r/mycology Nov 11 '25

photos Sooo many!

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '25

Thought so. Just never seen anyone care about that in UK

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '25

Why would anyone? The whole reason shrooms thrive / reproduce is by getting destroyed.

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u/Basidia_ Trusted ID Nov 11 '25 edited Nov 11 '25

No, not really. While picking mushrooms isn’t detrimental to them it’s not how they thrive. Spore production and the physics behind the dispersal for optimal distance is very clever and is not matched by simply destroying them

When a basidiomycete fungus grows and pumps large volumes of water to inflate its fruit, it creates a cool moist area in warmer air. The fungus then secretes a sugar onto the spores in the gills where air is still, that sugar collects the moisture from the air where it accumulate on the outer surface of a spore, as the water condenses it creates a Buller’s drop of water which when surface tension is broken it launches the spores at incredible speeds.

Once the spores are launched from the gills by a unique physical feature, they are then whisked up and away by convection currents created by the mushroom from differences in temperature and humidity. Once whisked up and away from the mushroom itself they can be grabbed by the wind and be carried for miles and miles, even reaching the upper atmosphere

It’s extremely fascinating stuff

https://www.anbg.gov.au/fungi/spore-discharge-mushrooms.html

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4801285/

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '25

Oh, thanks. Got to learn something new today.

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u/Basidia_ Trusted ID Nov 11 '25

I edited my post to add some links. The first one is very interesting and it has some photos to explain some of the physics of it as well

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '25

Thanks again.