In conjunction with Meatless Monday today, we celebrate mushrooms! They not only provide us with nutrition; they made our world!
From helping plants to colonize terrestrial earth to treating disease in humans, is there anything fungi can’t do?
The amazing report: https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/features/fungi-are-responsible-for-life-on-land-as-we-know-it
Fungi drove evolution on land and were once the tallest lifeforms on the planet!
The article ends with this:
Fungi are master decomposers that keep our forests alive
Without fungi to aid in decomposition, all life in the forest would soon be buried under a mountain of dead plant matter.
“[Fungi] are the garbage disposal agents of the natural world,” according to Cardiff University biosciences professor Lynne Boddy. “They break down dead, organic matter and by doing that they release nutrients and those nutrients are then made available for plants to carry on growing.”
“It’s how everything is reborn,” says Dunn. “So that this entire web of life is connected and it’s connected through the fungi.”
In short, fungi eat death, and in doing so, create new life.
Let’s teach our children: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnRDzotcQ9U