Reaching the Wind: Boundary Layer Escape as a Constraint on Ascomycete Spore Dispersal

While dispersal in air or water appears passive (but see Dressaire et  al. 2016), fungi actively manipulate discharge. Ascomycete and basidiomycete spores are explosively launched (Buller 1909, 1922, 1924; Ingold 1971; Money 1998; Trail 2007), and the structures involved appear

exquisitely engineered to propel spores into local habitats (Roper et al. 2010). Discharge is rarely considered by ecologists, and since the start of the twentieth century it has remained the purview of a handful of mycologists (Buller 1909, 1922, 1924; Ingold 1971; Money 1998; Trail 2007) and plant pathologists (Meredith 1973; Aylor 1990).