Fungi are all around us in nature but it's all too easy to overlook them when we're out and about. RSPB Scotland’s James Reynolds shares five facts about fantastic fungi.
Five facts to know about Fungi
Credit: Andy Hay (rspb-images.com)
1) Fungi are extremely varied and diverse! In Britain we have around 13,000 species of fungi. Only about 3,000 of these are larger fungi (or macromycetes) easily seen by the human eye, with the rest needing a microscope to be seen. On earth there are probably over 1.5 million fungi, and only about 10 per cent of these have been described by science.
2) Fungi save lives. Moulds are a type of fungi. Since the Scottish Scientist Alexander Fleming first discovered Penecillium mould in 1928, through the first major commercial synthesis of the active antibiotic component during the Second World War, to the everyday prescription of the drug by doctors across the world now, penicillin has saved hundreds of millions of lives by fighting bodily infection.
3) Mushrooms and toadstools are actually just the fruiting body of the living organism. The main part lies beneath the soil or bark and is composed of a dense mycelial web made up of microscopic hyphae – tiny, hollow filaments that spread out to absorb nutrients. Hyphae are to a fungus what cells are to us.
4) Some fungi glow in the dark – or bio luminesce. You can even see this in Scotland. Honey fungus, often known as the ‘forester’s curse’, can often be seen on stumps of dead wood. However, it frequently turns parasitic and aggressive, and penetrates the roots of living trees. If you break of the bark of a tree stump on which honey fungus is growing, you can sometimes see a faint glow when your eyes have become adjusted to the dark.
5) Fungi are nature’s great recyclers. They are agents of decay, and inhabit the world of rot and decomposition of organic matter. Without them, the debris of life – leaf litter, wood, dung and other carbon based matter, would build up year on year. Fungi break down many millions of tons of this organic waste, and return the minerals to the ecosystem for use by other animals and plants again. Life as we know it could not exist or continue without them!
Which of these mushrooms can you eat to cheer yourself up, if you know what I mean?