Figure 21. The black truffle, Tuber melanosporum, produces a strong odor that attracts mammals who find, consume, and then spread the spores of this choice edible. Photo Mark Sewell.


Figure 16. The orchid Cypripedium acaule, pink lady’s slipper, and nearly all other orchids, use volatiles to interact with compatible fungi and create a mycorrhizal relationship that supports germination and continues throughout their life cycle.22


Photo Jim Cornish.


Figure 18. Trametes versicolor is a combative fungus that can easily take over the territory of competing fungi. Photo Henry Mann.


Figure 17. In laboratory experiments, volatiles of Laccaria bicolor are known to induce radial root growth in poplar trees, one of its mycorrhizal partners, and in plants like the mouse-ear cress with which it has no relationship.21 Photo Andrus Voitk.


to outcompete neighboring plants by inhibiting their growth and the germination of their seeds.18


Odors are


also used by fungi to detoxify rival fungi and to attract or attack bacteria and mycophagic soil invertebrates such as beetles and nematodes. Above and below ground, odors exuded by endophytic fungi, ones that take nutrients from their host without causing harm, defend their hosts against pathogens and sometimes other endophytes.23,1


In their own


defense, some fungi also use odors to attract the predators of fungal pests (i.e., “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”).24


50 FUNGI Volume 14:4 Fall 2021


Figure 19. Gymnosporagium clavariiforme creates pseudoflowers to attract insect vectors for its spores. Like some other rusts, G. clavariiforme uses odor as an attractant. Photo Andrus Voitk.


Figure 22. Mutinus ravenelii, a species of stinkhorn, produces a carrion odor that repels most animals but attracts insects to disperse its spores. Photo Andrus Voitk.


Reproductive


Figure 20. Cordyceps militaris, commonly known as the orange caterpillar fungus, is the best-known fungal parasite of moth and butterfly pupae and larvae. Do odors emitted by insects help these parasites find their hosts? Photo Renée Lebeuf.


interactions Once fruiting bodies develop and


ripen, odors can play a vital role in spore dispersal, especially for truffles and stinkhorns.17


Truffles are the tuber-like


fruiting bodies of symbiotic ascomycetes such as Tuber melanosporum (the black


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