A feast of fascinating fungi facts
Prof Jo Dames’ interesting talk is well-attended
Without fungi, we wouldn’t be able to raise a glass of beer or wine, snack on certain cheeses or break bread with our family and friends. And we’d probably go terribly hungry, because most cultivated crops rely on a mycorrhizal web within the soil that circulates nutrients and information through plant root systems.
“It’s even more efficient at exchanging information than our world-wide web or internet,” quipped Prof Jo Dames of the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at Rhodes University.
She was addressing a packed meeting of Friends of Waters Meeting Nature Reserve at Pike’s Post, beside the Ploughman Pub in the grounds of the Bathurst Agricultural Museum on Saturday September 3.
Her talk was so popular that bales of hay had to be improvised for extra seating.
She explained that fungi are not plants but belong to a separate kingdom. Yeasts are single-celled fungi which are essential to making bread, beer, wine and some cheeses.
Other fungi grow as filaments from a spore, forming large mycelium networks along which nutrients are transported very efficiently.
One of the largest measured is a honey fungus in Oregon in the US that covers 9.6km² and is 2,400 years old.
Mycelium threads are so strong they can be made into blocks to build furniture and even homes.
“One woman even made a canoe out of it. It’s water, mould and fire resistant and is a resource of the future,” Prof Dames said.
Mushrooms are probably the most familiar fungi, but fungi are also used medicinally, as antibiotics. Certain bracket fungi, such as ganoderma (reishi) and turkey tail, are great immune system boosters.
Less pleasant fungi manifest as athlete’s foot and ringworm on humans, or as garden pests when powdery mildew and rust destroy our vegetable crops.
“About 144,000 fungal species are recognised, but the overall diversity is estimated to be between two to four million,” Prof Dames said.
“While fungi are useful to us in many ways, environmentally they are vital as they contribute to the decomposition of organic matter and the cycling of nutrients.”
The first ever Thicket Festival will be held in Bathurst on the long weekend of September 24-25 to celebrate this hardy type of vegetation in our region.
For more information, contact Rina Grant-Biggs of Friends of Waters Meeting Nature Reserve at 079-5195650 or email rinagrant@gmail.com