Mushroom Myths, Mysteries and Misunderstandings

Myth: Fungi are plants...

Reality: 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.

 

Myth: Fungi germinate, mature, die and rot away in just a few days.

Reality: 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: there are species that commonly live to be several hundred years old, and some are estimated to date back more than 2000 years.

 

Fairy ringMyth: Mushrooms rings are planted by fairies...

Reality: 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.