LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Mushrooms
built 185 days ago
Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies produced by some fungi. Not all fruit bodies are true mushrooms. Puffballs and morels are edible fruit bodies that are sometimes called "mushrooms". The function of this visible part of some fungi is to produce and disperse the largest possible number of spores in the shortest possible time. Spores create new individuals after being carried away on the wind and landing in a good place for growth.
Source:
Mushrooms are fungi, and are usually placed in a Kingdom of there own apart from plants and animals. Mushrooms contain no chlorophyll and most are considered saprophytes. That is, they obtain their nutrition from metabolizing non living organic matter. This means they break down and "eat" dead plants, like your compost pile does.
Source:
All Mushrooms extend dramatically when placed in low current areas of the tank. Iodine/Iodide is essential for proper coloration and expansion. Reproduction is either by budding (forming a new polyp from the base of the old), splitting (forming a second, and sometimes third, mouth and literally splitting in half), or by bailing out (detaching from the rock they are on and moving to another area to begin a new colony. A new mushroom will grow from the small area left on the rock by the old mushroom when it moved). Mushrooms can be easily propagated. One method is to remove the mushroom rock, hold it upside down so the mushrooms dangle down, cut the mushroom as close to the rock as possible.
Source:
Mushrooms reproduce from microscopic, single-celled spores. When a spore finds an area suitable for growth, it sends out a thread-like structure called a hypha. If growing conditions continue to be suitable, the hyphae begin to interconnect to form a mass of hyphal threads called mycelium. The mycelium is the growing part of the mushroom and it is found in the ground or working its way through a log. What we know as the mushroom that emerges above the ground is actually a reproductive structure whose purpose is to produce spores to make more mushrooms. Spores are released into the breezes by mature mushrooms to begin the cycle all over again.
Source:
Mushrooms can be used for dyeing wool and other natural fibers. The chromophores of mushrooms are organic compounds and produce strong and vivid colors, and all colors of the spectrum can be achieved with mushroom dyes. Before the invention of synthetic dyes mushrooms were the primary source of textile dyes. This technique has survived in Finland, and many Middle Ages re-enactors have revived the skill.
Source:
Mushrooms may be cultivated on a wide variety of substrates. They are grown from mycelium propagated on a base of steam-sterilized cereal grain. This grain and mycelium mixture is called spawn, which is used to seed mushroom substrata.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Mushrooms