Bill Krieger age 12, of Iasaquah, Waon, for his question:
What are saprophytes?
The word ending tells that a saprophyte is a member of the plant world. The word saprophyte is coined from two words meaning decay and plant. So, the saprophytes cause rotting and decay. Parasites, such as mistletoe live by feeding on living plants. Saprophytes feed on dead plants, They also feed on the bodies of dead animals and other organic materials.
The process of decay often has an unpleasant smell and we tend to turn up our noses at the entire operation. The smell is merely certain gases given off as the saprophytes break up the chemicals in the organic matter. This is a small price to pay for the great service which the saprophytes do for the world. For they are nature’s busy little garbage men.
Imagine a world in which nothing decayed. The woods and fields would be cluttered with the fallen leaves and logs of centuries. Dead animals would be strewn all over the place. In this dead world there would be no place for the living and no food at all. For decay breaks down organic matter into simple chemicals ‑ the very chemicals which new plants take from the soil, in order to grow. And the animal world feeds on plants or on other animals who have fed on plants.
Most of the worthy saprophytes are tang fellows, too small to be seen without a microscope. They include certain bacteria and the molds and mildews of the fungus family. Mushrooms are giant saprophytes, large enough for us to eat. The tiny saprophytes are everywhere. In the air, in the soil and on almost everything we touch. Most of them are simple one‑celled plants. However microscopes reveals that this midget world is as beautiful as anything else in Nature. A patch of blue green mold is as lovely as a flower garden.
Saprophytes break up organic matter floating in the water. At this moment without any help from us, countless trillions of then, are busy purifying the water in our reservoirs, And other saprophytes are busy helping to prepare certain items of our diet.
For yeast is a saprophyte. It breaks down the sugar in brood dough, turning it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide forms little pockets of gas. in the heavy dough, making it spongy and digestible. The alcohol evaporates when the dough is put into a hot oven to bake. And this is not all.
Other saprophytes turn milk into cheese. Beer, wines vinegar and glycerin are a few more items created by busy saprophytes.
Of course, we pay a small price, besides a few bad smells, for all this endless work. The tiny toilers, it seems, have no sense of property right. In their opinion, they may eat whatever they find. They do not care whether a slice of bread, a lettuce, a bit of cheese or a steak belongs to us. If it is in the open, they settle on it, oat it and cause it to decay. They are the mold on the bread and the cheese.
Fortunately, we are smarter than the little saprophytes. We know that they need warmth, fresh air and moisture in order to operate. So we pimply put our food in the, chilly icebox. Seal it in airtight cans or dry out its moisture.