September is National Mushroom Month. Time to celebrate this extraordinary class of organisms. They are so much more than the things you put on salads or see springing up in your lawn. Mushrooms are the reproductive part of fungi that we can often see. Sadly, fungi don’t get the respect they deserve, since most of their work is done beneath the ground or on dead matter.
Fungi are so plentiful and basic to life – there may be more than 5 million separate species of fungi. One of the largest single organisms on the planet is a fungus: the four-square mile Armillaria ostoya fungus, that lives in the soil of Oregon’s Blue Mountains and thought to be more than 8,000 years old. They are almost everywhere – in the air you breathe, in lots of the food you eat, in the soil you walk on, in the plants around you, in a stream’s foam bubbles and even on and inside you. Fungi are really common but often hard to see because they can be very small or are living hidden inside their home – which may be a log, the soil, a plant or an animal on which they are feeding. They live on and in their food!
Without fungi we wouldn’t have antibiotics, cheeses, wine and beer, bread, and most importantly, we’d have a whole lot of waste everywhere if they weren’t busy breaking things down. They play a key role as decomposers of organic matter in natural and agricultural ecosystems and control an essential process for maintaining soil fertility. Watch this short video to learn more about these amazing organisms.
Fungi are really important for health soil. Here are some things you can do to protect the fungi in your yard:
- Avoid disturbing the soil – fungal networks are generally found down to approximately nine inches deep
- Avoid fertilizer where possible – fertilizer diminishes fungal diversity
- Use native plants – they support a wider diversity of fungi
- Watch this video on Fungi in the Soil