I was looking for mushrooms in the museum's little patch of forest. It's a bit too early, still too dry; the forest is on a slope and is well drained. I followed all the criss-crossing trails and saw no mushrooms at all. But then, near the edge of the forest, on the way back to the car, I turned over a broken piece of bark, and there they were. Not the usual view of mushrooms, though.
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Mycelium; the working body of the mushrooms. With a couple of springtails. |
While I looked for mushrooms, I had been walking across them, passing them by. They had been unseen, under my feet, in the soil, in the duff, wrapped around the roots I stumbled over on the trail, or higher up in the trunks of the trees. The "mushrooms" I had been hoping to see were only the fruiting bodies; the bulk of the fungi, the mycelia, are hidden.
Imagine if the apple tree grew underground in your yard and you only became aware of it when apples suddenly emerged from the soil! (NatureAlberta)
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Mycelium under a rock. |
The individual fungus is potentially immortal, because it continues to grow at the hyphal tips as long as conditions remain favourable. It is possible that, in undisturbed places, mycelia exist that have grown continuously for many thousands of years. (Britannica)
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Buscaba hongos en el bosquecito del museo. Es algo temprano, y la tierra ahí sigue seca; el bosque está en un declive con muy buen drenaje. Travesé todos los senderos que cruzan el sitio sin ver ni un solo hongo. Pero antes de regresar al estacionamiento, casi en el borde del bosque, volteé un pedazo de corteza caída y ¡ahí estaban!. Aunque no eran lo que normalmente llamamos hongos.
- Micelio; el cuerpo funcional de un hongo. Con dos colémbolos.
- Micelio encontrado debajo de un piedra.
¡Imagina que el manzano fuera a crecer bajo la tierra en tu jardín y no te dieras cuenta hasta que las manzanas de repente sugieran del suelo! (NatureAlberta)
El hongo particular tiene la potencia de ser inmortal, porque sigue creciendo desde las puntas de las hifas en cuanto las condiciones siguen favorables. Es posible que, en sitios inalterados, existan micelios que han crecido continuamente durante muchos miles de años. (Britannica)
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