Welcome to the world of mushrooms. After most rainy or humid days if you take a quick walk through nature you are bound to see mushrooms popping up. Sometimes they are in plain site and other times they hide in the shadows of the ground cover. How many different mushrooms are there in the world? No one really knows, but one thing is for sure, there are thousands of them.
For this photo essay we ‘ll be documenting any mushrooms we see through our travels. Since we’re already in the Dominican Republic I have accumulated a collection from here to share with you. As we hop from place to place you will be able to see the diversity in mushrooms that the world has to offer. As the list gets bigger I will be categorizing them into the parts of the world in which they where found and photographed.
I don’t know too much about mushroom species so if you know the name of any of the mushrooms here feel free to let us know so that we can update all of our pictures with the name of the species.
What are mushrooms?
A mushroom is a means that the fungus uses to reproduce. Fungi create a network below the surface that can span an incredible distance. The largest organism found on earth (to this day) is actually a fungal colony that covers 2,384 acres, which is around 1,600 football fields. Through this network, when the conditions are right, the organism pops up mushrooms containing its spores. The mushrooms last as long as the outside conditions allow them to and they release tiny spores into the atmosphere. For more about the largest organism found to this date check out Scientific American.
What is a spore?
Spores are the means by which mushrooms reproduce and they set another record in the world record book. To this date they are the fastest thing on the planet, shooting out at 180,000 g. To put that number into perspective a space shuttle pulls around 4-5 g’s which means 4 to 5 times the force of gravity. So at five G’s a person weighing 100lbs would weigh 500lbs. Below you can check out a slow-mo video of a spore firing and some more details about how it all works.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5teg5DOIGC8&w=708]
So the the mushroom currently holds two world records, the largest organism as well as the fastest thing on the planet. Now enjoy the diversity that these little guys give off.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Clever idea! i actually never used to like mushrooms up until a year ago. ha :)
hope you’re having a fabulous time in the dominican republic!
Thanks Lauren,
Your Copenhagen photo is very nice :)
Thanks! It took me a while to start liking mushrooms as well. My parents use to make those big portabelo mushrooms and it took me a pretty long time before I even dared to try it.
What a bizarre yet cool idea for a post! You should head to the Czech Republic – apparently Czechs take foraging for mushrooms EXTREMELY seriously, and it’s an activity that almost all families participate in. One of my friends told me that she went along with a Czech family to their ‘secret’ location – they blindfolded her on the drive there so she couldn’t give anyone directions!
I used to go mushroom picking in France when I was a kid, but we were never THAT hardcore about it!! Thanks for the cool insight Tom!
That sounds awesome. I’ll make sure to keep that in mind if we make it around that area =)
Mushrooms are really photogenic but they kind of freak me out a bit! Always have. As a kid I’d walk metres around them just so I didn’t have to get too close!
They are very interesting creatures :)
I do believe so. I do believe your report will give people a good telling. And they will express thanks to you later