If you’re living on a farm or near any wooded area that is shady and moist, then you’re familiar with those fleshy things that grow out of rotten wood or at the foot of trees. They’re called mushrooms and they’re the spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus. Typically, mushrooms have a stem, a cap, and gills found on the cap’s underside. The term, however, can also be applied to other varieties of gilled fungi with or without the stems.

Anatomy of a Mushroom

Unlike plants, a mushroom produces spores instead of seeds. These spores are produced on the gills and they fall down like fine powder from under the caps. These spores are microscopic in size with each mushroom capable of producing hundreds of thousands of spores.

Many people believe that mushrooms grow at an alarming rate. The truth is — all mushrooms take several days to form into primordial fruitbodies, although they do expand rapidly upon absorption of water or other fluids. Not all mushrooms expand at a fast rate — some grow very slowly and add tissues to their bodies by growing at the edge of a colony or by inserting hyphae, the long branching cells of a fungus.

Most mushroom fruitbodies are small and rather short-lived; however, the mycelial colony can be very massive and long-lived. For example, in the Malheur National Forest in the United States, there is a colony of Armillaria ostoyae mushroom that is estimated to be at least 2,400 years old, spanning 2,200 acres. If it can be taken as one being, it can arguably be the oldest and largest creature in the world.

Mushroom Uses

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  Edible Mushrooms. Many cuisines, especially those in Asia like Japanese and Chinese, extensively use mushrooms as one of their main ingredients. Though most people think that mushrooms have little to no nutritional value, it has been found out that many species are high in fiber and vitamins like thiamine, niacin, and riboflavin, as well as ascorbic acid. Mushrooms are also good sources of minerals such as selenium, iron, and potassium.

  Most mushrooms found in supermarkets are grown in mushroom farms and are safe to eat. They are grown in controlled and sterilized environments, though there are some who do not tolerate it well.

  There are poisonous mushrooms, although some can look like edible ones, so be very careful. On gilled species, separating the edible mushrooms from the poisonous ones requires a meticulous amount of detail. You can’t use any one detail to identify the toxic mushrooms from the edible ones.

• Psilocybin mushrooms. Mushrooms that have psychedelic properties are called psilocybin mushrooms. Although some countries have outlawed their sale, some shops still sell them in many parts of the world. In northeast Siberia, Russia, some tribes eat a number of mushrooms for their psychoactive effects, mostly for shamanic rituals and purposes. Psilocybin mushrooms have also played a role in native medicine, where they are used to attempt to aid mental and physical healing.

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  Medicinal mushrooms. There are currently a lot of mushrooms and fungi under intense study by medical researchers and ethnobotanists. These mushrooms have been used as folk medicine for thousands of years. Researchers are looking into possible anti-cancer, anti-viral, or immunity-enhancing drugs from them.

Some mushrooms are also used for dyeing purposes, particularly wool and other natural fibers. Mushrooms’ chromospores can produce strong and vivid colors, and all the colors found in the spectrum can be achieved using mushroom dyes. Mushrooms and fungi are also likely to play a very important role in the development of effective filtration technologies and biological remediation.

Getting Rid of Mushrooms

Most people, especially those living in urban zones, see mushrooms as eyesores, especially if they’re found in their gardens and lawns. There are also some mushrooms that grow inside houses as well. For these people, getting rid of mushrooms takes priority. If you’re one of these people, here are some steps you can do to remove those fungi:

Remove the dirt that contains the roots or spores. The part that you see above the ground are the mushroom’s fruitbody and may contain thousands of tiny spores. The spores grow a threadlike root when it falls to the ground. These roots weave a huge and complex huge underground web. To make sure that the mushrooms won’t grow back, you have to remove all the dirt that contains the spores and roots. The downside is that if the underground web is big, you may have to dig deep and large, and you may very well end up overhauling your whole lawn.

Change the environment. Mushrooms often grow on rotting wood or in places where it’s moist and shaded. Remove such things in your lawn or yard to reduce the mushroom population. Try putting in gravel or sand in order to snuff their growth.

It may take some time to remove all the mushrooms in your garden or lawn, especially if they’ve reached in deep. With some work and possibly a little imagination, you can get them out, or even turn an eyesore into a good design.