Walking amidst nature in the monsoon often gifts you with the chance to spot a mushroom. But what exactly are mushrooms, though? Where do they come from? How do they grow? Scientifically, mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungi – a group of organisms which are neither plant or animal. With all our plant blindness – the inability to notice plants around us – we are familiar with trees, and their stages of life – a germinating seed giving rise to a sapling, the sapling growing, and a mature plant which produces seeds and flowers of its own and continues the cycle in turn.
The fact that we consume food from plants, and the larger sizes of plants make them more distinctive to us and easier to recall probably helps. We are less familiar with the lives of our fungal brethren – and more likely to ignore them due to their invisibility to the naked eye, and their association with death and decay only adds to the repulsion. But is it only decaying remains that we associate with fungi? After all, humans are using them for medical research, to help produce drugs, in the process of bioremediation, and as food. Research is also uncovering the ways in which fungi engage in symbiosis with plants, trading nutrients from the soil and supplying the plants it is associated with essential mineral nutrients, and playing different roles in nutrient cycling.
Fungi, as a group, consists of both single-celled and multi-celled organisms who may reproduce sexually or asexually. They do not have chlorophyll, and hence have to obtain their nutrition from dead plant and animal matter – a mode of nutrition which is termed saprophytic. They are made up of hyphae, a filamentous thread which can grow in multiple directions, and a network of which is called a mycelium. As a part of the sexual phase of their life cycle (in which sexual reproduction occurs), fungi form fruiting bodies called mushrooms, which produce spores – the fungal equivalent of seeds – to reproduce. A typical mushroom usually consists of three parts – the cap, the gills (which bears spores) and the stalk. Mushrooms can be found growing in the forests, on living and dead trees, leaf litter, and even insects.
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India is home to an incredible variety of fungi, from the forests of the Western Ghats to the Himalayas and even the Thar Desert. These come in a diverse array of shapes, colours and sizes. Some mushrooms, like the stinkhorn, are more easily observed by the layman, due to its size and distinctive appearance. It has a brightly coloured veil draping it like a cloak. They are also easily distinguished by their stench – hence the name stinkhorn – which attracts insects which aid in its spore dispersal.
Other distinctive fungi found include the bird’s nest fungus. These have their caps in the shape of a bird’s nest, with spores contained in capsules which resemble eggs. These capsules are dislodged by the rain and release spores when conditions are suitable. Puffballs are another curious case where the mushroom cap is in the shape of a spherical ball. Spore dispersal is through a small hole at the top of its cap – the spores are released in puffs when the rains fall. A cup fungus, like those of the genus Cookeina, have a cup-shaped fruity body which may be covered in hair-like outgrowths, and their spores are contained in the lining of the cup.
Apart from these, edible Termitomyces species thrive on termite hills, and some studies suggest that termites selectively farm these. Bioluminescent fungi, like the Mycena, haunt our wet tropical forests. Coral fungi, named for their visual resemblance to corals, and come in colours like bright orange, yellow and white. Microporus and other polypores grow on wood in a diverse array of patterns and colours, all adding to the wondrous diversity and beauty we see in the natural world.
