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Myth
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Reality
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| Fungi are plants... |
Fungi are not plants, and neither are they
animals. Unlike plants, which convert the sun's energy into food, fungi
feed on other plant and animal material and do not need sunlight; they use
enzymes to dissolve their food before they absorb it. |
| Fungi germinate, mature, die and rot away in
just a few days...
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The toadstools and mushrooms we see, which may
indeed rot away after a few days, are just the fruit bodies of underground
fungi often growing as expanding discs of hyphal threads that form a
mycelium. Although the mycelia of some fungi live for less than a year, in
others the mycelium can live for many years: some are believed to
be several hundred years old.
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Mushrooms rings are planted
by fairies...
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A 'fairy ring' consists of fruit bodies around
the edges of a circular mycelium. Each year the ring may be a little
larger, as the underground fungus grows larger.
Although some fungi live for a great many years, many more species have
short-lived mycelia that die in the winter. Then spores from one fungus
must develop as a primary mycelium and meet with mycelia from another
specimen (sometimes three others) for a fertile mycelium to grow and bear
fruit.
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