- Kathleen Scavone
- Posted On
The Living Landscape: Decomposers – fungus among us
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – After even the briefest of rainfall the woods and forests of Lake County come alive in a fantasyland of fungi, or decomposers.
After fall's first rains and the subsequent sunshine an astonishing array of fungi pops up under leaves on downed limbs, and in all sorts of nooks and crannies.
The Greeks of antiquity thought that because of mushroom's ability to magically materialize after a rain, that Zeus' lightning was the cause.
During Medieval times those ring-shaped patterns of ground mushrooms which form were called “fairy rings.” The belief was that magic and dances were performed into the wee hours by the “little people.”
Today we know that mushrooms can be not only beautiful in their own right, but some are toxic while others are edible.
As far back as the Roman times mushrooms, such as chanterelles, morels and truffles have been prized delicacies.
Although we can't always see them, mushrooms are always present, secluded under the soil or hiding beneath bark.
Some, like bracket fungi are highly visible, and form ladders, ascending a dead tree trunk: beauty from death.
Decomposers come in all shapes and sizes. If you were a science fiction writer you couldn't dream up these strange-looking, mysterious life-forms! From enormous bracket fungi to small, slimy jelly fungi.
Fungi are veritable living paradoxes, containing the strength to push up through the soil, while at the same time being comprised of such delicate tissue.
Some, like the puffball, are beautifully spherical: white wonders. While others, like Western Jack 'O Lantern mushrooms (Omphalotus olivascens) are bioluminescent and glow in the dark!
Mushrooms are comprised of roots, a base, stalk, gills, ring and a cap.
A fun art project is a “spore print.” First, lay a cap mushroom on a sheet of paper, and later, discover the spore print pattern it leaves behind.
Fungi are nature's recyclers. Some fungi are plant decomposers, some are carrion decomposers, while still others are waste decomposers that break down droppings from carnivores and omnivores.
Other recyclers in nature are scavengers, such as turkey vultures, beetles and flies.
Earthworms are foremost in the world of recycling, digesting soil, then releasing precious minerals to nourish the soil. Without their work, topsoil would be devoid of these minerals and infertile.
There is much to be learned from the mighty mushroom.
According to “Bay Nature” magazine a fungi experiment to digest E. coli is looking very promising.
Near the town of Orinda King Stropharia and oyster mushroom mycelium, or vegetative filaments are grown in burlap bags filled with wood chips and other natural matter.
They are tended by members of mushroom enthusiasts who work along with the East Bay Municipal Utility District who are learning that the watershed can be cleaned up from toxic human waste, along with oil derived pollutants, plastics and more.
Those amazing mushrooms!
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.