Of all the huge diversity of living organisms that have ever existed on the planet, mushrooms not only managed to survive all the historical cataclysms that occurred, but also have every chance of surviving all of us and all living things in the future. Centuries-old debates about what it is - an animal or a plant - ended with them being allocated a separate kingdom, recognizing the absolute uniqueness of their nature. These are special organisms that are not only not fully studied by humans, but have not even been fully counted yet. Older than the oldest dinosaurs, larger than the largest herd of elephants, more mysterious than the deep-sea abodes - these omnipresent creatures born in disputes are perhaps the most amazing and incredible on our planet.
Do mushrooms have intelligence?
Don't rush to smile. Japanese professor Nakagaki conducted an amazing experiment with yellow mold. Placing it at the entrance to an experimental rodent maze, he placed a piece of sugar at the opposite end. Having “smelled” the sweet smell, it began to actively release hyphae in search of prey. When they entered dead-end branches, they turned back and looked for new paths. In just a few hours, the labyrinth was completely filled, and one of the threads still found its way to sugar.
The second series of experiments was carried out with a piece of cobweb participating in the first experiment. He and a piece of sugar were placed in the starting positions of an exact copy of the first maze. What happened next shocked everyone. The mushroom instantly released only two threads. The first quickly and accurately found the path to the sweetness along an already known trajectory, without wasting energy on additional searches, and the second climbed up the wall and paved the way straight, changing the very rules of the “game”.
Transport route engineers
Inspired by the experiment described above and reflecting on the amazing ability to plot the optimal route, the professor offered his “ward” a new task. Taking a detailed map of Japan, he placed sugar cubes on its largest cities, and the mushroom itself was placed on the capital. A day later, the cobwebs were laid to all the “cities”, almost exactly repeating the railway scheme around Tokyo. It’s one thing to connect a dozen dots, and quite another to do it efficiently and economically like an engineer. Perhaps in the future, mushrooms will help people find the fastest and most effective infrastructure solutions.
Mind Masters
It has long been known that some of their species are capable of causing auditory and visual hallucinations, panic and other strange conditions in humans. But it turns out that they know how to derive direct benefit from their abilities. Thus, one-sided cordyceps, entering the ant’s body with food, zombifies it, completely taking over its will.
Ahead of man in technological progress
Man still cannot invent a technology that allows for the environmentally friendly disposal of plastic, which causes catastrophic damage to the planet. It turns out that mushrooms can do this. This species was discovered by chance in forested areas in the Amazon region. Trying to grow a representative of Pestalotiopsis microspora in an ordinary plastic container, biologists were surprised to discover that it simply consumed the plastic cup without leaving any residue.
The most gigantic living organism on Earth
What is hidden under the leaf, and what we can see with our own eyes, pick and even eat, is not the whole mushroom, but only its reproductive organ. The body of the organism is hidden in the ground, and it is impossible to get it entirely out of there due to the subtlety of the mycelium structure. However, research has determined that mycelium can stretch for many kilometers and have incredible weight. The largest one discovered occupied an area of 900 hectares and weighed tons! The largest aboveground part was discovered in 1985 in the state of Wisconia. The fruiting body weighed 140 kg and had a cap 2 m in diameter.
Opportunists
Representatives of the kingdom are able to live anywhere - in sulfuric acid, under pressure of thousands of atmospheres, and even where there is nothing at all for life - in space. Meanwhile, they are able to not only exist in such conditions, but even reproduce. Among them there are those who not only withstand doses of betrothal that are lethal for any living organism, but even prefer to eat radioactively contaminated foods.
Predators
Among the mushrooms there are also real killer predators, killing their victims not in a long and complicated way, like cordyceps, but much more simply and quickly. For example, in France, a specimen was found in a piece of amber, immured in stone right at the “crime scene” - in the process of eating a worm. How do they hunt their victims without paws or mouth? Differently.
There are those who can shoot spores at their victims at a distance of up to several meters. Once on the insect's body, they grow into it and destroy it from the inside. There are also those who set sticky trap nets. As soon as any worm touches the edge of this network, the rings instantly contract and tightly hold their prey.
Among the predatory mushrooms there are also underwater inhabitants who hunt in a similar way for small protozoa of aquatic life - amoebas, rotifers, springtails, cyclops. Then everything goes according to the usual scenario - hyphae are thrown into the victim’s body and grow rapidly. The defeat takes seconds, after which even the victim who breaks free still dies. After a day, nothing remains of the insect itself, and the fact that it managed to escape or swim away is only to the advantage of the hunter - a new mycelium will sprout at the place of death.
On a contract basis
The invasion of mushrooms into someone else's territory is not always undesirable and dangerous. Much more often in nature there are mutually beneficial alliances called mycorrhizae. It is not for nothing that many names are associated with trees - boletus, boletus, boletus. Yes, and honey mushrooms were originally “honey mushrooms.” They are all simply made for each other. The mycelium grows at the roots of the tree, launching its hyphae (special web-like processes) into it and feeds on the products of photosynthesis. The tree receives its benefits from this - moisture, scarce phosphorus and something else that these underground living organisms are able to extract much more successfully from the soil and atmosphere.
For example, beautiful orchids would not be able to reproduce without their help. Their seeds falling to the ground are completely helpless without this union, unable to either protect themselves from bacteria or find a nutrient mixture in order to germinate. All this is given to them by good allies who are with them in mycorrhiza. Because of this, orchid lovers have long been mistaken, considering the seeds of these plants to be sterile.
Don't they reproduce in captivity?
Man did learn to grow “in captivity” oyster mushrooms and champignons, which are much inferior in taste to their wild relatives, but this trick did not work with the most valuable truffles. For half a century, French chefs have been promising huge sums of money to the mycologist who can unravel the secret of their mycorrhiza, because the price of truffles rivals gold. They grow in beech forests almost underground, and finding them is a whole story involving trained pigs. But you can plant as many beech trees as you like, stuff the ground under them with truffle spores, and sit and wait for the harvest for at least a hundred years (such experiments have actually been carried out). Sitting head over heels in a nutrient medium near their favorite trees, the mysterious truffles did not want to expand their cooperation and did not pay for their care with a single tuber! This is all the more offensive since even termites have learned to grow the necessary types of mushrooms for themselves.
How can one live in the world without mushrooms?
Although there is complete disgrace going on with truffles, you can live without them for at least a thousand years. But it would be very difficult for us to do without some yeast and mold representatives. The first of them give us not only bread and kefir, but also beer and wine. The latter for the most part shirks participation in the food and alcohol program (except for the gourmet cheese covered in gourmet mold), but they work tirelessly to guard our health. Almost all modern antibiotics and mitotoxins are made on their basis - drugs that help fight fungal pathologies themselves.
What don't we know about chanterelles?
- Mushrooms can walk. Not all, but at least one of their representatives, also found in Russia. The speed of movement of the slime mold is, however, small, up to 3 cm/hour, but in its kingdom it is simply a sprinter.
- Microscopic species can fly. This is how mold appears on food and other objects. Their spores can be found in almost any room.
- One small toadstool can poison four people.
- The mushroom with the cheerful name “veselka” grows amazingly quickly, up to 5 mm/min, but not for long - only 2 days.
- In South America, Africa and even progressive Japan, it is not customary to collect wild mushrooms.
- Russula, which can be eaten even raw without harm to health, is considered inedible in Germany and France.
- The victims of mushroom poisoning were one Russian Tsar Alexander I, two Roman emperors - Claudius and Tiberius, Pope Clement VII and the French King Charles V.
- According to sociological surveys, half of Russians consume independently collected forest products, 36% of the population buys them in stores and on the market. If you believe the remaining 14%, then they have never tried wild mushrooms in their lives and do not intend to do so.
- Of the 2 million varieties of the mushroom kingdom known to man, no more than 100 thousand have been more or less studied, and not all of them have been classified.
- The same types of mushrooms on European territory have a paler appearance than their bright relatives in Asia.
- Depending on the location and growing conditions, an edible representative of the group can become poisonous.
- One raincoat can release up to 7 trillion spores at a time.
- The speed of movement of spores in the air is such that they can overtake a car - up to 25 m/sec.
- At the moment of growth of the fruiting body, its turgor pressure is comparable to the pressure in the tires of a 10-ton dump truck. The cap, completely soft to the touch, can penetrate not only asphalt, but even iron and marble slabs. If she fails to do this on her own, the mycelium will come to the rescue in destroying the barrier.
- In the tundra, where trees have dwarf growth and mushrooms have a standard growth, the latter often grow taller than the trees, which has a very spectacular appearance and gives great pleasure to the deer who eat their caps.
- Mycelium growing on rotten stumps can transfer the phosphorus formed in them to the fruiting bodies, making them glow in the dark. For example, ordinary autumn honey mushrooms can phosphorescent. The spectacle is not for the faint of heart, because the flickering is not constant, but changes with any movement of the head.
- The Evenks’ favorite pastime was feeding fly agaric mushrooms to domesticated deer, after which a jug of cheerful deer urine was passed around. If the participants in the round dance of hallucinations thought that they had not gotten enough, the process was started again, but with their own urine, since the secondary distillation did not greatly weaken the functionality of the toxic hallucinogen. Sometimes it ended fatally, but most often innocent deer fell victim to the fun.
- A considerable part of ancient prophecies is nothing more than marvelous nonsense, recorded from the words of a priest who ate mushrooms. Not all of them even tried to give these revelations any meaningful meaning. Grapes managed to stop all this mushroom bacchanalia, or rather the discovery of the products of its distillation with all their pleasant and less dangerous consequences.
Inky dung beetle.
Pale grebe.
Porphyritic fly agaric.
Mushrooms as a food product should be treated very carefully. There were times when the word "mushroom" was identified with the word "death." This happened when, out of ignorance, negligence, or even malicious intent, edible mushrooms were confused with poisonous ones. Back in Ancient Rome, Emperor Claudius died after “eating” on mushrooms prepared by Agrippina, thereby opening the way to the throne for her son Nero.
In Europe there are up to 100 species of fungi that are dangerous to human health. It is not possible to list them all; we will only mention that they are divided into three groups: conditionally edible, inedible and poisonous. Conditionally edible are mushrooms containing toxic or irritating substances, which are usually destroyed by special types of processing. Inedible mushrooms are mushrooms that have an unpleasant odor, bitter or pungent taste. Such mushrooms do not cause poisoning, but can cause digestive disorders and discomfort. And finally, the group of poisonous mushrooms includes mushrooms containing toxins that are not destroyed by any cooking methods.
The most poisonous and deadly mushrooms are considered to be the toadstool and two mushrooms similar to it: the white fly agaric and the stinking fly agaric. Then follows the orange-red poisonous spider web, the most special spider web, and the red fly agaric. All killer mushrooms are lamellar. Fatal poisoning with toadstool can be obtained from eating one, half or even a third of the mushroom! The fast-acting toxin it contains, phalloidin, affects the liver and kidneys, as does the even more toxic but slower-acting amanitin.
It is necessary to dwell on this type of mushroom, such as the shimmering and inky dung beetle. This mushroom should not be consumed with alcoholic beverages, since the toxin it contains easily dissolves in alcohol. When drinking alcohol, even in small quantities, the toxin is quickly absorbed into the blood and after an hour or two causes characteristic signs of poisoning.
You should know that poisoning can also be caused by eating even good edible mushrooms if they are collected overgrown, worm-eaten, and have begun to decompose or deteriorate during storage or transportation. It has been noted that, all other things being equal, young mushrooms are less toxic and that in hot, dry summers the toxicity of mushrooms increases.
Poisoning caused by mushrooms canned at home is dangerous if they were prepared without taking into account the necessary rules of hygiene and sterilization regime. Moreover, in addition to poisoning from mushroom poisons, you can also get severe poisoning from botulism toxin!
There is no single reliable sign by which poisonous mushrooms can be distinguished from non-poisonous ones. The basic rule that should be followed to prevent poisoning is not to pick unfamiliar mushrooms. Don't take risks! Remember, the price of risk is life! Do not collect old, wormy mushrooms. Be sure to sort the mushrooms on the day of collection. Boil all mushrooms, no matter how you prepare them, for 15-20, or even 30 minutes, changing the water. It is very useful, if you find yourself in an unfamiliar forest, to go for mushrooms for the first time with an experienced local mushroom picker.
You shouldn’t give up forest delicacies, but mushroom lovers should know how things really are.
The magazine "Science and Life" has written about mushrooms many times. In old files, we advise you to find an article by Doctor of Biological Sciences M. Gorlenko and Candidate of Biological Sciences L. Garibova “Mushrooms of our forests” (“Science and Life” No. 5, 1972, p. 155).
Mushrooms are interesting to people for many reasons - nutritional value is not the main point in this regard. So, despite all the achievements of science, scientists could not solve the simplest question: what these same mushrooms are and to which kingdom they belong. After all, mushrooms cannot be considered either plants or animals. As a result, it was decided to classify it as a separate kingdom of fungi, and this classification is maintained to this day. But despite the fact that the issue of classification was resolved, there were no fewer surprising moments in the study of mushrooms.
You can cite a lot of interesting facts that will surprise any person - you can learn new things about mushrooms endlessly.
The most poisonous and healthiest mushrooms
Perhaps every person who goes mushroom hunting is worried about the possibility of an unpleasant find - a dangerous, poisonous mushroom. There are many of these, and the most poisonous on the entire planet are the panther fly agaric and the toadstool. Both mushrooms can be found in Russian forests, you need to know them by sight, this is the only way to avoid risk. After all, no treatment removes poisons from fruiting bodies; even temperature will be powerless. And just one small pale toadstool is enough to poison 3-4 people. However, people still collect mushrooms or buy them, because the beneficial properties of the edible fruiting bodies are extremely high.
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Why are mushrooms useful?
It is worth citing at least these points as an example:
- Chanterelles are able to remove radiation from the body and contain a lot of rare vitamins;
- Porcini mushroom is not inferior in nutritional value to meat;
- The iron content in boletus is approximately the same as in meat;
- Milk mushrooms, porcini mushrooms and boletus can completely replace meat in the human diet;
- All mushrooms are able to produce vitamin D under the sun - this property is characteristic of animals. But at the same time, they follow the sun, grow and are drawn to it, orient themselves to its light like plants, and scientists do not yet know why;
- Mushrooms have virtually no cholesterol.
It is also worth noting that some mushrooms are highly valued all over the world. Thus, a truffle, depending on its variety, will cost the buyer 3-7 dollars per 1 gram of product, although in some cases the price turns out to be much higher. And the largest volumes of mushrooms for sale are supplied by China - it is from this country that up to 80 percent of the fruiting bodies come, which then end up in store packages and in restaurants. In China, both local mushrooms and many others that are in demand on the world market are confidently cultivated.
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Why are mushrooms not plants?
Other interesting facts about mushrooms
In addition to their nutritional qualities, there are many other interesting things to tell about mushrooms. After all, among them there are long-livers, and organisms with accelerated growth, and other remarkable varieties. Thus, it is worth citing the following facts as an example:
- Some mushrooms can cause rain. In the American rainforests, mycelium produces huge numbers of spores that rise into the air and circulate until they fall as rain. It is worth noting that it is these spores that become centers of steam condensation and stimulate precipitation;
- Mushrooms are extremely ancient creatures. The oldest one found was 420 million years old, found in a fossil in 1859;
- Mushrooms reproduce by spores, and they have the hardest shell of all existing on the planet. Protected by chitin, which is also found in the structure of insect shells;
Surely many inquisitive people would like to know which mushroom can be considered the largest in the world. Here it is worth recalling that a mushroom is not only a fruiting body, but also the entire mycelium system that is attached to it. And therefore, scientists call the largest such formation the largest living organism on the planet. This is a honey mushroom in Oregon, found in the highlands. It occupies 2384 acres and has existed for at least 2.5 thousand years.
- Thanks to excellent protection, spores can be stored for decades and centuries, waiting for the right opportunity to be born. At the same time, they remain capable of producing a new mycelium throughout this time;
- And even the myceliums that are born have amazing vitality. Thus, during a study of the Chernobyl reactor in 2002, the presence of mycelium was discovered - they withstand radiation well;
