Here’s that burning question that I’m sure all of you have been asking …
What is a fungus? And … is the word “fungus” plural … or is the word “fungi” plural? Is “fungi” pronounced “fung-guy” or “fun-jai”? So many questions. And not at all related to Christmas. No? Or maybe yes?
Well, here’s the scoop. First off, the word fungus is singular. The word fungi is plural. And fungi is pronounced “fun-jai” … as in “gy-roscope” or “gi-gantic”.
Turkey Tail fungus
The Britannica website says … “Fungus, plural fungi, any of about 144,000 known species of organisms of the kingdom Fungi, which includes the yeasts, rusts, smuts, mildews, molds, and mushrooms. There are also many fungus-like organisms, including slime molds and oomycetes (water molds), that do not belong to kingdom Fungi but are often called fungi.”
More info from the Britannica website is HERE especially incredibly important health/medical uses of fungi.
Purple Coral fungus (this “coral” fungus grows on land, not underwater)
The Wikipedia website says similar stuff. Noteworthy to me on their website was the following sentence … “The fungus kingdom encompasses an enormous diversity of taxa with varied ecologies, life cycle strategies, and morphologies ranging from unicellular aquatic chytrids to large mushrooms.” Say what? Ok, that was beyond me but I’d bet some of you readers actually understood that. Please go HERE for more information from Wikipedia on the subject.
Orange Peel fungus
What prompted my interest in Fungi was that a tree behind my house, but closer to a neighbor’s house, needed to be cut down this past year because it was full of root rot … root rot, caused by a fungus that lives in the ground and travels up inside some trees and “eats” out the center of the root, then it eats out the center of the trunk, and then the center of the branches. Here’s a photo of a branch of that tree.
Often, the damage doesn’t show on the outside of the tree until a storm causes the 120-foot tall tree to break and fall on your house … unless an arborist or other knowledgable person, who knows what to look for, points out the danger and has the tree removed. As the tree behind my house was being cut down, I was told that root rot usually happens in very wet soil (like we have here in the Pacific Northwest) and usually happens to trees that are not native to the Pacific Northwest such that they have no resistance to the particular fungus that causes root rot. In other words, don’t plant non-native trees.
Also about the same time that the tree in my neighborhood was removed, Netflix produced a fascinating movie about fungi. Unfortunately, Netflix took it off their website for anyone in the USA. BUT, someone has posted a copy of the movie on YouTube and it has continued to stay there on YouTube, so I guess it’s legal. It’s HERE. It’s very well done. It’s fascinating. The name of the show on YouTube is “Fantastic Fungi, the Magic Beneath Us”.
Another place to start to learn about fungi is on the website fantasticfungi.com. Just the opening header video is fascinating.
Amanita mushrooms
(some species of the Amanita are deadly to humans)
Another online resource for information (and products) about fungi and mushrooms is at Gaia Herbs. We can read and learn, no need to buy things unless you wish to.
But the very best description of fungi is on that YouTube movie above. It’s absolutely fascinating.
Fungi are the oldest living things on the planet earth. They connect all living things, all things that live in or exist in the dirt, or in the ground/earth under the ocean, and on the highest mountains … everywhere … even beings/things in the ocean, both salt water and fresh water … fungi are literally, physically connected to everything on our planet. They always have been. And, we hope, they always will be.
So, do fungi have anything to do with Christmas? Life was created by “spirit”, that’s good for me. And, at least on this planet, fungi was the first life here, and all life here developed from fungi thereafter, including Christmas trees, and all things in the dirt are connected to fungi, including Christmas trees. O Tannenbaum!