Kullmann - Grow Your Own Mushrooms: How to Choose, Grow and Cook Them: 1

1. RESOURCES

Fungi form their own class in the kingdom of living things, separate from animals and plants.

At one time, fungi were classed as plants, presumably because they grew in the same sorts of places as plants and their structure above and below ground looked similar. The fungis mycelium, made of threadlike hyphae, looked like roots and the mushroom above looked like a plants fruit. But fungi dont contain chlorophyll as plants do and fungi cant form cellulose, the substance that plants use to strengthen their cell walls. Fungi produce the polysaccharide glycogen as a storage compound, whereas plants form glucose and carbohydrates to store energy. So fungi are not plants. Like insects and crustaceans, the cell walls of fungi contain chitin. Like animals, they feed on organic nutrients. Fungi are also able to excrete enzymes to extract and absorb nutrients from the soil, resembling the digestive system of humans and animals more closely than that of plants. But fungi are not animals they form their own kingdom within the spectrum of all living beings.

Fungi come in many different forms:

• Single-celled species such as yeast.
• Slime moulds with no fixed shape
• The characteristic mushroom with a stalk and cap, familiar to us from our forests and fields. These include the edible mushrooms described in this guide.

The upper part of a mushroom, consisting of a cap with gills, teeth or pores (where the spores form), is the small fruiting body above the ground. Below ground is a wide network of hyphae, the mycelium, which can sometimes extend over several square kilometres beneath the forest floor.

Mushrooms are divided up into three different groups, depending on the way in which they thrive:

Saprobionts are also known as saprophytes. They live on dead organic material, such as wood. They are crucially important in preserving ecosystems as they decompose dead wood and dead plant matter and break them down into humus, a growing medium for plants and other organisms. Saprophytes can be further divided into two groups:

Primary decomposers These fungi are able to break down fresh i.e. raw material such as wood, bark, leaves, straw and the like. Typical examples are oyster mushrooms and sheathed woodtuft.

Secondary decomposers These can break down the organic material only if it has previously been decomposed by other microorganisms. This group includes button mushrooms and shaggy ink caps.

Parasitic fungi Many fungi live on and in plants and animals and deprive them of nutrients. They can be a problem, especially for farmers and gardeners. Common examples are harmful fungi like apple scab, mildew, rust fungi and grey mould. Honey fungus is a well-known parasitic club fungus that lives on roots or weakened woody plants. 7

Mycorrhizal fungi Mycorrhizal fungi live in symbiosis with plants. The fungal hyphae partially penetrate the roots of the plant and absorb sugars from the plant sap. In return, the fungi absorb nutrients and water from the soil that cannot otherwise be taken up by plants through their root hairs. This is a real win-win situation, as both partners in the symbiotic relationship benefit from one another. The symbiosis means that the plants can absorb more nutrients, which can lead to higher yields.

Golden oyster mushrooms are primary decomposers.

There are two types of mycorrhiza:

Ectomycorrhiza Ectomycorrhizal fungi form a thick layer around the young root tips and penetrate into the root cortex, but not into the cells. This is the most common type of mycorrhiza in our woodlands, and is found on trees such as birch, beech, pine, willow and oak. Typical examples of this type of fungi are edible chanterelles, ceps and bay bolete, but they also include poisonous species like amanita.