SEPTEMBER 2013


As the Crow Flies By Doug Pifer


autumn,


Just after school starts in big


as if


mushrooms pop up overnight, looking


scattered freshly baked buns in the yard. As a kid, I remember the field where the neighborhood played baseball was a prime spot for puffballs. We called them smoke bombs and checked them daily after school. If they were white or mushy inside we’d wait. When they were finally dry, we stomped on them. Clouds of spores exploded into the air like brown smoke. Puffballs come in shapes.


sizes and


various Some


resemble cupcakes, skulls, or pincushions. Some grow singly in woods or fields, others in clumps on dead wood. One of the prettiest is the earthstar, a quarter-sized fungus that often pops up in bark mulch around flowerbeds or under a rotting dead tree. Earthstars start out like small puffballs but their tough outer husk eventually splits several ways. The husk peels


back and the fungus


resembles a tiny gray sunburst. Like other puffballs, the inside sack releases a cloud of spores when it dries out. Giant


puffballs,


gigantica, range from softball- to cantaloupe-size.


Calvatia Many


round puffball somebody


Fascinated By Fungi


grow bigger. A friend recently brought me a giant puffball she picked that was the size of a basketball. Giant puffballs are covered with an outer rind


that is


whitish to light golden brown. If you cut one open, there are no traces of stem or gills. The fresh inside is solid white with a firmness like Styrofoam. In a day or two it turns yellow and mushy, then becomes a sickly green slime. After the puffball dries, its insides are a purplish- brown honeycomb that, when broken open, releases powdery spores. I don’t recommend eating that grows in the


anything


wild. The edible giant puffball is one of a quartet of mushrooms known as the foolproof four: giant puffball, common morel, shaggy


mane, and sulfur


shelf. However, nature is NOT foolproof. Each of these four mushrooms looks like others that, while not deadly, might make you wish you were dead after you ate them. Before eating


any poisonous wild


mushroom, know three things: exactly what kind you have, what


mushroom


species it resembles, and how to tell the difference. In short, become a mushroom expert first, then a mushroom eater.


14


Fungi are fascinating. Once


placed in the plant kingdom, fungi now belong to a kingdom of their own because they share more of certain characteristics with animals. The mushroom you see above ground is just the fruiting part. A fungus is actually a network of white threads just under the surface of the soil. These threads connect with each other and with other plants—even the biggest trees.


Scientists have long known


that fungi get their nutrients from other plants.


Only


recently they discovered that this interconnecting network, called


the mycelium, allows


fungi to exchange nutrients with green plants. In fact, all plants depend upon fungi to get many nutrients vital to their survival. Certain species of mushroom contain nutrients vital to the human immune system. A pair of young American researchers recently discovered


that under laboratory conditions,


mycelium


from certain mushrooms perpetuates itself and grows into


a hard polymer that


rivals plastics. This completely organic substance is now being molded into packing material and household objects. My wife just bought a kitchen utensil made of it. It looks and feels like hard plastic, but is completely recyclable.


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