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    What Is A Mushroom

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    adi5aditi
    Mushrooms are fungi, not plants, and are more closely related to animals. Their bodies are called mycelium and are usually hidden underground or in decaying matter. The aboveground part we see and eat is the fruiting body. Mushrooms grow and enlarge very quickly through cell enlargement rather than cell division. They need water and proper humidity levels to fruit and grow but can be drowned if overwatered.

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    What Is A Mushroom

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    adi5aditi
    176 views4 pages
    Mushrooms are fungi, not plants, and are more closely related to animals. Their bodies are called mycelium and are usually hidden underground or in decaying matter. The aboveground part we see and eat is the fruiting body. Mushrooms grow and enlarge very quickly through cell enlargement rather than cell division. They need water and proper humidity levels to fruit and grow but can be drowned if overwatered.

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    What is a Mushroom

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    Mushrooms are fungi, not plants, and are more closely related to animals. Their bodies are called mycelium and are usually hidden underground or in decaying matter. The aboveground part we see and eat is the fruiting body. Mushrooms grow and enlarge very quickly through cell enlargement rather than cell division. They need water and proper humidity levels to fruit and grow but can be drowned if overwatered.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    176 views4 pages

    What Is A Mushroom

    Uploaded by

    adi5aditi
    Mushrooms are fungi, not plants, and are more closely related to animals. Their bodies are called mycelium and are usually hidden underground or in decaying matter. The aboveground part we see and eat is the fruiting body. Mushrooms grow and enlarge very quickly through cell enlargement rather than cell division. They need water and proper humidity levels to fruit and grow but can be drowned if overwatered.

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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 4

    What is a mushroom? Mushrooms are not plants!

    Recently it has been discovered that


    they are more closely related to animals. But at one time, Fungi, including mushrooms,
    were believed to be close relatives of plants so much of their nomenclature (names for
    parts of the mushroom) are close to the names used for plant parts. It is the fruit (like an
    apple) of the mushroom "body" and contain mushroom "seeds" called spores. The body
    of the mushroom in called mycelium and its individual parts are microscopic. Since the
    body of the mushroom is usually dispersed over a relatively large area it is rarely
    noticed. In nature some species of mushrooms may have a body that spreads over
    hundreds of square miles!
    Mushrooms are fungi, and are usually placed in a Kingdom of there own apart from
    plants and animals. Mushrooms contain no chlorophyll and most are considered
    saprophytes. That is, they obtain their nutrition from metabolizing non living organic
    matter. This means they break down and "eat" dead plants, like your compost pile does.
    The body of the mushroom stores nutrients and other essential compounds, and when
    enough material is stored and the conditions are right they start to fruit - produce
    mushrooms. It is a hidden kingdom. The part of the fungus that we see is only the “fruit”
    of the organism. The living body of the fungus is a mycelium made out of a web of tiny
    filaments called hyphae. The mycelium is usually hidden in the soil, in wood, or another
    food source. A mycelium may fill a single ant, or cover many acres. The branching
    hyphae can add over a half mile (1 km) of total length to the mycelium each day. These
    webs live unseen until they develop mushrooms, puffballs, truffles, brackets, cups,
    “birds nests,” “corals” or other fruiting bodies. If the mycelium produces microscopic
    fruiting bodies, people may never notice the fungus.
    Most fungi build their cell walls out of chitin. This is the same material as the hard outer
    shells of insects and other arthropods. Plants do not make chitin.

    Fungi feed by absorbing nutrients from the organic material in which they live. Fungi do
    not have stomachs. They must digest their food before it can pass through the cell wall
    into the hyphae. Hyphae secrete acids and enzymes that break the surrounding organic
    material down into simple molecules they can easily absorb - this is composting.
    Recent scientific studies have sown that Mushrooms Slow Climate Warming In Northern
    Forests.
    Mushrooms are nutritious: They are a good source of B vitamins, especially niacin and
    riboflavin, and rank the highest among vegetables for protein content. But because they
    are low in fat and calories, Western nutritionists mistakenly considered them of no food
    value (a fresh pound has only about 125 calories). Yet in dried form, mushrooms have
    almost as much protein as veal and a significant amount of complex carbohydrates
    called polysaccharides. Shiitake mushrooms are among the most delicious & very
    nutritious.
    Mushrooming up over night? If the body is spread out and microscopic, how do
    mushrooms grow so quickly? There are two basic reasons: 1) Since they store up
    compounds between fruiting and most fruit once a year, they have a lot of reserve
    available to support the mushroom. 2) Mushrooms develop differently than plants or
    animals do. Plants and animals grow through cell division - to get bigger they have to
    produce more cells. Cell division is relatively slow and requires a lot of energy. The
    mushroom body also grows by cell division. However, the mushroom fruit does not grow
    by cell division. Just about as soon as it starts to develop, a mushroom has almost the
    same number of cells that the mature mushroom will have. The mushroom increases in
    size through cell ENLARGEMENT! This means that the cells can balloon up very
    rapidly. Very little energy is required, basically the cells just enlarge with water. So a
    mushroom can increase in size as fast as water can be pumped into its cells. Almost
    overnight a mushroom can go from a pin head to a large mushroom.
    Some mushroom terms:
    hyphae (hí - fee) plural: the threads that form the body of a fungus (mycelium)
    mycelium (my - sée - lee - um): see hyphae
    mycorrhiza (my - koh - rý - zuh) singular; mycorrhizae (my - koh - rý - zee) plural: a
    beneficial combination between a fungus and a living plant root
    Nomenclature (nō - mən - klā'chər) a system of names or terms as used by an
    individual or community, especially those used in a particular science (scientific
    nomenclature).
    symbiosis (sim - by - óh - sis) singular; symbioses (sim - by - óh - sees) plural: a
    partnership formed between two living organisms.

    Water
    Mushrooms need water for their fruit to "grow". That is why a saucer and a humidity tent
    is included with Mushroom Kits TM.
    Mushrooms have no skin so they can lose water to the atmosphere very easily. That is
    why they grow in high humidity (lots of water vapor in the air) conditions. If the humidity
    is too low the cells lose water faster than it can be "pumped" in and the immature
    mushroom dries up and dies.
    Mushrooms love all the water they can get? NO! Mushrooms need to breath just like
    humans do, except they do not have lungs. Mushroom cells exchange gases directly
    with the atmosphere. If the body of the mushroom is submerged in water it is
    comparable to drowning. No oxygen can be exchanged, anaerobic bacteria (bacteria
    which do not need oxygen to thrive) build up, and the mushroom is choked to death.
    It is almost the same with the mushroom fruit. If it is too dry they lose too much water
    and desiccate. However, if it is too wet - the humidity is too high - the excess water
    prevents any gas exchange and the developing mushroom chokes off.

    Things you can watch and do with Mushrooms


    A. Growth rates.

    Like most organisms without thermal regulation (they can not control nor maintain their
    body temperature), mushrooms grow faster when it is warmer. Try measuring the
    growth rates of the same variety of mushrooms in a Mushroom Pot at different
    temperatures. The Sonoma Brown Mushroom Kit produces a good mushroom to
    work with.

    Once the pinheads (young mushrooms that look like a fat white pencil tip) form, you
    could measure the length of the young mushroom every 4 or 8 hours. If you measured
    growth rates at 60 F, 70 F, and 80 F would find a marked difference in growth rates. If
    the temperature is too low, the mushroom will grow very slowly or not at all. If the
    temperature is too high, most likely the mushroom will die.

    B. Spore Prints.
    A mushroom produces spores instead of seeds. Fungi are sessile (immobile). Unlike
    animals, they cannot walk or fly to new habitats. Their immobility generally leaves only
    two ways for fungi to extend their range: they can grow into an adjoining area, or
    disperse spores or seeds. Most fungal spores are single cells. They can travel beyond
    the physical limits of their parent into more distant territory. The spore are produced on
    the gills you can see on the underside of the mushroom. These spores are microscopic
    and can only be seen under a microscope. However, each mushroom produces
    hundreds of thousands of spores, and this mass of spores is easy to see. With a little
    ingenuity you could figure out a way to "count" how many spores one mushroom can
    produce...
    Pick a large mushroom off your Mushroom PotTM and place it gills down it on a dark
    piece of paper. Keep it at room temperature in a low humidity area. If the mushroom is
    very mature you may see a "spore print" of the gills in an hour or so. It may take a less
    mature mushroom several hours or overnight to produce this print. Each line you see is
    made up of mounds of microscopic spores.

    Do Mushrooms Really Grow by Cell Enlargement?


    With a microscope and a little work and fine motor coordination you can check to see if
    mushrooms really grow by cell enlargement.
    Take a sample of the mushroom as soon as the pin head is visible. Section as thinly as
    possible with a brand new razor blade, stain you section and measure the cell diameter
    under a microscope.
    As the mushroom grows, take sections from the stalk.
    What you need:
    Mushroom Kit
    Microscope slides & cover slips.
    Very sharp razor blade.
    Basic supplies for preparing material for microscopy.

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