mushrooms

What we call a “mushroom” is the fruit-body of a fungus, the reproductive part of the fungus that grows above ground and releases spores, the seedlike elements from which new fungi are made. Much as fruit is the reproductive organ of a fruit tree, a mushroom is the reproductive organ of a fungus.Typically, spores sprout from the gills, the thin brown tissue found on the underside of the mushroom cap. Borne by the wind, some kinds of spores are capable of traveling great distances from the fruit-body to start their own fungus colonies. Mushrooms produce prodigious numbers of spores.

A giant puffball, for example, may produce 20 trillion: it has been calculated that if every spore from the giant puffball sprouted and grew to maturity, it would form a mass three times the size of the sun!

The spores are produced in such large numbers to guarantee the spread of the fungusin the environment. Not all fungi, however, produce mushrooms. Some are able to create spores and reproduce without bearing a fruit-body. Fungi that reproduce without a sexual stage are called imperfect fungi, or fungi imperfecti.

There are over 1,500,000 species of fungi on earth. Mushrooms constitute at least 14,000, and perhaps as many as 22,000, known species, but this may be less than 10% of the total. Assuming that the proportion of useful mushrooms among the undiscovered mushrooms will be only 5%, there may be thousands of as yet undiscovered species that will be of possible benefit to humankind. Even among the known species the proportion of well-investigated mushrooms is very low. About 700 species are eaten as food, and 50 or so species are poisonous.

Fungi make up about a quarter of the biomass of the earth. They need organic matter to feed on, develop, and grow; hence, they are found almost everywhere except on inlands, or above 25,000 feet. Strange as it may seem, seeing as they are usually associated with rot and decay, fungi are something of a cleanser in that they transform dead organic matter into nutrients that plants and animals can feed on. Without fungi, matter would not break down and decompose, and the world would be crowded with dead animals and plants.

EVOLUTION

mushroom parts

Every fungus begins as a tiny, seedlike spore. Spores are carried by wind and water. When a spore lands in a hospitable place—a moist place that is not too hot or cold and is near a food source—it may germinate and start a new fungus colony. At that point, the spore grows hyphae, the fine, threadlike strands from which the mycelium is made. The mycelium is the feeding body of the mushroom. Composed of a latticework of interconnected hyphae threads, it is for the most part subterranean, living in soil or decayed wood, much like the root system of a plant. It can feed on almost any organic substrate: soil, wood rot, or food left for too long in the pantry.

WHY FUNGI IS IMPORTANT TO THE ENVIRONMENT

The mycelium insinuates itself into the substrate on which it feeds. It secretes complex enzymes that break down organic material in such a way that the fungus can absorb food from the substrate. Research has shown that these complex enzymes act as a growth stimulus to nearby plants. They degrade organic material so that important nutrients are returned to the soil where plants can feed on them. In this way, fungi provide the raw material for trees and plants.

Fungi are essential for a healthy forest. If there are no fungi in the soil, plants cannot grow because they cannot break down and absorb nutrients without the help of fungi. One group of mushrooms called the mycorrhizae attach themselves to the roots of trees. They act like a secondary root system, reaching deep into the soil to get nutrients that the tree could not otherwise get and passing these nutrients upward to the tree. In return, trees provide the mycorrhizal fungus with a set of nutrients that they need to grow. The fungus and tree work together in a symbiotic partnership, with some plant growth hormones produced by fungi. Many plants cannot survive without fungi.

In effect, fungi are molecular disassemblers: they take the complex compounds created by plants, such as cellulose, carbohydrates, and protein, and disassemble them so that plants can digest them. By contrast, plants are molecular assemblers, taking very simple compounds such as water, nitrogen, and carbon and combining them into complex forms such as protein, carbohydrates, and cellulose.

SOURCE: Healing Mushrooms, Effective Treatments for Today’s Illnesses

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