THE MYSTERY OF MUSHROOMS
As passionate gardeners, we are occasionally startled and surprised to find that some form of mushroom has popped up overnight on our lawn, appeared in the flower bed or is lurking in some shady spot in our garden.
Some of us disregard these fascinating little wonders of nature, others approach them with fear, suspicion and superstition, yet the most commonly question asked when people notice them is: are these mushrooms edible?
But what are these strange, fascinating and sometimes striking life forms?
Mushrooms are simply the visible, fleshy, spore-bearing fruit of a fungus. These organisms are neither plant nor animal, but belong to the fungal kingdom, which also include moulds, yeasts, rusts, smuts and mildews. Mushrooms appear in many shapes and forms, from the typical toadstool to brackets found on logs to the alienlike stinkhorns.
A mushroom is a small representation of the rest of the organism growing underground, like the tip of the iceberg. The
