"Nature Guide Journal"

19 October 2000

The first rains of the season have arrived, bringing forth hats, raincoats, and ...mushrooms!  Autumn's precipitation dampens the ground and organic material, prompting these delightful fungi to fruit.  Overnight, the fascinating structures erupt from ground, lawn, and log to scent the air with their damp, heady fragrance.

Fungi are non-green "plants" that reproduce by spores.  Mushrooms are the fleshy fruiting bodies of certain kinds of fungi that produce and distribute the spores.  (Fungus is one; fungi are many.)  While our attention is drawn to the often fantastic shapes or bright colors of the fruit, most of the actual fungus is the hidden mycelium, a mass of fine threads that wind through the soil or organic material.

Most fungi that produce mushrooms are perennials, living for many years and fruiting when conditions warrant.  Many fungi of field and meadow spread out among the grassland plants as they grow, then sent up mushrooms along their outside edge, forming circles of mushrooms, or "fairy rings."  By measuring the size of such rings in the American Midwest and determining their annual rate of growth, some such fungi have been calculated to be at least six hundred years old.

Fungi do not have chlorophyll and cannot produce their own food as do green plants.  Like animals, fungi "feed" entirely on other living or once-living things.  One way to group fungi is by what they feed on:  saprophytes subsist on dead or decaying matter (usually plant); parasites feed on living organisms; mycorrhizal associates form a mutually beneficial relationship with other plants.

Saprophytes play a essential role in recycling nutrients, breaking down complex molecules in dead plants and animals into smaller molecules that are more readily used again.  Mycorrhizal associates form an intimate relationship with other plants, usually particular species of trees, through the green plants' rootlets.  This relationship is vital to the particular fungus, and makes it more efficient for the green plant to draw and use nutrients, adding considerably to its ability to thrive.

Mushrooms are described and organized by the form and shape of the fruiting body, as well as the material the mycelium is growing in. With a stalk or without; with gills, ribs, pores, or "teeth;" on wood, soil, or under/with specific plants are characteristics used to start the identification process.

Yes, many wild mushrooms are deliciously edible–and some are quite poisonous (like the one shown below):  mushrooms of a single species can vary greatly and many species can be confused with others.  Accurate identification is absolutely essential for collecting wild mushrooms for the table.  But knowing the names of the mushrooms is only supplementary to enjoying their enchanting forms and colors, and appreciating their indispensable roles in nature.

Amanita muscaria; Cape Arago, Oregon; 3 November 2000