Fungal groups, classification, and identification. Fungal mechanisms belong in Fungal Biology.
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
What gives most truffle oil sold in stores its truffle aroma?
Most bottles are olive oil or another neutral oil mixed with 2,4-dithiapentane, the lab-made sulfur compound that mimics truffle aroma.
Which animal do truffle hunters rely on most today to sniff out buried truffles?
Pigs were the original truffle seekers, but a pig often eats the truffle it digs up, while a dog leaves it for a treat.
The truffles shaved over pasta are the fruiting bodies of which kind of organism?
A truffle cannot make its own food, so it trades soil minerals and water for sugars from a partner tree's roots.
Piedmont's famous white truffle season peaks each autumn in which Italian town?
Alba's prize is Tuber magnatum, a white truffle so hard to grow on farms that it is still gathered from the wild.
How do shiitake growers often trigger a new crop of mushrooms from logs already colonized by the fungus?
The soaking imitates heavy rain, which can signal the fungus to produce mushrooms.
Ergot fungi mainly attack plants in which group?
Rye and wheat are grasses, which is why ergot can contaminate cereal harvests.
A large, mature brown button mushroom is sold under which name?
A portobello cap opens as it grows, exposing dark gills that stay hidden beneath the closed cap of a young button mushroom.
What is the scientific name of the fly agaric mushroom?
The species name comes from the Latin word "musca", meaning "fly", which also appears in the common name.
Which cheese owes its blue-green veins to Penicillium mold?
Cheesemakers add selected mold strains on purpose; their enzymes help create Roquefort's strong flavor.
What sticky liquid helps ergot fungi spread between grass flowers?
The sugary drops contain fungal spores that insects or splashing rain can carry to other flowers.