Fall arrives with rings of fungi

The bright days of lingering summer in September and October have passed us by. In their stead, the rain falls steadily on the rooftops and the landscape in Langley.

The rain and the winds tug at the brilliant leaves that still adorn some trees, while other trees have surrendered their leaves entirely. Strange creations also poke their heads from the ground, some colorful orange, others ghostly white — the fungi.

Recently a whole ring of these white mushrooms adorning a neighbour’s lawn caught my eye.

It was a fabled “fairy ring” with the ’shrooms forming a circular pattern. In medieval Europe, these rings were attributed to circles of dancing “little people.”

Now we know that fairies are not involved (or probably not?). The underground part of the mushroom, the mycelia, formed of thin whitish strands gradually grows out from a central point.

It takes the rains of autumn to cause the mycelia to fruit, and thus a circular ring of mushrooms forms at the edge of the expanding mycelia.

Yet at first this particular fairy ring was still mysterious to me — the modern-day scientist — as it actually formed a square, not a circle. Closer inspection revealed that some of the mushroom caps had been removed and re-positioned to form the square pattern by neighborhood children (or fairies?).

As we see the leaves fall, now drained of their chlorophyll, and the weather becomes colder and cloudier, it may seem like the fall is draining life from the landscape. The rise of the fungal fruiting bodies, however, reminds us that life is just entering another season.

The wet, cool weather provides optimal conditions for fungal growth, and without that, the leaves falling to the ground would decompose much more slowly.

The fungi work in tandem with many other decomposers like worms, insects and bacteria, to recycle the life forms that blossomed in summer.

Scientists have quantified the huge contribution that these organisms make to the cycle of life.

Given this amazing cycle, it is no wonder that the ancients believed in fairies. At least we still have ferries. Thanks to the BC ferry system I just spent several days on Salt Spring Island, which is all decked out with brilliant yellows and orange trees and also many colorful mushrooms of all shapes and sizes.

So do not let the fall weather get you down.

Enjoy the colorful spectacle, and watch out for fairy rings!

David Clements is a professor of biology and environmental studies at Trinity Western University.

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