Amanita muscaria (Photo by Michael Maggs)
Compleat Naturalist: Fabulous Fungi
By Laura and Hal Mahan
“Love is like a poisonous mushroom. You don’t know if it is the real thing until it is too late.” ~Anonymous
Late summer is the season for fungi of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Now that the soil is moist with frequent afternoon rains, mushrooms seem to be popping up everywhere.
What is a mushroom? It is akin to the “tip of the iceberg” so to speak, as far as fungi are concerned. If you ever look under the soil’s surface or inside rotting wood, you might see fine, white, threadlike filaments called hyphae, which combine to form a mycelium. This is the “body” of the fungus, while the mushroom that appears above ground grows up from the mycelium. The mushroom is the spore-bearing, reproductive structure of the fungus.
Fungi are neither plants nor animals. They have been classified in their very own kingdom of living things, due to the fact that their cell walls contain chitin. Amazingly, although fungi were studied as a branch of botany for many years, it has now been determined that they are genetically more closely related to animals than to plants!
Mushrooms are fascinating to learn about. They seem to appear mysteriously out of nowhere. They are colorful. Some are edible! But you must have proper training and knowledge to identify mushrooms, so it is safest to assume that a wild mushroom is poisonous, and not to consume it. Sometimes mushrooms have been called “toadstools,” although the terms are usually used interchangeably, and often “toadstool” is used to refer to poisonous species.
Typically, a mushroom consists of a stem, with a cap sitting on top. The underside of the cap generally has structures known as “gills,” or it might have pores instead of gills. In either case, under the cap is where the mushroom produces spores, which are the tiny reproductive structures that will fall and spread the fungus.
One fascinating activity is making a spore print. Cut the cap off of the stem of a mushroom and set the cap, right side up, on top of a piece of paper. Cover it with a bowl or jar, and wait overnight or for a day. The spores will drop from the underside of the cap and you will see a perfect print of spores. Sometimes the spores are a completely different color than under the cap. If the print doesn’t show, you might try using different colors of paper to provide a contrast to the spore color. You can preserve the spore print by spraying it with artists’ fixative spray.
There are a number of great mushroom field guides available; check out your local nature store! Also, there is a group called the Asheville Mushroom Club where you can learn about different aspects of fungi identification, folklore, cultivation, and culinary preparation. Visit ashevillemushroomclub.com for information about club meetings and activities.
Hal and Laura Mahan are owners of The Compleat Naturalist, located at 2 Brook Street in the Historic Biltmore Village. To learn more, visit compleatnaturalist.com or call 828.274.5430.
