Mush, mush and more mush!

This is pretty neat! It was on the soccer field next to my Life-Fit class this afternoon. I thought it was because it had been raining so much- and just had to shoot it. Came home and googled it- and this is what I found!

The name fairy ring comes from an old folk-tale. People once believed that mushrooms growing in a circle followed the path made by fairies dancing in a ring. Fairy rings are found in open grassy places and in forests.

The largest fairy ring in North America is recorded at Olympic National Park and spread over 600 feet in diameter, meaning those fungal systems are 500 to 700 years old. One ring formed in France by the fungus Clitocybe geotropa is almost a half mile (600 m) in diameter. This ring is thought to be 700 years old.

Can you imagine?

So... just what causes a fairy ring? Imagine my surprise to discover that all those 'shrooms are part of just one organism!

A huge threadlike, musty-smelling mass, called a mycelium, lies beneath the Fairy Ring. This fungus is the culprit. It starts small, maybe a spore or with fungus pieces. Growing outward in all directions, it secretes chemicals in the ground ahead to prepare the way. The chemicals break down living matter and release nutrients for the advancing fungus.

For a brief time, the grass ahead flourishes. Then the fungus reaches the lush area and feeds. Like an advancing horde, the fungus strips the land of food, moves on, and abandons the stripped turf. That's why it forms a widening ring-to gain new ground and food. That's why the grass behind dies-it starves. Mushrooms, the fruit of the fungus, spring up just behind the outer edge of the fungus.

Cool, huh?

~S