Mushrooms 'Make Wind' To Spread Seeds
ByIt was believed mushrooms proliferated by dropping their spores and waiting for their reproductive packets to be carried "thither or yon" by a gust of wind, LiveScience reported.
However, UCLA researchers found mushrooms take a more active role in spreading their seed. Instead of waiting for a gust of wind, they "make wind" to carry their spores about. The air flow is created when mushrooms allow their moisture to evaporate.
"A mushroom is essentially doing less than nothing to protect its water from evaporating off," UCLA researcher Marcus Roper told LiveScience.
Mushrooms "cool off" during this process as the phase change from liquid water to vapor uses up heat energy. Roper said that since cold air is denser than warm air, it has the tendency to flow and spread out.
The evaporation also creates water vapor, which is less dense than air.
Roper said the two forces - cold air and water vapor - carry spores out of the mushroom horizontally and vertically, Roper told LiveScience. The combination could carry spores up to 4 inches horizontally and vertically.
The ability of mushrooms to create wind give their spores a better chance at finding a new, moist location to land and begin growing, he Roper said. Mushrooms usually live on the forest floor underneath logs and in very tight spaces where "wind wouldn't be expected to reach."
Mushrooms usually live on the forest
According to Roper, mushrooms often live on the forest floor, under logs or in very tight quarters where wind wouldn't be expected to reach. The ability to "create wind" helps give spores a better chance at
Roper and colleague Emilie Dressaire, a professor of experimental fluid mechanics at Trinity College in Connecticut, "visualized the spread of spores from mushrooms with laser light and a high-speed camera. "Roper said they then combines with calculations of water loss and temperature readings of mushrooms to show how the fungi create their own air flow.
Roper told LiveScience the research suggest all mushroom-producing fungi may have the ability to spread their spores in this way.