Written by: Riddhis Sharma - 26006, Grade IX
Posted on: 26 January, 2023
Generally mushrooms grow in moist and humid places like rotten logs of wood, tree trunks, decaying organic matter etc. Mushrooms are members of the Fungi. They are achlorophyllous, meaning they do not contain green pigment called chlorophyll. Mushrooms are incapable of making their own food so they get food from decomposing dead and decaying organic matter. While mushrooms are delicious and most people like them, all mushrooms are not edible, some may be poisonous too. Pleurotus ostreatus (Kanye Chyau), Agaricus bisporus (Gobre Chyau), Agaricus Brunnescens (White button mushrooms), field mushrooms (Agaricus campestris) and Lentinus edodes (Shitake chyau) are some of the examples of edible mushrooms.
Structure of mushrooms
The body of mushrooms divides into vegetative body which is the mycelium and the fruiting body which is the reproductive body. The mycelium consists of thread-like segmented hyphae grown in the substratum. The hyphae is the thread-like structure that forms the mycelium and the fruiting body. The mycelium absorbs soluble food from the substratum. The mycelia are of two types. They are monokaryotic primary mycelia and dikaryotic secondary mycelia. Primary mycelia have short lives and they raise the long lived secondary dikaryotic mycelia through somatogamy which is the process of fusing of their two compatible hyphae. Secondary mycelium produces aerial basidiocarps and basidiocarps have fleshy stalks or also known as stipe and an umbrella shaped cap known as pileus. The mushrooms usually have five parts. They are Pileus, annulus, gills, stipe and the mycelial connection.
Life cycle
Early in the life cycle of a fungus, it begins as a spore. The spores that fall to the ground come from mature fungi. It then germinates by mitotic division to produce a thread-like filament called Hyphae.The mycelium is a long filament branching from a germinated spore. It is made up of the mycelium of a fungus and is the main source of vegetation and its growth.
When two different types of mycelium meet, they combine and form a dinuclear cell. This is called plasmogamy, the stage of sexual reproduction in the fungal family.From then on, the life cycle of a fungus begins. The mycelium then grows further when the right conditions for its growth are met. Such as the temperature, moisture of the soil and the nutrients it receives. This stage in the life of a fungus is called the dikaryotic stage. It's a stage of life just for the mushroom family. As small mushrooms grow, some of them will become pre-determined or indeterminate. So what are predetermined and indeterminate mushrooms?These white pigments that form this Hyphal node are called Primordial. Primordium will continue to grow until a clear fungal form is formed.While an unknown fungus cannot be identified. The growing mushroom cannot be identified until it is ready to be harvested.When a mushroom reaches full size, it begins the process of producing spores. It releases spores into the soil continuing the life cycle of the fungus.Mushrooms that have completed spore production can now be harvested and marketed.
