Jeff King, age 7, of Huntsville, Ala., for his question:
WHAT MAKES MUSHROOMS GROW SO FAST?
Most mushrooms look like tiny umbrellas. Since they do not have chlorophyll, they must get their food from other living or dead plants.
On a mushroom cap's underside are little folds which are called gills. These contain spores, the minute cells which grow into more mushrooms. Warm, damp places offer the most favorable spot for mushroom growth.
Mushrooms lack roots but they develop a network of branches, called mycelium, which serve as an attachment to the host on which it is living. Mushrooms also lack true stems so the handle of the umbrella serves as a supporting structure to hold the cap in the air. These good tasting, fast growing plants are actually a type of fungus.
Mushrooms are fast growing plants by nature. Overnight, full grown plants can break through the earth and reach full size. They have tremendous force, too. They can lift stones and masses of earth many times their own size. You'll often see a mushroom with the torn earth still hanging over the side of the mushroom's cap.
Mushrooms taste great when sliced raw into salads. They are also wonderful when cooked with a bit of butter, or simmered into a rich soup.
But here's a word of warning: collecting your own mushrooms can be a risky business for an amateur. There is no simple way to tell a good mushroom from one that is poisonous. So you'd better let the experts do the picking for you.
One of the most delicious types of mushrooms are the morels. They are the type you often find in your market. Another type of good mushroom is the puffball, which is collected when it is very young and fresh and very firm and white.
Still other fast growing mushrooms include the bright yellow type called sulphur and the inky cap variety which drips black fluid. The Jack O Lantern mushroom is bright orange and actually glows at night.
Most commercial mushroom production these days is done at special forest type farms.
Most poisonous mushrooms belong to a genus called Amanita. This type of mushroom has a ring around the stem and also produces white spores. But these are things that usually only an expert can spot. So we give that warning again: Do not collect your own mushrooms.