MAMALAND MUSHROOM FARMS.: WEIRD FACTS ABOUT MUSHROOMS.

Friday, April 15, 2016

WEIRD FACTS ABOUT MUSHROOMS.

Mushrooms are more closely related in DNA to humans than to plants.
Like human skin,mushrooms can produce vitamin D by being exposed to sunlight.In fact, exposing a freshly cut shiitake mushroom, gills up, to the sun for eight hours can increase its vitamin D content by as much as 4,600 times!
There are approximately 70 miles of mycelium (the root of the mushroom) in one square inch of colonized organic matter,such as a decomposing tree trunk.
The Honey Mushroom (Armillaria ostoyae) is the world’s largest known organism.This massive organism covers 2,384 acres (nearly four square miles) of soil in Oregon’s Blue Mountains.The fungus is estimated to be 2,400 years old but could be as ancient as 8,650 years.
Psathyrella aquatica is a gilled mushroom that lives completely under water.
There are more amino acids in mushrooms than in corn, peanuts,or soybeans.
Mycelium can use toxic substances such as oil and e coli bacteria as a food source.
The Mycena family of fungus contains more than 70 species of mushrooms that glow in the dark.These mushrooms produce light by a chemical reaction called bioluminescence.In the past, people illuminated their way through the woods using these glowing pieces of fungus-colonized wood.
In the Amazon Rainforest,mushrooms release spores high into the air, creating the surface for water to condense,thus triggering rain.A feedback loop is created as the rain promotes more fungal growth.
Over 80 percent of all terrestrial plants have a mycorrhizal relationship with a fungal species.The roots of the plants have a symbiotic relationship with the underground mycelium.Mycelium nourishes the plant’s roots, and in turn,the plant transfers nutrients to the mycelium.
Fungi use antibiotics to fend off other microorganisms that compete with them for food.
The antibiotic penicillin was derived from the fungal species Penicillium.