The latest from our Donkey Lane Community Orchard Stories
Fungi are neither plants nor animals, but they are a very important part of any ecosystem. They are the organisms which cause decay and decomposition, if they did not exist all the dead material would simply pile up in places like the Orchard. They also play a vital role in the nutrient cycle in nature.
We used to think fungi were more like plants because they don’t move around much, but now after studying their genetics it seems they are closer to animals. In any case, they are a large group of organisms that we aren’t usually aware of until they form their fruiting bodies which we call toadstools, mushrooms or moulds. Just seeing these is as if we only saw the apples in the Orchard, without noticing the trees which are there throughout the year.
They cannot make their own carbohydrates to eat so they need to get these from plants, either living or dead ones. Many grow closely entwined with plant roots, especially those of trees or grasses, and others live in the decaying leaf litter of forests. Recently it has been realised that fungi are a precious ally in the fight against climate change. Fungal/root networks (mycorrhiza) in the soil form a global carbon sink, that is, they absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they release. And they keep it there. We are still discovering new things about fungi and apparently, so far we have only described about 5% of the species on earth. *
Fungi grow in a variety of habitats and they are always present in soil and dead wood. However, it is mostly in late summer and autumn that they fruit, sending up their stalked toadstools out of the earth, or bursting out of a dead or decaying tree. After a dry summer, if we get a wet spell that is when a ‘flush’ will appear and so early autumn is a good time to look for them. There are other species which appear in spring, but on the whole they cannot withstand frosts so there is an in-between period when you won’t see many. Some fungi are associated with one particular host whereas other can grow on a range of plants. Read more...
They cannot make their own carbohydrates to eat so they need to get these from plants, either living or dead ones. Many grow closely entwined with plant roots, especially those of trees or grasses, and others live in the decaying leaf litter of forests. Recently it has been realised that fungi are a precious ally in the fight against climate change. Fungal/root networks (mycorrhiza) in the soil form a global carbon sink, that is, they absorb more carbon from the atmosphere than they release. And they keep it there. We are still discovering new things about fungi and apparently, so far we have only described about 5% of the species on earth. *
Fungi grow in a variety of habitats and they are always present in soil and dead wood. However, it is mostly in late summer and autumn that they fruit, sending up their stalked toadstools out of the earth, or bursting out of a dead or decaying tree. After a dry summer, if we get a wet spell that is when a ‘flush’ will appear and so early autumn is a good time to look for them. There are other species which appear in spring, but on the whole they cannot withstand frosts so there is an in-between period when you won’t see many. Some fungi are associated with one particular host whereas other can grow on a range of plants. Read more...
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