Gary L, Parker, aged 12, of Tulsa, Oklahoma, for his question:

Where do toadstools come from?

Toadstools and mushrooms belong to the fungi family of plants. They have no green chlorophyll and no flowers. These fungi lead a mysterious life. They seem to appear and disappear by magic. Through a cold or dry spell there is no sign of them. They pop up overnight in warm, damp weather. All of a sudden there they are, populating the grasses, the woods and even the tree trunks.

Actually, the toadstool is there alb the time. Most of its life is lived underground. The main part of the plant is a web of fins threads in the earth. This mesh is called the mycelium, or spawn. It grows year by year, feeding on the decaying materials in the damp rich soil. The spawn of a mushroom grows in a circle. New, the ready network is added in circular borders year by year. One patch of spawn may live and keep growing for hundreds of years.

But even a plant that lives for hundreds of years must plan for its offspring. This is why the toadstools and mushrooms are sent above ground. They are the fruiting bodies of the spawn. Their ,fob is to scatter spores to the winds. New fungus plants grow from these one‑celled spores.

The underground spawn sleeps during the winter and through dry spells of weather. It becomes active in warm damp weather. It grows and shoots little buttons above 'ground. The buttons open to look like small umbrellas. Most of them are pasty colored or yellow. A few wear fancy brown and white spots.

The spores grow on the underside of the toadstool umbrella. Delicate curtains hang down and fan out from the central stalk. They are called gills because they look something like the gills of a fish.

The tiny spores grow and ripen between the gills. When ripe, they take to the air in a powdery mist. A single mushroom may send off half a million spores a minute. This can go on for two or three days. Most toadstools cast several billion spores to the wind.  The puff ball, giant cousin of the toadstool, may send off 7000 billion spores, It is estimated that only one spore in a trillion has a chance of growing into a new fungus.

This lucky‑one‑in‑a‑‑trillion spore falls upon damp, loamy ground. It is no bigger than a grain of fine powder, usually of a dark color. Maybe it lands on an old tree stump, rich in decaying mosses. For fungi cannot make their own food Ps the green plants can. They need food substances already manufactured by other plants and animals. If the weather is warm and damp, then the lucky spore begins to grow. It burrows down and starts its web of fibers.

In a few years, the new toadstool spawn will be well established below ground. It waits for a warm, wet summer night. Then up pops a new crop of toadstools.