Winter in the San Francisco Bay Area typically brings rain.
Native plants in the area are adapted for the long dry seasons of summer and
fall, and the rainy season of winter and early spring. During this brief wet
period, the dry hills turn green and vegetation becomes vibrant. Mushrooms
emerge, and are a familiar sight in winter gardens or regional parks from
November to January. They sprout up in the middle of the lawn, compost pile, or
planting bed, leading some people to wonder if their soil has been infected
with some disease.
Mushrooms can be harbingers of bad news, such as the clusters of brown-capped mushrooms close to the trunk that may indicate Sudden Oak Death, or the decomposers that may indicate below-ground decomposition of dead roots. But they can also simply be the fruiting body of fungi growing in healthy soil. We learned about mycorrhizae in a past post, the fungus that lives in symbiotic relationship with tree roots. The mycelia of the fungus extends the reach of tree roots to moisture and minerals, while the tree uses photosynthesis to create nutrients mycorrhiza can use but not produce.
Mushrooms are members of the Fungi kingdom, in the Ascomycota or Basidiomycota phyla. In the past, fungi were thought to be plants without chlorophyll, but research showed the cell walls to contain chitin (similar to a crab) rather than cellulose. This makes them more closely aligned to animals than plants, so have their own kingdom. Mushrooms are composed of densely packed mycelium, with gills or sacs that produce asexual spores. They come in all shapes and sizes, and are fascinating to study. Caution should be used, since some are poisonous.
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Mushrooms can be harbingers of bad news, such as the clusters of brown-capped mushrooms close to the trunk that may indicate Sudden Oak Death, or the decomposers that may indicate below-ground decomposition of dead roots. But they can also simply be the fruiting body of fungi growing in healthy soil. We learned about mycorrhizae in a past post, the fungus that lives in symbiotic relationship with tree roots. The mycelia of the fungus extends the reach of tree roots to moisture and minerals, while the tree uses photosynthesis to create nutrients mycorrhiza can use but not produce.
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Mushrooms are members of the Fungi kingdom, in the Ascomycota or Basidiomycota phyla. In the past, fungi were thought to be plants without chlorophyll, but research showed the cell walls to contain chitin (similar to a crab) rather than cellulose. This makes them more closely aligned to animals than plants, so have their own kingdom. Mushrooms are composed of densely packed mycelium, with gills or sacs that produce asexual spores. They come in all shapes and sizes, and are fascinating to study. Caution should be used, since some are poisonous.
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