Three Days in the Life of a Mushroom

Mushrooms are interesting things. They’re but a small part of a much, much larger organism, a fungus and are the reproductive stage of that fungus. Most mushrooms are above ground, although a few are below the surface; many are a drab tan while others are beautiful shades of red, yellow and blue; some are delicious and highly sought after as a gourmet’s delight; several, when eaten, cause hallucinations (think of the “magic mushroom”); others are deadly poisonous and result in a great deal of suffering and a slow death for those who eat them.

Here we’re looking at just one mushroom in one place – an American Slender Caesar mushroom (Amanita jacksonii) that I found early one morning in the wooded area about 50 feet from our back door.

I’d been there late in the afternoon on the day before and there was no mushroom, this Caesar mushroom apparently sprang from the earth during during the night when it would have looked more like this –

American Slender Caesar mushroom is one of the most beautiful mushrooms with its bright red/orange cap and a yellow stem.

Three hours later the cap was somewhat more open –

Unfortunately, I missed photographing it the next morning and by that evening the cap was fully spread –

On the following evening the mushroom was beginning to deteriorate and had been fed on by the local population of slugs –

The next morning there was not a trace of the mushroom to be found.

The fungus’ mycelium forms a wide-spread underground network, much larger than the mushroom which is merely its fruiting-body. Like most of the Amanita fungi, American Slender Caesar is a mycorrhizal fungus which forms an association with the roots of trees, often oaks.

Many, perhaps most, flowering plants and trees are highly dependent on mycorrhizal fungi whose mycelium attach to the plants’ roots and supply them with the water and nutrients the plants need in exchange for the carbohydrates the fungus requires. Trees without mycorrhizal fungi grow slowly and don't do well. Our native orchids can't live without their associated fungus and are dependent on the fungus from the moment their seed germinates – no fungus no orchid, which is the reason that most transplanted native orchids soon die.