Volume 10, Number 1 January 2011

The
Cambrias Fungi Kingdom
Many of you likely have noticed the amazing diversity of mushrooms this year but did you know that mushrooms are only the visible part of a much larger fungi living under ground? When you think of fungi, you probably think of the mushrooms we can buy at the supermarket or hunt for in the woods. However, those "mushrooms" are really just special structures called "fruiting bodies" produced by the fungus for reproduction. The rest of the fungus (and the biggest part) lives below the ground. What is probably the largest living organism known to exist on earth is the honey mushroom and was discovered in the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon. This fungus is 3.5 miles across, the size of 1,665 football fields. That is an area nearly as big as the Cambria Monterey pine forest!! Though the appearance of many fungi may resemble plants, they are probably more closely related to animals. Fungi are not capable of performing photosynthesis, so they must get their nourishment from other sources. Many fungi absorb nutrients directly from the soil. Many others feed on dead and decaying organisms and therefore have an important role in the recycling of nutrients in natural systems. Still others feed on living organisms. Athlete's foot is a common fungus which feeds on a living host - you! Fungi come in a wide variety of sizes and forms, and many have great economic importance. Tiny one-celled yeasts are important for baking breads and fermenting wines, beers and vinegars. Many medicines are produced with the help of fungi, most notably, the antibiotic, Penicillin

Insider
If you leave your bread on the counter too long, you'll be able to observe a relative of the Penicillium mold for yourself! The number of known fungi is nearing 100,000. Discovery of unknown plant and animals still happen on earth and the same would be true of fungi. Cambria seems to have a wide diversity of mushrooms including endo and ecto mycorrhizal. When you look under the forest litter you may notice a tiny network of white roots of fungi or mycelia.The former colonizes the roots of plants and the latter forms a hyphal relationship at the root tip and nutrients, sugars and starches are shared between the two organisms that is to say between the trees and the fungus. Restoration experts have an increased knowledge of the essential requirement of soil fungi and the successful restoration of land that has been abused. Without the fungi plant growth is less successful and plants are not nearly as vigorous. So when you plant a pine or oak be sure to toss in some duff to help inoculate your trees roots with the fungi that is part of our underground ecosystem. Protecting this amazing plant relationship is a responsibility of all forest dwellers including government agencies in the coastal zone. How best to achieve keeping this relationship productive is NOT to cut all your vegetation to a putting green height during defensible space vegetation clearing. The law does not require you to destroy all habitats but the law does require homeowners to be sensible about fuel ladders and keeping unreasonable amounts of woody debris away from structures.
Photo Credits: Brad Seek. Some information from the National Earth Science Teachers Association