Today my oldest and I went on a nature walk that focused on fungi.  The rain and clouds parted just long enough for a beautiful hike on the trail and the hike was led by a very knowledgeable lady.  I continue to be amazed at the number of highly educated people in our little town.  Anyway, hopefully my daughter learned as much as I did on the hike.

We came home with three different kinds of edible mushrooms.  I would not have had the nerve to eat any of them if it had not been for the guide lady standing beside me telling me it would be ok.  I sauted them separately in butter and we each got a little taste.  The puffball was definitely the favorite with the admiral bolete and the flat-topped coral tied in second. 

Here are the facts (those I found interesting and can still remember):

• There are apparently three "kinds" of mushrooms: those with gills, those with pores and those with neither. 
• For some reason there haven't been enough people interested in mushrooms to have common names for the vast majority of them so you have to really work hard to remember all those latin names.  Or you could just call them "little brown mushrooms" and be right nearly every time. ;-) 
• The body of the mushroom is that white, spider-webby stuff, called mycelia, all along the rotting log or the white, fibrous stuff under the ground.  The mushroom itself is just the fruit.
• The cell walls of mushrooms are made of the same stuff as the exoskeletons of insects causing mushrooms to be classified separately from all other plants.
• Mushrooms along the roots of living trees live symbiotically with the tree!  The mushroom cannot provide itself food through photosynthesis but it can soak up the carbs that seep out as the tree sends them down to its root.  The mushroom, in turn, helps the development of the roots making the tree more stable and better able to grow.
• One gram of dirt can have several miles of the "body-threads", or mycelia, in it.

Here's the grand-daddy fact that made me really praise our wonderful Creator:  Spruce trees grow in direct sunlight but hemlock trees like to grow in their shade.  As the hemlocks grow, they cannot get as much photosynthesizing done because of that shade.  However, the spruces do utilize all that sunlight and send the energy all the way down to their roots.  Mushrooms waiting there soak up that energy for themselves but they also channel those carbs to the hemlock trees.  The extra nurtrients provided by the mushrooms make up for any shortfall the hemlocks may have.  Apparently a few years ago scientists thought that the mushrooms made a general contribution to the whole "area" for all the plants to enjoy.  But now they understand that the nutrients they share go specifically to the hemlocks!  Isn't God amazing to care for a specific species of tree?...and it all works like clockwork!  ("and it was very good")

Gee, it was fun...and educational...and awe-inspiring.