From tree bark to meadow floor
Casca, leaves, wood or soil: looking at the support opens a first clue.
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A fallen trunk, a layer of leaves and a pasture offer different environments to fungi. CCRES uses words that help describe them: corticultures live in the bark of trees; praticultures develop in the soil of meadows and pastures.
There are other clues in this vocabulary. Lignícolas grow in dead wood, foliage in fallen leaves and humícolas in decomposing plant residues. Coprófilos are associated with animal excrement. They are descriptions of support or environment, not species names.
In an observation, it begins by recording where the visible structure appears: on bark, wood, leaves or soil? It keeps this description separate from the identification. Knowing the place where it grows helps to formulate questions; it is not enough to say what fungus it is, how it feeds in each case or whether it is edible.
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Wood in processing
A log can be a small house →A network that expands in the soil
Why do mushrooms grow in a circle? →A Relationship With Roots
Roots have partners →
Source and context
Silvestrian Resource Competence Centre — General Mycology
Accessed: . Editorial summary; the date of consultation is not the date of the facts.