Subject: Artillery Spores. What is it?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 95 19:45:52 PDT

I have a question for all mycologist on the net or elsewhere.

Are the artillery spores a fungi or a mold?

Any and all assitance in resolving this issue will be greatly appreciated.  
I've looked at some mycological books, but none appear to give a definitive 
answer to the question.  Thanks.

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From: [email-masked] (Steven Carpenter)
Date: 9 Sep 1995 14:42:41 GMT

The word "mold" is a common term used in various ways:

1. Least precise: applied to any state of a fungus that is not
    recognizable to the viewer as a "mushroom"

2. With more meaning: applied to the non-sexual sporulating stage
    of the life-cycle of a fungus

All molds are fungi.  

Therefore the artillery spores are fungi.  They are also a mold. 
Without knowning more about your source for the term "artillery spore",
I will assume the term refers to the genus Pilobolus.

-Steve Carpenter
 Cascade Research Associates
   & Abbey Lane Laboratory
 [email-masked]

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From: [email-masked] ("K N and P J Harris")
Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 09:13:07 GMT

Try Pilobolus - spore distribution mechanism is pretty spectacular and 
could have been given this name. Otherwise try looking at descriptions 
of the Geastrum group, again the spores are "shot" out of the fruiting 
body.
Peter Harris,
Soil Science, University of Reading, UK.

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From: Bill Knighton/Susan Hogarth <[email-masked]>
Date: 17 Sep 1995 22:14:55 GMT

There's also Monoascosporus canonballus....

-- 

Susan Hogarth
Thank you for not breeding