Rainy Warm Weather is fabulous for Fungi…

Strange and smelly fruits appear in the Mackay Regional Botanic Gardens. Are they at your place too?

Mysterious objects are appearing with almost magical speed of growth intriguing us with their colours, shapes and smells. The strange things popping up in the gardens and lawns here at the Botanic Gardens are the fruiting bodies of Fungi. Fungi vary in size from microscopic yeasts and moulds to bracket fungi a metre or more in width.

Fungi are different from all other plants, have a complete lack of the green pigment called Chlorophyll and they reproduce by spores, not seeds.

As much as we might not like the weather conditions at the moment, for fungi, the combination of humidity, temperature and the kind of soil they are in is just right for them to produce spores to germinate.

Mushrooms, toadstools, stinkhorns and other strange shaped growths are ‘fruits’…just like an apple is the fruit of the apple tree. These strange ‘fruits’ sole function is to produce spores and they have many variations in how they achieve this and then have them dispersed.

Visiting the Botanic Gardens during our damp weather, you will see many varieties of fungi, including stinkhorns (like those in the featured image). All you need to do is follow your nose…

Contact: Maya Harrison

Phone: 49527300

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