile part held up into the air currents and the spores shot out.

It is found growing on dead plants, mosses, and algae and plays a vital role in helping to break down these remains, releasing nutrients back into its habitat.

Common names: Swamp Beacon, Bog Beacon.

Mushroom Identification

1. Cap

   The smooth yellow (sometimes orange-yellow) fertile head is of variable shape and can be subglobose, ovoid, or club-shaped and up to 1cm tall.

2. Stem

   Smooth, white, untapered, and typically 2 to 3mm in diameter, the stems are up to 4cm tall.

3. Asci

   100-150 x 8-9µm. Eight spores per ascus; the spores are arranged in two irregular rows within the ascus.

4. Spores

   Oblong-ellipsoidal, smooth, sometimes septate; 10-15 x 2-3µm; hyaline.

5. Spore Print

   White.

6. Odor and Taste

   Not distinctive.

7. Habitat & Ecological Role

   Saprobic on rotting leaves, twigs, mosses, and algae in bogs, swamps, damp ditches, and in the shallow margins of some weed-fringed lakes.

8. Season

   Early spring through to the end of summer.

9. Similar Species

   There are several very similar Mitrula species, separable only by microscopic examination.

History

The great Swedish mycologist Elias Magnus Fries described this ascomycetous fungus in his Systema Mycologica of 1821, in which he named it Mitrula paludosa. To the present day that remains the generally accepted scientific name for Bog Beacon.

During the past two and a half centuries various mycologists have placed this species in other genera. Synonyms of Mitrula paludosa include Leotia uliginosa Grev., Clavaria phalloides Bull., Clavaria epiphylla Dicks., Leotia epiphylla (Dicks.) Hook., and Mitrula phalloides (Bull.) Chevall.

The prefix Mitr- is a reference to a miter, cap or headdress (and so, by implication, an indication of the shape of the fertile head or cap of this fungus), while the specific epithet paludosa means of swamp, marsh or bog.

Photo sources:

Photo 1 - Author: Björn S... (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 2 - Author: Rucksackschule-dresden (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Photo 3 - Author: Lukas from London, England (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 4 - Author: Lukas from London, England (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Photo 5 - Author: Björn S... (CC BY-SA 2.0)