Handbook of Nature-Study · Lesson CLXXIX · Topic 27: Mushrooms, molds and bacteria
179. Mushrooms
Goal: Your child can name the cap, gills, stem, ring and cup of a mushroom, make a spore print, and explain why we never eat wild mushrooms.
You'll need
- A mushroom or two, picked by an adult wearing gloves, with a little of the soil or wood it grew on
- White paper and black paper
- A bowl or glass to cover the cap
- Disposable gloves
- A hand lens (magnifying glass)
- A nature notebook and a pencil (colored pencils if you have them)
What's in the book
The lesson asks for a field trip or for specimens brought in on their own soil, then gives eleven observations on where the mushroom grew, the cap, the gills, the stem with its ring and cup, a spore print, and the threads in the soil. Diagrams name the parts.
The lesson, step by step
Safety first
Safety first: we never eat a wild mushroom or any other wild fungus, not even a taste, and we never put fingers in our mouths after touching one. Some deadly kinds look plain and harmless, and even experts are fooled. Wear gloves or wash hands well with soap afterward, and keep specimens away from little children and pets.
The book's last question asks children to tell edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. We skip that part completely.
When and where
Late summer and fall, a day or two after rain, are best. Look on lawns, in woods, on rotting logs, stumps and fallen leaves. An adult picks with gloves, and each mushroom goes in its own paper bag with some of what it grew on.
The leading thought
Mushrooms are the fruiting organs of the fungi which grow in the form of threads, spreading in every direction through the food material.
In plain words: the mushroom is like an apple on a hidden tree. The real fungus is a web of fine threads in the soil or wood.
Where and what
Where was the mushroom found? If on the ground, was the soil wet or dry? Was it in open fields or in woods?
Is the cap cone-shaped, bell-shaped, convex, plane, concave, or funnel-form? Has it a raised point at the center? How wide is it?
Look beneath the cap. Is the under surface divided into plates like the leaves of a book, or is it porous?
Gills and stem
Use the diagram on the book page to name the parts.
Are there more gills near the edge of the cap than near the stem? How does this occur?
Has it a collar or ring around it near the top?
Is its base set in a sac or cup, or is it covered with a membrane which scales off? Do you know that the most poisonous of mushrooms have the sac or the scaly covering at the base of the stem?
Make a spore print
An adult cuts off the stem. Then follow the book:
set the cap, gills down, on white paper; cover with a tumbler, or other dish to exclude draught; leave it for twenty-four hours and then remove the cover, lift the cap carefully and examine the paper.
Put half the cap over black paper so that white spores show too. Ask: What color is the print? Can you tell by the pattern where the dust came from?
The hidden threads
Look at the soil or wood the mushroom came on, with the lens.
do you see any threads in it that look like mold?
These threads are the fungus itself. Wash hands well when you finish, and put the mushroom in the trash.
Nature notebook
Draw the mushroom from the side and from below, label cap, gills, stem and ring, and keep the spore print on the page (an adult can spray it with hairspray). Write where and when you found it.
Tip
Mushrooms make wonderful drawings and watercolors, as the book says. A portfolio of sketches and spore prints is a fine fall project.
Answers to the book's problems
Short gills fill in the spaces near the edge, where there is more room. The spore print color (white, pink, brown, purple-brown or black) helps experts identify a mushroom, but no home test makes a wild mushroom safe to eat.
Worked out for this site from the scan. If a number in your copy differs, trust the book.