Substrate

Ant hills

Of all the possible habitats in a forest, an ant hill is one of the most extreme and specialized substrates for fungi.

At first glance, red wood ants (Formica rufa) aggressively defend their home, constantly rebuild it and release large amounts of formic acid, which acts as a powerful fungicide (a substance that kills fungi). Most mycelia can't survive in such conditions. Yet nature produces some amazing exceptions.

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What grows on ant hills?

The fungi that choose ant hills as their substrate are not edible for humans. They are of scientific and ecological interest rather than culinary.

1. Ant-hill funnels (Clitocybe / Singerocybe):

There are several specialized funnel species that grow only on abandoned or even active ant hills. Conifer needles and small twigs, carefully chewed and soaked with ant secretions, form a unique type of nitrogen-rich compost. The mycelium of these fungi has evolved to neutralize formic acid.

2. Insect infection (Cordyceps):

Some pathogenic fungi (for example, Ophiocordyceps) use the ants themselves as a substrate. The spores infect an ant, the fungus takes control of its nervous system and forces the ant to climb a tall blade of grass above the ant hill and die there, after which the fruiting body of the fungus grows out of the ant's head to scatter spores onto the other ants below. (This happens mostly in the tropics, but there are temperate-climate representatives too.)

Forager's ethics

As David Arora stresses, if you see a mushroom (even an edible one that just happened to grow nearby) sprouting directly from the active dome of a large ant hill — leave it alone.

Digging up or damaging an ant hill for the sake of one mushroom is an unacceptable disruption of the forest ecosystem. Ants are the forest's chief cleanup crew, and wrecking their home for a "find" goes against every rule of foraging ethics.

Sources

1.Зерова М.Я. та ін. Визначник грибів України. 1979
2.Roger Phillips. Mushrooms (Roger Phillips)
3.David Arora. Mushrooms Demystified
4.Index Fungorum