KID TRIPPING
Mushroom Mania Mushroom Esporement
BY MISTY EVES
Mushrooms have seed-like particles called spores that grow into new mushrooms. Different mushrooms have different colours and patterns of spores. Since mushroom species can look so similar experts sometimes study the shape and colour of spores to tell mushrooms apart. Here’s an experiment you can do to see the spores of differ- ent mushrooms.
Materials
• Different types of fresh mushrooms from the store; use only store- bought mushrooms
• White paper • Drinking glasses • Knife
Instructions
1. Carefully remove the stems from the mushrooms by bending the stems until they break.
2. Trim the lower edges of the caps to expose the gills.
3. Place the mushroom caps onto the white paper and cover each mushroom with an inverted drinking glass.
4. Leave them overnight in a warm place; the warmer the place the better.
5. In the morning, carefully lift the glasses and the mushrooms and examine the spore prints.
Q: What room can you never enter? A: A Mushroom!
Mushroom Word Hunter F cap dark
fungi gills
mushroom spores poison puffball smurfs
stem
toadstool wild
H C W I G N U F M R M Y E
P V B P Q Z S L A X A M F X P
F I S P Y M O R G C L N
J G R S U D U O D A A S O S I O Y
E L P C F Q F L L O I B S I
R T Q B P P A S B F M O I
B G S D V B O R B T A C K A I G O E
E
I N S D L I W O V N R S W D A O F L G O T T T H M U E B N R H A X Q M M S O B D A R K E M Z Y D Z U C C A J H M E T S K O H M S V
Fungi Facts
• Never eat mushrooms you find in the forest. There are more than 1,000 different species of mushrooms and many are poisonous.
• Approximately 150 cases of mushroom poisoning occur every year in Canada. Eighty per cent of these involve children under the age of 9. The rest mostly involve long-haired students wearing tie-dye shirts.
• Smouldering puffball mushrooms were once used to transfer fire from place to place.
• Mushrooms are about 90 per cent water. When they are exposed to high temperatures the water evaporates and the mushrooms shrink. That’s why mushrooms on your pizza are smaller after you take the pizza out of the oven.
• Truffles are a species of mushroom that are so rare they cost up to $130 a pound. They have a distinct smell, but grow underground. Mushroom hunters use specially trained pigs and dogs to sniff them out.
• Scientists have found a mushroom fossil encased in tree sap that is more than 90 million years old.
• Some mushrooms have slow-acting poisons, meaning they may not kill you until several days after you eat them.
• The fly agaric mushroom is red with white spots and is poisonous. As a side effect, it makes a person feel stronger, more vigorous and distorts their perception of height which makes things look smaller or larger—just ask Nintendo’s Super Mario.
• What is the difference between a toad- stool and a mushroom? There is no real difference. Toadstool is just a poetic name for the mushrooms often de- picted in storybooks and art. The name leads people to believe that toads are also poisonous.
• Many of the houses in Smurf Village were actually not mushrooms but houses that just looked like mush- rooms, often built of stone. Who knew?
6 FAMILY CAMPING
Q: Why do Toadstools grow so close together? A: They don’t need Mushroom.
PHOTOS: BETH KENNEDY
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