Why are mushrooms the forest's cleanup crew?
A forest guide will tell you mushrooms are the forest's cleanup crew โ and maybe that before any fungus could digest wood, trees never rotted. Both lead somewhere surprising: pollution cleanup, and the reason coal exists.
Mushrooms are the forest's cleanup crew. Fungi that feed on dead wood and leaves break them down and send the nutrients back into the soil. Without them, the park service says, a redwood forest โwould be nothing but a wood pile!โ
Who says so: National Park Service (Muir Woods National Monument) (opens in a new tab)
Some of those fungi may be able to clean up pollution, too. White-rot fungi make enzymes that break apart wood's toughest part (lignin) โ and researchers are studying whether the same enzymes can break down pesticides, PCBs and even dioxins. It's an active research idea, not yet an everyday fix.
Who says so: USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (opens in a new tab)
Why does coal exist at all? One theory: about 300 million years ago, dead trees piled up because no living thing could yet digest their lignin โ so they turned into coal instead of rotting. Scientists comparing fungal genomes proposed that fungi with lignin-eating genes appeared near the end of that period, and coal-making slowed down after that.
Who says so: U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science (opens in a new tab)
Fungi are older than dinosaurs โ much older. Fossils from Scotland show fungi living with the first land plants about 400 million years ago, before the first vertebrates crawled out of the sea. Dinosaurs didn't show up until the Triassic, well over 100 million years later.
Who says so: University of California Museum of Paleontology (opens in a new tab)
Note: a โtheoryโ, โfolkloreโ or โoutlookโ is not settled fact. Always check who is saying it.
๐ Sources for the rankings mentioned in this note (links to the original data and retrieval dates) are on each quiz page below.