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Did I Find a Cordyceps in Minnesota?


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I'm going through photos I took last year and realized I may have unknowingly taken a photo of a cordyceps. However, I've never found one and until now, I didn't even know they could be found in Minnesota. After seeing the photo, I decided to do a search for "cordyceps minnesota" and came up with a little but not much. All I have for info is about the location since we're still there quite often. There is a lot of white pine and oaks. I believe this is an oak branch that broke off a tree. I could be wrong. I don't know my wood grains very well.

So does this look like a cordyceps or just a sprout of an off chance seed landing?

cordycep.thumb.jpg.d706a9805b3885cb2e7c738cfc496989.jpg

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With Cordyceps --or related genera like Ophiocordycepa-- the parasitized host insect is often observable. Cordyceps militaris  probably occurs in MN (but the one seen here is not C. militaris). The photo shows what looks to be (part of) a fungal fruit body attached to a piece of grass. 

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It was attached to the wood. Its hard to tell but when I saw it, it looks almost like it was attached in a small hole on the wood. I'll have to keep an eye out in the area for more like this and look more closely next time.

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  • 5 years later...

Looks like a long time since this was posted....

Last weekend (Aug 6 2022) at the Sax-Zim Bog Bioblitz Sam Guida found a fungus growing out of an  Ash Bullet Gall Midge (Dasineura pellex) which was found on the midrib of a Green Ash leaf. More info and pictures at   https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/129722924

So yes there are cordyceps-like fungi in Minnesota.
 

 

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