Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Coffee

Reishi Mushrooms
JUST ANOTHER FUNGUS? Reishi mushrooms are a polypore mushroom. Mushrooms are the fruiting body and reproductive structure of a higher order fungus organism, much like an apple is the fruit of an apple tree. The actual mushroom "tree" is a fine thread-like network called mycelium. This mycelium is for the most part subterranean, living in soil, logs and other organic litter. Unlike green plants, which produce many of their own nutrients by photosynthesis, mushrooms primarily get their nutrients from dead organic matter or soil. Mushrooms and their mycelium are nature's original recyclers. Without them, the planet surface would be piled high with dead, decaying material and many symbiotic relationships would fail to have occured. Mushrooms rise out of the mycelium when the right nutrients are amassed and the right environmental conditions present themselves. Mushrooms release spores at maturity. The wind spreads them and when they land on the right spot, the cycle starts over again.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home