Meet the Mushrooms
Hey kids! Mushroom and cheese omelette, forest of mushroom pasta, and wild mushroom pizza are simply scrumptious, are they not? But if your knowledge of mushrooms is limited to just these dishes, read on to find out more about this member of the funky fungi (the singular of fungi is fungus) family.
The funky fungi family
Mushrooms, yeasts and moulds are all part of the fungi family. Today, there are an estimated 1.5 million species of fungi, and about 14,000 species of mushrooms in the world.
Fungi are not exactly plants, but they have plant-like characteristics. Like plants, they have plant-like cells and they cannot move. However, unlike plants, they do not have chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is the green pigment in plants that helps the plants to absorb sunlight and produce food, in the presence of carbon dioxide and water. So how do the fungi stay alive? By feeding on dead matter! This process is known as decomposition, and it is actually not as gross as you think it is. Without the fungi's help in decomposing dead wood and trees, our forests will be overcrowded with fallen trees. You would not want our beautiful Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Singapore Botanical Gardens to be filled with nothing but dead, uprooted trees, would you?
Mushrooms or toadstools?
Do you think that most mushrooms are edible, and toadstools are inedible and poisonous? You are not alone. Even adults make that mistake sometimes. The reason why toadstools are linked to “poison” and “death” is this: In German, tod-stuhl literally meant "death-chair". This led to the idea that anyone who eats a toadstool will die a painful death. The fact is, “toadstools” is just another word for mushrooms. Just like mushrooms, some toadstools are edible while others are not.
Bad mushrooms
Not all mushrooms can be eaten. Some mushrooms are poisonous and inedible. How do you differentiate a poisonous mushroom from a non-poisonous one? Before you answer that poisonous mushrooms are often bright-coloured, smell awful and taste horrible, let me tell you this: Some poisonous mushrooms look harmless because they are pure white, and some poisonous mushrooms actually taste quite delicious, according to victims. However, this does not mean that you have to give up eating mushrooms altogether. You can still have your favourite mushroom omelette, pasta or pizza if you heed our safety guidelines:
1. Always eat store-bought mushrooms
2. Do not eat mushrooms that you picked from the jungle.
3. If you are not really sure whether the mushrooms are poisonous or non-poisonous, throw the mushroom away. It is always better to be safe than sorry.
Good mushrooms
I bet you are familiar with the Super Mario game. In this game, the Mario attempts to restore peace in Mushroom Kingdom and save Princess Peach by killing the evil forces of King Koopa. To help him, mushrooms are included in the game to act as lifelines. If he scores a red mushroom, Mario will become bigger and stronger. If he scores a green mushroom, Mario will be granted an extra life. Mushrooms are useful not only in the gaming world, but in the real world as well. In ancient Egypt, the pharaohs liked mushrooms so much that they declared it a royalty cuisine and that no common people were allowed to eat them. Mushrooms are particularly tasty and nutritious to the Americans. As such, they began growing mushroom in their own orchards in the late 1800s, using imported spores from Mexico.
Some mushrooms have healing properties and are often called "magic mushrooms" or "shrooms". Mushrooms have been used to heal people with mental illnesses and some people also believed that certain mushrooms can be used to heal wounds, fight cancer and some viruses.
Now that you are aware of the benefits of mushrooms, would you like to have some fun with these wonderful fungi? Let's go and make merry with mushroom prints!
Materials:
Several mushrooms of different sizes
A piece of white paper of any size
Several empty drinking glasses
Steps:
• Get a parent to help you remove the stems of the mushrooms.
• Place the mushrooms on the white paper and press each one down with the base of a drinking glass. Leave the activity overnight.
The next day, carefully lift the glasses first, then remove the mushrooms. You will see beautiful patterns on the paper. This happens because the mushrooms have released spores from their caps to create beautiful spore prints on the paper. The designs will disappear with time. If you want to preserve them, you may spray your designs with a non-aerosol hair spray. Have fun making ‘in-spore-rational' designs!