`MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE'
A walk among the fungus of Mendocino County
How is a mushroom like an apple? Both can be considered the “fruit” of a tree, but while all the branches of an apple tree are visible, nearly all parts of the tree that mushrooms grow on are hidden underground.
“There is much more to this organism than meets the eye,” said Amica Williams, a California State Parks employee who gave a talk on fungus while walking through Hendy Woods State Park in Anderson Valley earlier this month.
Williams, who described herself as “not an expert but an enthusiast” when it comes to fungus, said she wanted to talk about the “fascinating” world of fungi — organisms that are neither plants nor animals and actually have their own kingdom — while under some of the world's tallest trees because of “all the incredible things that fungus does for the incredible redwoods.”
And why did she choose to walk in Hendy Woods? Because Williams was “born and raised in Mendocino County, and it is fun sharing my home with people from other places.”
What was also fun, she said, was sharing all she has learned about “the very, very interesting world of fungi — the more I learn about fungus, the more intrigued I am by it,” Williams said while beginning her recent walk, which had previously been scheduled for January, but was delayed due to the powerful storms Mendocino County experienced this winter.
And while there would have been more mushrooms to find at the beginning of the year, Williams did find one or two hiding at the foot of the towering redwood trees, which she said provide the “perfect mushroom habitat — wet and shady.” In return for the optimal shelter, fungus
provides optimal food for the redwoods and many other plants with their roots in the nearby soil.
“(Fungus) will break down anything on the forest floor — all the leaves, branches and cones, decomposing them and turning them back into healthy, rich soil, which is a very important job,” she said, describing fungus as actually “more closely related to animals than to plants, (because while) plants can make their own food, fungus cannot — they have to feed off other organisms.”
Unlike animals, though, fungi digest their food outside their bodies by releasing “enzymes that break down nutrients so they can
then absorb them back into their cells, which is pretty incredible,” said Williams, describing the “mycelium tree” created by a fungus as being “almost like roots, which are absorbing minerals, but the mycelium roots are breaking the nutrients down.”
Before breaking down any food, though, Williams said most fungus are “very picky” about what they eat, such as a group of Turkey Tails she found on a stump.
“Turkey Tails only like to live on (and eat) hardwood like oaks,” she said, noting that Turkey Tails also “last longer than most” other types of fungi.
Another fungus she found was “Dyer's polypore,” which she described as “latching onto the roots of Douglas Fir trees, usually one that is already dying,” noting that the end of a tree's life benefits the lives of many others in the forest because “a dying tree becomes like a hotel for all sorts of other species such as insects and animals. And when it does finally fall, it opens up more space for other plants to grow.”
And if those plants live near a fungus, Williams said, its “mycelium roots can connect to the roots of a plant and allow it to absorb more water and more nutrients,” while the fungus absorbs more sugar in return.
But perhaps the most direct way that fungus, mushrooms in particular, benefit a redwood forest is as a meal for one of its most popular residents: Banana Slugs.
“Banana slugs love mushrooms!” Williams said, adding that while many humans love mushrooms as well, many mushrooms should NOT be eaten by humans.
“Please be super careful when collecting wild mushrooms, because some are edible, but some will make you sick, and some can REALLY make you sick,” she said. “NEVER eat anything you cannot identify, promise me!”
Another way to explain the danger, Williams said, is this apt saying: “There are old mushroom hunters and bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters!”