Module 3: Fungi Scavenger Hunt

This week we learned all about fungi in our Microbes without Borders class. While everyone tends to thing of strange, exotic mushrooms when they hear the world fungi, we actually see fungi in our every day lives! Here are some of the fungi I found in my community. With a little bit of creativity, I really didn't have to go very far to find them!

Closest to home, I have my pasta leftovers from when I went out to eat a couple of days ago. I love mushrooms! Unfortunately, not all wild mushrooms you see are edible. Many are actually very toxic. I wouldn't recomend eating wild mushrooms unless you know them really well. These guys here that are in my pasta can be bought at your local super market. They are carmelized versions of the common mushroom, or Agaricus bisporus. These mushrooms are part of the Basidomycota fungus order.

While I got these from my pasta, you can also find them in nature, typically in wet grassy fields, or under trees during the warmer months of the year. There are a lot of similar looking mushrooms that are very posionous, so I recommend just visiting your local grocery store instead. These mushrooms are part of the natural habitat, and aren't harmful when they're found in the enviornment. As for being in my pasta, they have quite a few benefits. Many contain vitamin D, vitamin B12, antioxidants and tend to be low calorie.

The next fungi I found were at my local publix: baker's yeast. While I couldn't get the Bakery department to show me the yeast that they used to make their bread, I did find some in the local grocery isle. Individual yeast microbes are too small to be seen but the naked eye, but the jar of yeast looked like a brown goop. The scientific name of Baker's Yeast is Sacchromyces cerevisiae. This organism is in the Ascomyota order.

In nature, these tend to be found on ripened fruit like grapes. Even though yeast is a fungus, it's not harmful for us to eat. The Ascomyota order is known for being very useful in the food industry. The organisms in this order help us make foods like breads, beer, and even types of ripened cheese (like Bleu cheese!). S. cervisiae are very beneficial to us, and just like A. bisporus, they provide us with many antioxidants and vitamins.

Finally, I ventured over to Lake Alice in order to find a lichen. This tree had many differnt spot-like lichens on it. Lichens actually don't harm the tree, but rather just use the surface of the tree as structural support. I saw a lot of these on the trees by wooded trails near Lake Alice, but I'mm not sure exactly what kind of lichens they are.