Most of the fungus is underground and in decaying wood or dying tree roots in the form of white mycelia combined with black shoelace-like rhizomorphs that bridge colonized separated woody substrates.
42.
Rhizomorphs grow close to the soil surface ( in the top 20 cm ) and invade new roots, or the root collar ( where the roots meet the stem ) of plants.
43.
Each infected tree was immediately adjacent to an already infected one, the spread by rhizomorphs through the tree roots and soil . ( Piper and Fletcher, 1903, Wash . Age.
44.
"Armillaria gallica " can develop an extensive subterranean system of rhizomorphs, which helps it to compete with other fungi for resources or to attack trees weakened by other fungi.
45.
Unlike most fungi that depend on moisture in the wood, Poria supplies it's own water through rootlike tubes called rhizomorphs, enabling it to move more quickly than other decay fungi.
46.
Thus, healthy rubber trees can be infected by free rhizomorphs growing from stumps or infected woody debris buried in the ground as well as by roots contacting those of a diseased neighboring tree.
47.
It has been suggested that in the dark beneath closed tropical vegetative structures like rhizomorphs and sclerotia ) are the bioluminescent tissues, the argument has been made that light emission could deter grazing.
48.
New fruit bodies are made of an exterior of thick hyphae similar to those found in the rhizomorph core; in contrast, the hyphae of the interior originate from the puffball's core.
49.
It has been suggested that the thick-walled, wiry rhizomorphs produced by the fungus may serve as an adaptation that helps it to survive and remain viable for a period of time following disturbance.
50.
These differences are correlated with exploration type ( particularly the presence or absence of rhizomorphs ) rather than lineage or host association-suggesting that similar morphologies of extraradical mycelium are an example of convergent evolution.
