Mushrooms belong to the natural community continue. What kingdom do fungi belong to?

Mushrooms - what an amazing, unique and, moreover, diverse world! We know hat mushrooms well. But mushrooms are both mold, and yeast, and unusual growths on trees, and you certainly won’t think about some that they are ... mushrooms!

It is believed that they appeared 900 million years ago, and about 300 million years ago all the main groups of modern fungi already existed.

Scientists have long tried to understand what a mushroom is - a plant or an animal? After all, he has the characteristics of both. So, like plants, mushrooms reproduce and settle by spores, lead an attached lifestyle, that is, they grow in one place. But they do not have photosynthesis, and they feed on organic substances, and the DNA of fungi and animals, as shown by molecular genetic studies, are as close as possible to each other. Therefore, relatively recently, mushrooms have been identified as an independent kingdom of nature. It is huge: more than 100 thousand species have already been described by scientists, but it is assumed that this is no more than 5% of the number. existing species mushrooms!

And yet, what is a mushroom? And a separate individual of the fungus - what is it? And is it possible to put the question like that at all? After all, what many people love to collect, edible mushrooms, are just fruiting bodies, like apples that grow on an apple tree.

The mushroom itself, or rather, mycelium, or mycelium (from the Greek mykes, "mushroom"), is mainly underground and is a dense interweaving of the thinnest threads - hyphae (from the Greek hype, "fabric", "web"). This is a chain of cells located one after another. Hyphae branch, grow and form a mycelium. If we examine the fruiting body of a fungus under a microscope, we will see that this is not something separate, but all the same hyphae, only more densely intertwined. Therefore, the question "what is a separate individual of the fungus?" somewhat incorrect.

Mushroom (mycelium) can cover an area of several kilometers. But even this is conditional, since it is difficult to determine where it ends. And if we remember that far from one type of mushroom grows in our forest, then where does one mycelium end and another begin? .. Probably, there are no or almost no places on earth that would not be entangled with mycelium. After all, mushrooms live not only in forests, but also in meadows and even in swamps. (We are still talking about fungi, the substrate for which is soil.)

So, a mushroom is a kind of network, a web that penetrates the upper soil layer and sometimes comes to the surface. Then the people say - the mycelium "blooms".

Mycorrhiza

Why are some edible mushrooms named after trees or forest types - boletus, boletus, boletus, oak? And why do these (and not only) mushrooms prefer to grow with certain trees?

The fact is that there is a symbiosis between fungi and plants - mycorrhiza (from the Greek mykes, "mushroom" and hiza, "root"), mushroom root.

This friendship between fungi and higher vascular plants is extremely important for both. So important that more than 80% of land plants form mycorrhiza with fungi. Fungal hyphae entwine the roots of plants with a fluffy cover, growing together with them, sometimes even penetrating between the cells of the root bark or into special occasions into living cells of the cortex, but do not damage them. If we could look into underworld, you would see that the roots of plants and fungi form a single network, a single, widely spreading root system.

How do mushrooms help plants?

First, the roots of plants absorb water dissolved in the soil from the soil. minerals they need for nutrition (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and many trace elements), and mushrooms feed on organic substances, “dissolving” them with enzymes secreted outside. Thus, thanks to the widely spread mushroom root, the suction area increases many times over. needed by plants substances. Mycorrhiza increases the ability of roots to absorb substances from the soil thousands of times!

In addition, mushrooms help plants absorb these substances better. After all, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and others chemical elements may be in different chemical compounds, and not all of them can be absorbed by plants. And in the presence of all the necessary "products" plants can be hungry. This means that it is necessary to synthesize such compounds that plants can easily assimilate. There are many "cooks for plants" in the soil, but one of the main ones are mushrooms. In the process of their life activity, the biochemical composition of the soil changes and substances are formed that are easy for plants to “eat”. Mycorrhizal symbiosis is an indispensable condition for the successful growth and development of both individual trees and the entire forest. (Without mycorrhiza, a tree can be grown, perhaps, only in a nursery where top dressing is carried out and there is no competition.)

Fungi also protect the root system of plants from disease-causing (phytopathogenic) organisms. Thanks to mycorrhiza, plants get sick many times less.

Without mycorrhiza, symbiosis with nodule bacteria would be impossible.

In addition, mycorrhiza increases the resistance of plants (this is especially important for trees) to cold and dry conditions close to the limit of their existence. This is also necessary in northern latitudes, and in mountainous areas, and in dry desert or semi-desert areas, and in conditions of soil salinity. This means that thanks to mycorrhiza, plants are able to adapt to a much wider range of environmental conditions, to master the most different places a habitat.

How do plants help fungi?

Plants supply them with ready-made organic substances (carbohydrates), and in huge quantities: according to available estimates, plants can spend from 10 to 50% of the gross primary product of photosynthesis for the needs of their symbionts.

Without mycorrhiza, fungi simply would not have had the strength to develop fruiting bodies, and spores ripen in them. Fungi reproduce by spores, so without plants it would be difficult for them to reproduce and would be doomed to extinction. By the way, most of the edible cap mushrooms that we love so much are mycorrhizal.

So, thanks to mycorrhiza, fungi develop well, effectively form fruiting bodies. Plants also become stronger, develop better, bloom and bear fruit more abundantly and get sick much less.

Experiments have shown that the higher biodiversity mycorrhizal fungi, the higher the species diversity and stability of ecosystems as a whole!

Of course, necessary condition all this is the balance of the ecosystem. And, for example, this does not apply to plantations artificially created by man. Hence our corresponding attitude.

Remember ergot (once a scourge of wheat or rye fields, causing convulsions and even death of a person who ate the bread in which it fell). It forms substances (alkaloids) that give plants a bitter taste and thus protect them from herbivores, ranging from insects and slugs to ruminants. This is how balance is restored. The cereals themselves with the presence of this fungus bush better and get sick less.

Where do mushrooms live?

Take a look around. Almost all trees growing in our latitudes: pine, spruce, oak, birch, aspen, form mycorrhiza with mushrooms. Most forest shrubs and herbs are the same. There are shrubs, such as blueberries, lingonberries, for which mycorrhiza is the only possible way existence. As for herbaceous plants... almost all of them form mycorrhiza. Steppes, meadows, forests in their form, which is familiar to us, could not exist without mycorrhiza.

Partners in symbiosis are by no means observant of "fidelity" to each other. And if among mushrooms "monogamous" are still found, then each woody plant, as a rule, is able to form mycorrhiza with many partners.

A knowledgeable mushroom picker is looking for specific mushrooms in certain forests. For example, boletus forms mycorrhiza with aspen, birch, spruce, pine, less often with other trees. Boletus - with different types birch and lives in birch or mixed forests with birch. Oiler forms mycorrhiza with pine, less often with spruce, grows in dry coniferous forests, predominantly pine (especially in young stands), less often spruce, and also in mixed ones. Milk mushrooms and pigs love rich soils and usually grow in spruce-deciduous forests with alder, raspberries, and nettles. But the chanterelles are amazing! - do not form mycorrhiza. Perhaps that is why they grow in forests of all types. Russula as well, but with them the situation is different. There are a lot of species of this family (russula), and each species, as a rule, forms mycorrhiza with trees of a particular species. But since there are many species, we meet russula almost everywhere.

Mushrooms and ecology

You have heard the words more than once: “Be careful, do not violate forest floor and the top layer of soil underneath!” And now you probably understand why. It is in the surface layer of the soil that the mycelium lives, and the litter serves as both a “blanket” that maintains the necessary moisture and nutrition.

Mycorrhiza helps plants and fungi not only in pure natural natural conditions. Her help is extremely important in the conditions of technogenic pollution. environment. In the United States, Spain, and relatively recently in Russia, experiments were carried out on the territories of factories where the soil is heavily polluted with emissions heavy metals(copper, lead, cadmium, zinc). Around such plants, wastelands (occupying a rather large area) are often formed, on which it is not possible to grow a forest, because the trees die very quickly. They tried to artificially introduce mycorrhiza-forming fungi into the soil, and - lo and behold! - The trees began to grow and develop beautifully. Thanks to the mushroom root, the mineral nutrition of the trees has improved, and, most importantly, the fungi have become a kind of barrier that prevents metal ions from penetrating from the soil into the roots of plants. The forest has grown.

Mushrooms are resistant to many toxins. According to some studies, the phenomenon of mushroom degeneration is much big role plays the weakening of plants than the direct effect of toxins on fungi.

Mushrooms and Forest Communities

Among the mushrooms there are rare species that are listed in the Red Books. But since fungi and plants are inextricably linked, it is important to protect not rare species of fungi, rare plant species or rare animal species, but the natural community as a whole.

It is also assumed that fungi remaining in the soil after cutting down the primary forest contribute to the restoration of the original vegetation cover. The fungal community in this case acts as a memory of the biological system.

Mycorrhizal fungi combine the components of the natural community into one whole, a single ecological and biological system, a network, is formed in the underground forest area. Forest plant community, thanks to connections through mycorrhiza, becomes a single organism!

For example, under certain circumstances, mycorrhiza becomes a real "bridge" through which nutrients pass from one plant to another. Moreover, this other plant does not have to be the same species! Plants share nutrients with each other, transfer them primarily to those who need it most - weakened individuals who need help to recover. And help to transfer - mushrooms.

The role of tinder fungi

As you know, plants begin the cycle of matter and energy in nature when, under the influence of sunlight, they absorb carbon dioxide from the air and minerals from the soil. But mushrooms close this great cycle: they destroy dead organic matter, returning carbon dioxide to the air, and minerals to the soil. (The wood that fungi break down is the main storage of carbon and ash elements.)

Imagine that a tree stump remains. In 50 years, mushrooms will turn it solid wood into forest humus. During these half a century, dozens of species of so-called saprotrophic fungi will replace each other in a certain order (saprotrophs are those who feed on the dead remains of other living creatures, from the Greek sapros, "rotten" and trophy,"food"). This decomposition process organic matter called biodegradation. Organics should go back to business. The leading role in this belongs to fungi. Without this unusually important role of mushrooms, the forest would very quickly turn into fallen trunks and branches.

Interestingly, only mushrooms can digest wood. It is very resistant to decomposition, and the animals of our strip are not able to eat it.

And mushrooms, settling on a dead tree, secrete outwards certain enzymes peculiar only to them, thanks to which the wood quickly splits. Of all the variety of destructor organisms, only fungi possess the necessary and self-sufficient enzyme systems that allow the complete decomposition of wood.

And of course, tinder fungi play the main role here. They start and perform the main part of the destruction process (the rest can be connected in the process).

On old stumps, on the trunks of old dry trees, you can see beautiful pleiades of polypore fungi. And always: their fruiting bodies, unlike other mushrooms, are perennial.

Why are they called tinder? From a spark carved by a flint and flint, their dry fruiting bodies quickly ignite and smolder for a long time, so they were used as tinder in the old days, when matches were not yet invented, and even more so lighters.

Such wood-destroying mushrooms include the famous chaga, honey mushrooms, beloved by mushroom pickers, and oyster mushrooms. (Tinder fungi, mushrooms, oyster mushrooms are close relatives, belong to the class of basidiomycetes.)

Honey agaric (autumn honey agaric, or real honey agaric) grows in a variety of forests, often in clearings and conflagrations. On dark nights, spots of white phosphorescent light can be seen on the stumps. No need to be scared - these are the ends of the mycelium mushrooms.

Many people often refer to all tinder fungi that look like hooves as chags. But chaga is not at all like a hoof. It looks like an indefinite black growth, which can often be found on old birch trees. (Usually she settles on birch trees, but sometimes on alder, mountain ash or maple.) And only by very carefully examining such a “growth”, you can understand whether it is chaga. Chaga is not the fruiting body of a fungus. Chaga is a barren growth of a tinder fungus called inonotus (Inonotus obliquus).

Who are myxomycetes?

Myxomycete (from the Greek myxa,"mucus" and mykes, "mushroom", that is, slimy mushrooms) is not quite a fungus or not quite an animal. They belong to the department of chlorophyll-free mushroom-like organisms. And they say that they stand on the boundary between the plant and animal kingdoms and that it is more correct to call them mycetozoa, that is, animal mushrooms. Why?

They always live in damp places of the forest. The smallest spores are easily carried even by a weak wind. Here the spore got into a humid environment, and a mobile cell “hatched” from it, often with two flagella. The cell grows, divides and turns into an amoeba! Of course, not into an animal familiar to us, but into a creature like an amoeba. This amoeba of ours feeds on decaying plant matter and is constantly moving, crawling! It moves, like a real amoeba, changing its shape, then releasing, then pulling up the spurs (pseudopodia). When meeting, amoeba can merge, forming "nets" crawling along the substrate and enveloping twigs and leaves on the way. These creatures crawl slowly (at a speed of up to 5 mm per hour), but quite purposefully. They move to more warm places and towards nutrients and "run away" from the harmful ones. In addition, young people move away from the light to more humid places, and mature individuals, preparing for the formation of the fetus, move back - to light and air, to drier places. Having chosen a convenient place, they stop, as if frozen, and turn into fruiting bodies.

If there are other myxomycetes in the forest, you should pay attention to them along the way. In shape, these are often round balls ranging in size from a few millimeters to a centimeter (although there are giants up to 10 cm, but we cannot find them). But their coloring is fantastic: from unpretentious white, gray, brownish to pale pink, egg yellow, bright orange, coral red!

The role of mushrooms in human life

Mushrooms were the first microorganisms that man used to improve the nutritional properties of plant and animal foods. Yeast from time immemorial gave mankind two most important products, without which the development of civilization would be unthinkable: bread and wine.

Mushrooms are associated with two revolutions in medicine. The first is the discovery of penicillin. This Clinically Applied Antibiotic Saved Death more people than all other drugs combined. With his discovery, it became possible to treat diseases that were previously considered fatal: peritonitis, sepsis. And although then a huge number of antibiotics were found from prokaryotes, mainly actinomycetes, fungal antibiotics from the group of beta-lactams - penicillins and cephalosporins - remain out of competition.

The second pharmacological revolution has recently taken place. Everyone knows the experiences of the South African surgeon Bernard in transplanting human organs. But despite the fact that technically the problem of transplants was solved long ago, in practice it did not find wide application due to rejection of transplanted organs. And only after the discovery of fungal antibiotics from the group of cyclosporins, which turned out to be highly active immunosuppressants, these operations became a common clinical practice, patients stopped dying.

People have long and widely used mushrooms as a food product. They are rich in proteins: 20–30% of their dry matter is pure protein. In addition, they contain fats, minerals, trace elements (iron, calcium, zinc, iodine, potassium, phosphorus). In our country there are about 300 species edible mushrooms. Many fungi, especially microscopic ones, form physiologically active substances. These include antibiotics, vitamins (including those from the folic group), organic acids (citric and others), a number of enzyme preparations, hallucinogens, and so on. Some of these substances are obtained on an industrial scale for the treatment of humans and animals or for other needs. National economy(penicillin, citric acid and others). Psilocybin and psilocin, produced by Psilocybe mushrooms, are being used by doctors to treat mental illness. Chaga preparations increase resistance to cancer and are used to treat peptic ulcers, gastritis and other gastrointestinal diseases. Extracts from fruit bodies some species of marasmius (non-rotten) inhibit the growth of tubercle bacillus. The enzyme russulin, produced by a type of russula, is used in the production of cheese.

Mushrooms also play an important role in the cycle of substances in nature. Possessing a rich enzyme apparatus, they actively decompose the remains of animals and plants that enter the soil, contributing to the formation of a fertile soil layer.

Ethics of the mushroom picker

In the forest, you should behave quietly and try to be invisible so that your presence does not disturb the peace and not frighten wild animals. Only those mushrooms that will be eaten should be collected. Mushrooms that are of no interest to us should not be touched. Maybe they'll be picked off by someone else who comes after us.

It is best to go for mushrooms early in the morning. The most convenient time for picking mushrooms is between 6 and 7 in the morning. The most favorable weather for the appearance of mushrooms - warm rain in the sun. That is, if in the evening there was a fine warm rain, then in the morning there will certainly be a good harvest.

In no case should you pick mushrooms near roads, railways, factories, and even more so in cities, since they tend to absorb all the harmful particles that are in the air.

Perhaps the most important rule: if you don’t know, don’t take the mushroom. At any slightest doubt, it is better to leave the mushroom in the forest.

In no case do not take already rotten mushrooms. Even if the rotten part is removed, taste and useful qualities fungus may be affected.

Overripe and soft mushrooms, as well as wormy ones, are also not worth taking.

It is best to collect mushrooms in wicker baskets or birch bark baskets. It is not recommended to put mushrooms in plastic bags and buckets, as they quickly deteriorate due to the lack of air.

When picking mushrooms, especially valuable ones (for example, porcini), never tear the moss, do not break out the legs along with the mycelium. In open places, the naked mycelium, which has been growing for 10 years, will dry out and die under the rays of the sun. There will be no mushrooms this year or next.

Fruiting bodies of mushrooms must be collected as follows: take the mushroom by the leg and rotational movement, swinging it, pull it out so that the leg is completely separated from the substrate. If the leg is brittle and brittle, pry it up with a knife or fingers and push it up out of the ground. The remaining hole should be covered with earth or moss so that the exposed mycelium does not dry out in vain. Before putting the mushroom in the basket, you need to clean it from the remnants of earth and dirt, and from the caps they oil and wet it and remove the mucous skin so that the mucus does not stain the rest of the mushrooms.

We put the collected mushrooms in the basket in this way: hard and large down, and soft or fragile on top, so that they do not break or crumble.

Verification test on the topic "Natural communities"

Students ______ 3rd grade ___________________________

1. What is a natural community?

a) a complex unity of living and inanimate nature;

b) the unity of plants, animals, people;

c) water, air, minerals, soil;

d) trees, shrubs, mushrooms, herbs.

2. What does not apply to natural communities?

a) a forest b) meadow; c) soil; d) a body of water.

3. What kind of natural community are we talking about?

Shrubs grow here herbaceous plants, inhabited by many animals. There are also mushrooms here.