Gigaspora margarita
Gigaspora margarita W.N.Becker & I.R.Hall
Edibility
Edibility unknown — do not eat
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Lookalikes
No lookalikes are recorded for this species yet. That does not mean there are none. Many mushrooms look alike, so never rely on appearance alone.
Season
When this species has been recorded, by month, from open-licensed US and Canada observations. It shows when people report it, not a guarantee it is fruiting.
The highlighted bar is the current month.
View season data as a table
| Month | Records |
|---|---|
| January | 1 |
| February | 0 |
| March | 1 |
| April | 0 |
| May | 0 |
| June | 0 |
| July | 6 |
| August | 2 |
| September | 9 |
| October | 7 |
| November | 0 |
| December | 0 |
Where it is found
States and provinces with the most records. Check the foraging rules for the place you plan to visit.
- Ontario 12 records · Foraging rules
About
Gigaspora margarita is an Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) which means it is an obligate symbiont that creates mutualistic relationships with many different plant species. Being an AMF, G. margarita does not produce a fruiting body. All of its mycelium will be found in the soil, associating with plant roots. Though hard to distinguish between different species of AMF, microscopic distinctions can be made. A prominent morphological distinction for species in the Gigasporaceae family is their large sized spores. Gigaspora margarita is characterized by its large, white, pearl-like spores found anywhere from 260 - 400 micrometers. This is where it gets its name as margarita in Latin means pearl. Associating with many plants, Gigaspora margarita has been found in diverse regions across the globe. In culture, G. margarita has been found to associate with onion, tomato, soy beans, corn, and clover although this list is probably a lot longer. Furthermore, G. margarita also associates with endobacteria making it a metaorganism that serves as a connection of three different kingdoms (plant, bacteria, fungus). Strains of G. margarita isolated without the endobacteria are possible indicating an asymmetric association between the fungi and the endobacteria. However these, ‘cured’ strains of G. margarita do not interact with its associated plants as well as strains with the endobacteria.
From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the original article.
Recent finds
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More in the genus Gigaspora
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