If your lawn looks like this, you're not alone - Photo credit: Lloyd Howell
During Florida’s rainy season, fungi flourish. Toadstools, fairy-rings, puffballs and a hundred other alien shapes appear in the landscape, seemingly overnight.
Fungi are not plants and do not photosynthesize. Genetically they actually have more in common with Kingdom Animalia, but they aren’t animals either.
Fungi are a unique kingdom of organisms. They are heterotrophic, meaning their source of carbon nourishment comes from other living (or once living) organisms. In the case of fungi, this usually means they feed on decaying organic matter, like rotting wood. Some are also pathogens, attacking plants, people, and other organisms. Others live in mutually-beneficial relationships with other organisms, particularly plants.
Fungi can be single or multicellular; microscopic or miles wide; helpful, harmful, neither, or both. The diversity of the fungal world is enormous.
Although fungi can be found in some of the most extreme environments on Earth, the species we encounter thrive in moist, warm environments. They can survive for years in the soil, unseen, until the favorable conditions of Florida’s rainy season trigger a surge of growth and reproductive activity. In this case the “mushrooms” you see popping up in your yard are actually the reproductive structures of the larger underground organism. The spores are released above ground to float or swim away from the parent.
Do you need to get rid of fungi? Though some find them unsightly, mushrooms rarely damage turfgrass. Instead they perform a valuable service by breaking down rotting organic matter in the landscape, enriching the soil wherever they grow. Still, if a fungus is growing in an inappropriate location or known to be toxic, removal may be necessary.
For assistance identifying a fungus, reach out to Master Gardeners at your local Extension Office - (352) 671-8400.
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