In autumn, the most mysterious inhabitants of our planet - mushrooms - become the heroes of the day. They go to bow to them, they talk about them, they gather them to the table ... And in St. Petersburg they even arrange a special annual exhibition of mushrooms, where, like at the first ball of Natasha Rostova, they introduce newcomers.
Despite the fact that the herbarium of the Botanical Garden already contains about 350,000 samples of 30,000 species of described fungi, the discovery of new ones occurs regularly.
Organisms in reverse
A mushroom is not an animal or a plant, but something very special, it is not for nothing that biologists distinguish them into a separate kingdom. Why?
Olga Morozova, Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Systematics and Geography of Fungi at the Botanical Institute, explains:
Mushrooms have long been considered plants due to their immobile lifestyle. However, they are characterized by a fundamentally different type of nutrition, they do not have photosynthesis. Mushrooms cannot synthesize organic substances themselves, like plants, but consume ready-made ones, like animals. At the same time, fungi are organisms in reverse. Their body - mycelium - consists of the thinnest filaments - hyphae, which can be compared to an intestine turned inside out. Only if in animal organisms enzymes are produced inside the intestines, where food is digested, then the fungal mycelium releases enzymes into the external environment, into the substrate in which it lives, decomposing it and absorbing decomposition products.
By the way, mushrooms are rightfully considered the most ancient (they are more than 400 million years old) and the largest living organisms on the planet.
Forest Internet
Avid mushroom pickers have many signs and beliefs. For example, it is believed that a mushroom seen by a person, but not plucked, will certainly wither. Or: the mycelium is able to transmit the necessary signals to its "organs", so when you entered the forest, the mushrooms already know about it. If they want to, they will run out to meet them; if they don’t want to, they will hide.
Mycologists consider much of this mythology to be empty fiction. Nevertheless, Olga Morozova explains:
The real life of a mushroom organism is hidden from us, we often do not even realize what complex relationships develop between the myceliums of different fungi. It is interesting that macromycetes (the so-called forest cap mushrooms are also called) always have a retinue of micromycetes - fungi that can only be seen under a microscope.
As for the signals that fungi communicate with each other ... Of course, they do not have a nervous system, but such a large organism must function smoothly, and therefore changes that occur in one part of the mycelium, of course, are transmitted to other parts of it. In addition, fungi are able to form mutually beneficial relationships with woody plants - mycorrhiza, supplying plants with water and minerals and receiving organic substances directly from them. Considering that one fungus is associated with several plants, and one plant with several fungal organisms, it turns out that the mycelium connects all members of a diverse forest community, like our Internet. How this "underground web" works is not fully understood.
Why do they run out on the roads
As a mushroom picker who has lived in Siberia for many years, I know that mushrooms often "run out" onto trails, paths, and even to an asphalt highway. I was always surprised by this fact: it would seem that you came for mushrooms - go deeper into the forest. But no! You usually find the richest harvest in unexpected places, like boletus and white ones really "come out" to bow to you. Olga Morozova is not surprised by this fact:
Fruiting bodies in the largest number are formed in places of some violations of the mycelium. This is a common property of the living - when adverse conditions occur, the danger of moving on to sexual reproduction, so that in the event of death, offspring remain, perhaps more adapted to the new conditions of life. That is why mushrooms are more often found on the edges, along the paths, that is, where human intervention in mushroom life is most active.
Is it possible to eat boletus
It's funny: despite the fact that mushrooms are the most ancient inhabitants of our planet, they began to be used for food relatively recently. Moreover, in different countries and even in different regions of our Fatherland, the traditions of eating mushrooms vary greatly. So, Vladimir Nabokov, describing his childhood in St. Petersburg, recalls that his mother, a passionate lover of picking mushrooms, treated with contempt all kinds of lamellar (up to chanterelles and saffron mushrooms), paying tribute only to boletuses - white, boletus, boletus. And my husband's Siberian ancestors, for example, considered only mushrooms to be a "real mushroom": everything else in his great-grandmother's family was listed as second grade. At the same time, the inhabitants of the tundra, Khanty and Mansi, laugh at Russians who consider mushrooms a delicacy: in their opinion, this is food "only for deer."
Olga Morozova tells how, at one of the scientific conferences, a Norwegian colleague taught those present to eat porcini mushrooms "the Norwegian way": raw. In this mushroom country, by the way, in general, the attitude towards mushrooms is peculiar: every summer and autumn, special "control posts" are set up on the roads leading from the forests, where experienced mushroom pickers are on duty. They help the neophytes, who collect all sorts of things in their baskets, to make out which mushroom can be carried from the forest to the kitchen, to the table, and which one is better to throw away right away. By the way, one of our compatriots, who has been living in Norway for a long time, told how such a “green patrol” strongly advised her to remove and throw away wonderful aspen mushrooms from her basket - according to the Norwegians, they are absolutely unsuitable for food.
In the middle lane, in the Urals, in Siberia, in the North-West, it is customary to subject mushrooms to a sufficiently long heat treatment before eating to protect themselves from toxins. However, at the same time, many useful biologically active substances are also destroyed. Knowledge of the diversity of fungi and their properties can resolve this contradiction.
By the way, about 1300 species of hat mushrooms are known in the Leningrad region. Of these, only about 40 are traditionally used as food, although there are many more little-known edible mushrooms. But there are mushrooms, the ingestion of even small pieces of which can be fatal. For example, in the same Leningrad region, at least 6 species of poisonous fly agaric alone are known, among which there is also a deadly poisonous pale grebe. And in some cobweb mushrooms, the poisonous properties are all the more dangerous because they can appear only two weeks after consumption.
Cheese mushroom sticks
Roll out one layer of puff yeast dough half a centimeter thick, grease half of it with a mixture of mushroom caviar and grated cheese, cover with the second half and roll out again. Then cut into strips about one and a half centimeters wide and twist them into spirals 8-10 times. Lay the finished spirals on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Bake at 180 degrees until golden.
Do the same with the second layer of dough. For 0.5 kg of dough 100-120 grams of mushroom caviar and 100-120 grams of cheese.
New discoveries in mycology, new wonderful finds of St. Petersburg mushroom pickers were discussed at the exhibition, which traditionally takes place in the Botanical Garden. And its organizers, members of the St. Petersburg Mycological Society (SPbMikO), publish the popular science magazine "Planet of Mushrooms" and organize regular bus excursions to the forest. But not to fill the baskets with mushrooms. First of all - to teach the townspeople to navigate among the inhabitants of the "third kingdom".
At first, biologists combined fungi and plants into one kingdom of plants, but after a series of studies, studying the structure and vital activity of fungi, they were separated into a separate group.
Mushrooms really have similar characteristics, both with the plant and animal world, they are the most numerous organisms on our Earth.
Common with plants:
- The cell wall, which is located under the main membrane;
- passive lifestyle;
- reproduce by means of spores;
- The root system absorbs nutrients from the soil.
Common with animals:
- The cell membrane contains chitin;
- heterotrophic nutrition;
- there are no chloroplasts in the cells;
- glycogen is the main nutrient.
Cap mushrooms belong to the group of higher mushrooms, united in the class Besidia. Found in forests, swampy areas, meadows.
Structural features of cap mushrooms
The body of a cap mushroom always has a mycelium and a fruit part. The fruit body is divided into a stump and a hat. And so their name was formed - hat mushrooms.
Mycelium- These are white filamentous formations that branch in loose soil. They are built from oblong cells arranged in a row. They have many nuclei, but lack plastids. The body of the fungus is presented as a dense accumulation of hyphae filaments.
The stem threads have a similar structure, and in the cap area they form 2 balls. In the upper ball of cells there are pigments that give different types of mushrooms a characteristic color. Depending on the structure of the underlying layer, cap mushrooms are divided into tubular and lamellar.
- At tubular the lower ball is built from many tubular elements (in boletus, representatives of the genus Leccinum);
- at lamellar the lower layer is a collection of peculiar plates (in russula, milk mushrooms).
reproduction
Division is carried out by spore cells. The fruit bodies of cap mushrooms serve to produce spores, they are formed:
- In the cavity of the tubules;
- between the plates of the cap, which diverge radially from the center.
After ripening, the spores spill out and spread with the help of the wind over long distances. Insects on their paws carry spores throughout the forest, they are also spread by rodents that feed on mushrooms. The spores are not destroyed by the action of gastric juice and enzymes, they simply come out along with other undigested food debris.
Once on the soil enriched with organic matter and moisture, spores take root and give life to new organisms. First, the threads of the mycelium branch. This process is very slow. Only after reaching the required length and accumulating a sufficient amount of nutrients, the formation of the fruiting body begins. Fruiting bodies begin to appear in the first days of May, but rapid development and growth are possible after the onset of rains.
Nutrition
Cap fungus cells lack plastids with chlorophyll and are not capable of synthesizing organic substances on their own. They consume only prepared foods, which are absorbed by the threads of the mycelium from the moist soil. So they adsorb mineral salts, water, nutrients.
Some mushrooms feed on the roots of trees near which they grow. Most hats are saprotrophs, that is, they obtain organic compounds by destroying the remains of dead plants or animals.
Why do many hat mushrooms only grow near trees??
This is due to the symbiotic relationship between tree roots and fungal hyphae. During this form of cohabitation, both organisms benefit from it.
Mycelium with its hyphae surrounds the root and grows through the wall of its cells. When the mycelium adsorbs moisture and mineral salts from the ground, they also pass into the root system of the tree. The old parts of the root are devoid of root hairs, and the filaments of the fungus seem to replace them. From the root of the tree, the fungus takes already synthesized organic substances that are needed for the nutrition and growth of the fruiting body.
The vital activity of the hat
Development stages:
- Vegetative. Associated with the accumulation of nutrients, preparation for germination.
- reproductive- direct growth of the fruiting body from the rudiment to the final formation. The average duration of this period is 2 weeks.
If the mushroom has not been cut, it smolders and thus additionally nourishes the mycelium.
The vital activity of cap mushrooms is closely related to weather conditions. They grow well in moist and warm environments. With the first warming and rains, morels sprout in late April or early May, followed by champignons. If the weather is dry, mushrooms will germinate only in the middle of summer. And with the advent of early cold weather, their growth stops.
Inedible cap mushrooms
pale grebes easily confused with mushrooms. To distinguish them, you need to turn the hat over and look at the color: the pale grebe has a light green color, and the champignons are light pink.
fly agaric stands out for its red hat with randomly scattered white dots. You can also find fly agarics with a grayish hat, they have the same structure, they differ only in color.
Inedible gall fungus similar to edible white. But on its leg at the top you can see a pattern that looks like a grid of gray or black. And if it is broken, the flesh acquires a reddish tint.
false chanterelles differ from edible chanterelles in a hat with a reddish tint, without bends. Breaking off a piece of the cap of an inedible chanterelle, whitish juice will stand out from it.
Edible cap mushrooms
Porcini distributed in coniferous and mixed forests. It has a yellowish tint, sometimes turning into a brownish red. Hat sizes vary from 7 to 30 cm in diameter.
Chanterelles- small mushrooms growing in groups in forest glades. Red color and wavy hat, characteristic features of chanterelles.
boletus has a light brown color, grows near birch, entering into symbiosis with it. The height of the legs can reach 15 cm in height, and the hat up to 20 cm in diameter.
Champignon can often be seen along the paths of the park area. Widely used in cooking and grown in artificial conditions.
The vital activity of fungi in nature proceeds under the influence of many environmental factors, which are particularly diverse on land, where most modern species live. These are the chemical composition of the substrate, humidity and air temperature, the concentration of carbon dioxide and oxygen in it, precipitation, wind speed, solar radiation intensity, interaction with other living organisms, anthropogenic impacts.
Heterotrophs and saprotrophs
Mushrooms differ greatly in their ability to absorb various organic compounds. Some can consume only simple carbohydrates, alcohols, organic acids (sugar mushrooms), others are able to secrete hydrolytic enzymes that decompose starch, proteins, cellulose, chitin and grow on substrates containing these substances.
Among saprotrophs, highly specialized groups are sometimes found. An example is keratinophils, which decompose the stable animal protein keratin and grow on tissues containing it (horns, hooves, hair). Such mushrooms have avoided competition with other fast growing mushrooms by occupying such a specific substrate.
Related content:
Mushrooms belonged to lower plants until the end of the 20th century. In 1970, they were finally separated into a separate kingdom of Mushrooms, because. have a number of features that distinguish them from plants and bring them closer to animals.
general characteristics
Kingdom mushrooms are unicellular and multicellular organisms. At present, taxonomists have counted more than 100 thousand species of fungi.
Fungi are heterotrophic organisms that do not have chlorophyll. They occupy an intermediate position between animals and plants, as they are characterized by a number of properties that bring them closer to animals and plants.
Common signs of fungi and animals:
- There is chitin in the cell membrane;
- as a reserve product, they accumulate glycogen, not starch;
- as a result of the exchange, urea is formed;
- lack of chloroplasts and photosynthetic pigments;
Common signs of fungi and plants:
- Unlimited growth;
- absorption nutrition, i.e. not swallowing food, but absorption;
- the presence of a pronounced cell wall;
- reproduction by spores;
- immobility;
- ability to synthesize vitamins.
Mushroom nutrition
Many species of the fungi kingdom live in cohabitation (symbiosis) with algae and with higher plants. Mutually beneficial cohabitation of fungal mycelium with the roots of higher plants forms mycorrhiza (for example, boletus with birch, boletus with aspen).
Many higher plants (trees, durum wheat, etc.) cannot grow normally without mycorrhiza. Fungi receive oxygen, root secretions, and nitrogen-free compounds from higher plants. Mushrooms “help” higher plants to assimilate hard-to-reach substances from humus by activating the activity of enzymes of higher plants, promote carbohydrate metabolism, fix free nitrogen, which is used by higher plants in a number of compounds, give them growth substances, vitamins, etc.
The Kingdom of Mushrooms is conditionally divided into lower and higher. The basis of the vegetative body of fungi is the mycelium, or mycelium. Mycelium consists of thin threads, or hyphae, similar to fluff. These threads are inside the substrate on which the fungus lives.
Most often, the mycelium occupies a large surface. Through mycelium nutrients are absorbed by osmosis. The mycelium of lower fungi either divides into cells, or there are no intercellular partitions.
Uninuclear or multinucleated fungal cells are in most cases covered with a thin cell membrane. Under it is the cytoplasmic membrane, enveloping the cytoplasm.
In the cell of fungi there are enzymes, proteins and such organelles (lysosomes) in which proteins are broken down by proteolytic enzymes. Mitochondria are similar to those in higher plants. Vacuoles contain reserve nutrients: glycogen, lipids, fatty acids, fats, etc.
Edible mushrooms contain many vitamins and mineral salts. Approximately 50% of the dry mass of mushrooms are nitrogenous substances, of which about 30% are proteins.
Fungi reproduce asexually:
- Specialized cells - spores;
- vegetatively - parts of the mycelium, budding.
The process of sporulation may be preceded by the sexual process, which is very diverse in fungi. A zygote can be formed as a result of the fusion of somatic cells specialized in gametes and germ cells - gametes (formed in the genital organs - gametangia). The resulting zygote germinates immediately or after a dormant period and gives rise to hyphae with organs of sexual sporulation, in which spores are formed.
Spores of various fungi are spread by insects, various animals, humans and air currents.
The value of mushrooms in nature and human life
Molds settle on food, in the soil, on vegetables and fruits. They cause spoilage of benign products (bread, vegetables, berries, fruits, etc.). Most of these fungi are saprophytes. However, some mold fungi are the causative agents of contagious diseases of humans, animals and plants. For example, the Trichophyton fungus causes ringworm in humans and animals.
Everyone is well aware of the unicellular fungus mukor, or white mold, which settles on vegetables, bread and horse manure. Initially, white mold has a fluffy coating, and over time it turns black, as rounded heads (sporangia) are formed on the mycelium, in which a huge number of dark-colored spores are formed.
Antibiotics are obtained from a number of mold genera (penicillin, aspergillus).
