Wildlife Wednesday — Mushrooms
By Andy and Rachel Ames
In August of 2022 we talked about aspen trees. https://www.evwatershed.org/blog/wildlife-wednesdays-aspen-trees-after-the-fire This week we re-post a blog about mushrooms. While Aspen trees are members of the plant kingdom and mushrooms fungi, they are both deceptively among the largest living organisms in the world. What we see above ground is just the tip of the iceberg. Many Aspen groves are made up of trees sprouting from a vast, single root system called a clone. In some cases it can cover hundreds of acres. While Aspen trees rarely live over 100 years, the grove, or clone, can be thousands of years old. Mushrooms are much like that Aspen tree. They are the fruit of fungi and the only visible portion. Mushrooms are the reproductive part of fungi and, instead of releasing seeds, release spores. A fungi itself is made up of a mass of filament called hyphae. The hyphae, which usually lives underground, grows and branches into an extensive network called mycelium. While a mushroom itself may last only a few days, the mycelium may live for hundreds or even thousands of years and can cover many, many acres. (Some may even cover thousands of acres!) Fungi secrete acids and enzymes to break down organic matter into compounds it can absorb. Depending on the type of fungi, this matter can be either living, dead, or a combination. Fungi act as nature’s recyclers, providing the critical task of decomposition while adding a little more beauty to our forests, too.
(These photos are just a few of the many that can be found in the Estes Valley.)
