Fungi
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Ascomycetes
Peziza asci
with ascospores x400.
Physica
x40. A cup fungus sexual structure growing on the bark of
a dead tree.
Venturia inequalis
perithecium x100. This ascus bearing structure
is shown on a cross section of a crab apple leaf.
Saccaromyces
(baker's yeast) x1000. These are single celled
ascomycetes that often reproduce asexually by budding.
This can be seen in some of the yeast cells near the
center of the illustration. Basidiomycetes
Corpinus
basidia with basidiospores x1000. This is the
gill of a mushroom. Two basidia are shown, each with 4
basidiospores attached externally by little stalks.
Puccinia
(wheat rust) aecia and pycnia x40. This is a
cross section of a barberry leaf showing two stages of
this fungus's complex life cycle. Aeciospores are on the
upper surface and pycniospores on the lower surface.
Pycniospores will infect wheat plants.
Puccinia
uredia x40. The illustration shows a wheat
stem with the bases of two leaves wraped around it. The
leaves have groups of uredospores on their surfaces.
These spores can blow around and infect other wheat
plants.
Puccinia
uredospores on wheat leaves x100. The red
color of these spores is the basis of the name
"wheat rust".
Puccinia
teliospores x100. These two celled wheat rust
spores form at the end of the growing season. They fall
to the ground and overwinter there. In the spring the
spores germinate on the ground, produce a basidium, and
the resulting basidiospores infect barbarry plants.
Ustilago maydis
(corn smut) x40. Part of a greatly distorted
corn seed that is infected. The red areas are clusters of
fungal spores.
Ustilago maydis
spores inside corn. x400.Zygomycetes
Rhizopus
(bread mold) hyphae x100. Unlike the
ascomycetes and basidiomycetes, the hyphae of the
zygomycetes is coenocytic. That means that there are few
or no partitions dividing the hyphae into individual
cells.
Rhizopus
asexual sporangium x100. You can see several
coenocytic hyphae, one of which ends in a sporangium.
Rhizopus
asexual spores in sporangium x400. Several
nuclei crowd into the end of a hypha. A septum forms (one
of the few in the otherwise coenocytic hyphae) forming a
sporangium and separating these nuclei from the rest of
the hypha. Each nucleus then becomes a haploid asexual
spore.
Rhizopus
zygospore x100. This diploid (2N) spore is
fromed from the fusion of two nuclei, one each from two
sexually compatible hyphae. Look carefully inside the
spore and you can see the diploid nucleus. This spore,
with its thick coat, can survive draught cold and lack of
food. When conditions improve the spore germinates,
meiosis occurs and the spore grows an asexual sporangium
full of haploid spores.Imperfect
fungi (Deuteromycetes)
Aspergillus
x400 showing the swolen end of the hypha that bears
chains of conidiospores.
Chains of Aspergillus
conidiospores x400.
Penecillium
x1000. The distinctive finger-like chains of
conidiospores are shown.
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