Winter is just around the corner, but a surprising number of mushroom species can still be found this late in the year. Prized as an edible, this mushroom traps and consumes microscopic roundworms as a source of nitrogen! However, most mushroom species are not known to predate animals, and instead get most of their nutrients by decomposing plants. An example of a species that predates on other organisms is the oyster mushroom. Many insect-attacking species even seem to influence their targets’ minds, causing them to fly or crawl up to high branches and leaves, and sticking to their undersides so spores released by the fungi are more likely to be caught by winds. Fungi also play a very important role as predators of animals such as insects. Fungal tissues are easier to digest than plant tissues, so fungi are critically important in making energy locked away in tough plant material like wood available to the rest of the food web. Most notable is their role as decomposers, as they can degrade wood much more efficiently than other organisms like bacteria. Although known for containing some tasty edible species, the fascinating Kingdom Fungi also play crucial ecological roles in our environment.
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