Have you seen what mushrooms are doing to our pavements lately?

These little guys just couldn’t wait for the curtain to lift on Mycology May, in fact nothing can keep them down and prevent them living their best lives! These are horse dung fungi or Pisolithus arhizus, an earth ball native to these shores that forms a mycorrhizal relationship with Eucalyptus trees. It’s also one of my preferred fungi species for dye extraction. These fruiting bodies are currently pushing their way through the driveway at our Cowra office.

I’ve become a little obsessed with fungi over the last few years – something that’s easy to do given that our region is the perfect place for mushroom hunting. But it’s also thanks to the work that the Central Tablelands Region Landcare and Local Land Services networks put in to making Mycology May happen and this includes providing financial support for a wide range of fungi-themed events and activities. Mid Lachlan’s Mycology May event booking information is here. Follow this link for more event information.

Back to the pavement vandals…

What you can see below are the fruiting bodies of this fungi. This part of the fungi erupts from the ground in such a spectacular way thanks to hydrostatics – a type of hydraulic Pressure.

Fungi cells swell and collapse in line with their water content. Fungi cells work in the same way as bike tyres – just as tyres get harder and more ridgid when you pump them with air, mushroom cells get harder and more ridged when they are pumped with water. A force we call turgidity. Accurate figures on just how much pressure is involved in this change is hard to find, as to date, there’s no standard way to measure it. However, data on yeasts which are single celled organisms have calculated the pressure to be around 58 PSI or 0.4 mega pascale per cell. Times that by the hundreds or even thousands of cells per fungi fruiting body and it’s easy to see how they make light work of our roads and pavements!

We do hope you enjoy the upcoming Mycology May and look forward to hearing about your discoveries.