Megan with giant mushroom (photo courtesy of Megan Dudenhoeffer)
In this episode, we answer questions like "how do mushrooms grow?" and "how can you tell if a mushroom is poisonous or not?" with our fungi expert Megan Dudenhoeffer, a science technician at the US Forest Service in the Center for Forest Mycology Research.
Visit Megan's website and see her research and publications!
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Transcription
Hey, and welcome to Questions Asked by Curious Kids or Quack, a podcast made by Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance. This is a podcast where we gather questions about nature from kids to be answered with a local expert. My name is Mickenzee, I'm an educator and I'll be the host for this series. This episode I'll be interviewing Megan Dudenhoeffer, a biological science technician at the US Forest Service in the Center for Forest Mycology Research. That is a big, fancy title for Mushroom Scientist. Today she'll be answering questions all about mushrooms or fungi. Okay, let's jump in with Megan. Ope, before we jump in, another thing to note is we record these episodes ahead of time, so enjoy some sounds of summer while Megan and I are recording.
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Mickenzee: Hey, Megan, welcome to the show. Before we get started with questions from the kids, can you tell us a little bit about what you do with the U.S. Forest Service?
Megan: Thanks, Mickenzee. So I work for the Center for Forest Mycology Research at the USDA Forest Service. A lot of what I do in my job is actually identify different fungi. So a lot of fungi are undiscovered or unnamed and it can be really difficult to tell different mushrooms apart, even if you have them, like under a microscope. So the majority of my job is using DNA to identify different types of mushrooms and fungi.
Mickenzee: Oh, cool.
Megan: Yeah.
Mickenzee: So this episode, we've got a couple of questions about fungi. Can you tell us about how you came to know so much about it, and maybe why you like them so much?
Megan: Yeah. So I actually became interested in mushrooms and fungi just from hiking around and seeing them all around me. I'm from out west, where it's not very wet and humid and we don't get a lot of rain. So coming to Wisconsin and going on hikes here and walking through the forest, there are just mushrooms everywhere and they're all different, like shapes and sizes and colors and it's just so fascinating. So that's really how I got into mushrooms is just being astonished with how many there are and the different types.
Mickenzee: Cool. And it's really cool that you're saying that a lot of them aren't identified yet.
Megan: Yeah.
Mickenzee: Okay. So all of our questions today were submitted by the third graders at Lincoln Elementary here in Madison. This third grader writes, when my class was walking around the school every day to see what was happening in nature we saw a mushroom one day, and the next day we saw a few mushrooms, and the next day it was Mushroom City. There were so many mushrooms. How do mushrooms grow?
Mushroom erupting from the soil (photo by USFWS)
Megan: That's a really great question. So one thing that I want to clarify is that when you see a mushroom, you're seeing like an apple or, some kind of fruit, but the actual fungus can be growing in the ground, or in the tree. You might not necessarily see the rest of the fungus. You might just see the mushroom fruit. So oftentimes, you don't even know that there is fungus all around you growing until you see that fruit. And oftentimes it takes rain. It takes a wet environment. So that fungus is growing in the ground, it's growing in the trees, and it's just waiting and it's getting ready. And as soon as it rains a bunch, then it's able to absorb that water and push out a mushroom. So if you're really into mushrooms, some of the best times to go look for them are after it rains.
Mickenzee: Cool. I love that it's weather dependent. Okay, another student asks, can we eat any wild mushrooms or will they make us sick? And how do you know if a mushroom is poisonous or not?
These mushrooms look like ribbons (photo by Joshua Mayer)
This fungi looks like coral (photo by USFWS)
Megan: I get this question all the time. And not just from kids. Adults ask me this question all the time too. It's a really hard question. Mushrooms are so diverse and there's so many different shapes and forms. You know, some mushrooms grow in wood, some grow on the ground, some look like shelves, some look like regular mushrooms. And there are so many types in different varieties that there's no easy answer. Even experts have a really hard time identifying mushrooms. So like where I work, we use microscopes, we use DNA to identify mushrooms. And oftentimes there are mushrooms out there that just don't taste good. A lot of mushrooms just really don't taste good. There are very few mushrooms out there that taste really good. And then there are a few mushrooms out there that are really dangerous. And if you accidentally eat them, you'll get really sick and you could die. So there's just no easy rule. So in general, you should never eat a mushroom that you find outside in the wild. The only times you should really eat a mushroom. All mushrooms really need to be cooked.
So if you're ever out with an expert or in a group of people and somebody thinks they found an edible mushroom, it's really important that you get multiple people to identify it. So that's one way. And then you can also, if you find a mushroom you think is edible. If you go to an adult or an expert, you can have them help you cook it. But yeah, raw mushrooms are going to make you sick no matter what. You should never take a mushroom and put it in your mouth.
Mickenzee: Yeah. Good advice. Good advice. Okay. How incredible. I feel like I learned a lot today. I don't really know a ton about fungi. But thank you so much to the students at Lincoln Elementary for submitting your nature questions and thank you, Megan, for taking time to teach us today.
Megan: Yeah.
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If you are interested in learning more or getting involved with our programs, please head to our website at swibirds.org and check out our free lessons, games and activities. I don't currently have any mushroom related programming, but this episode sure has inspired me, so maybe something will be up in the future.
If you have big nature questions that you'd like to have answered, please have a grownup or your teacher submit your question to info@swibirds.org with the title Questions for QuACK. Make sure to include your grade and the school that you attend so I can give you a shout out. Thanks for tuning in and I hope you join us next time on QuACK!
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Audio Editing and Transcription by Mickenzee Okon
Logo design by Carolyn Byers and Kaitlin Svabek
Music: “The Forest and the Trees” by Kevin MacLeod
