Blience Tuesday #3 Fungus

     This is number 3 in my Blience Tuesday series. This post will be about fungi. In this post, I will give a brief introduction to fungus, and then give my audience a general idea of how fungus can be helpful or good, as well as how fungus could be destructive or bad.

     First, what is a fungus? Fungus is thought to be sort of strange, a weird plant-like thing. Fungus is actually a separate kingdom, different from plants or animals. A very important part of the fungus is the mycelium. The mycelium sits underground, and collects nutrients. Out of the mycelium sprouts mushrooms, which are like the fruit of mycelium. The mushrooms can shoot out spores, which can land in the ground and become mycelium again.

     Now, I will give a few examples of how fungi can be good, as well as bad. First of all, what we can and do use them for. Many types of cheeses incorporate mold to give a certain flavor, like blue cheese. Yeast, which is used in many baked goods to make them rise, is a form of fungus. Also, fungi has been used to soak up motor oil and kill insects. Also, fungus can decompose dead things and return their nutrients to the ecosystem.

     Now, bad things fungus can do. There are certain types of fungus that live in damp places that can cause health problems. Fungus can decompose wooden structures making them unstable. Some mushrooms are poisonous, often deadly.

     Overall, I think fungus does more good than bad. Please comment! Thanks for Reading!



Bibliography:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mold
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_cheese
http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world.html