Why do mushrooms grow in circles?

Answer 1

The name fairy ring comes from an old folk-tale. People once believed that mushrooms growing in a circle followed the path made by fairies dancing in a ring. Fairy rings are found in open grassy places and in forests.

In grass, the best known fairy ring fungus has the scientific name Marasmius oreades. The body of this fungus, its mycelium, is underground. It grows outward in a circle. As it grows, the mycelium uses up all of the nutrients in the soil, starving the grass. This is the reason a fairy ring has dead grass over the growing edge of the mycelium. Umbrella-shaped fruiting bodies, called mushrooms, spring up from just behind the outer edge of the mycelium.

Large rings are created when the older mycelium in the center finally exhausts the soil nutrients and dies. On the death of the central mycelium, the nutrients are returned to the soil and grass can grow again.

The living edge of the mycelium continues to grow outward. As it grows, it secretes chemicals into the ground ahead. These chemicals break down the organic matter, releasing nutrients so that the mycelium will have food when it reaches this area. For a brief time, the grass at the outer edge of the ring also benefits. The extra nutrients make the grass darker green, taller, and thicker than the rest of the lawn or pasture. This lush grass dies when the mycelium grows under it and steals the nutrients.

Fairy rings made by fungi like Marasmius oreades are called "free" rings. They will continue to grow outward until a barrier is reached. Sometimes the barrier is another fairy ring! Rings can grow into each other's territory and die as each reaches the other's "dead zone."

If there are no barriers, free rings can grow outward at up to 8 inches (20 cm) per year. They can reach a diameter of over 30 feet (10 m). One ring formed in France by the fungus Clitocybe geotropa is almost a half mile (600 m) in diameter. This ring is thought to be 700 years old.

Mycorrhizal fungi, which live in symbiotic partnership with trees, also form fairy rings. Their rings are called "tethered" rings. A tether is like a leash. The fungus and its mycorrhizal partner tree need each other to survive. The mycelium of these fungi always remains joined to the tree's roots. Roots are the "tether" that keeps the fairy rings of mycorrhizal fungi from growing too far from their tree

Answer 2

This is a good question and merits a detailed answer. It runs as follows -: So-called fairy rings are found only in a few species of mushrooms. Agaricus bisporus & Agaricus campestris are common amongst them. (Psalliota is the alternate generic name). Imagine a single spore (equivalent to a seed of higher plant) of this Agaricus germinating at the center of an undisturbed, untrammeled lawn. Now, the emerging thallus of that mushroom (It is also called Mycelium) is highly branched and spreads evenly in all directions in almost a circular manner below the soil surface (The words'undisturbed', 'untrammeled' acquire importance here.). When the climatic conditions are perfect (High humidity, high temperature); Sexual reproduction occurs beneath the soil surface and the fruiting bodies(The Basidiocarps for a botanist and mushrooms for common man) only emerge above the soil surface. They spread the spores (The result of the sexual reproduction) in the atmosphere. Since the branches or the hyphae have spread in all direction equidistant from the point of origin (In this case the original germinating spore); the mushrooms appear in a form of a broken or interrupted circle (dotted or non-continuous circle if you like). This is called ‘Fairy Ring’. Each spot where the mushroom emerges is thought to be the mark where the dainty fairy put her equally dainty steps . The rings are factual but the story is purely mythical. When the reproductive phase is over, the hyphae (The branches of the original Mycelium.) continue to grow further radially and only below the soil surface. So that during the next season the ring will be wider and it will continue to be wider with each passing year and ultimately disappear in the wood around the lawn where one cannot trace it. With so much of ecological disturbance and tampering with nature around , a perfect ‘Fairy Ring’ is hard to come by these days.

Answer 3

Some mushrooms grow in circles, commonly called fairy rings, but most do
not. Best guess on those that do is that the mycelium, the main body of the
fungus, has spread uniformly outward from an original growth point, and that
the fruiting bodies - visible mushrooms - are sprouting from new growth at
the perimeter. The original growth point might have been an old tree stump,
for example. Some of these fungi persist for dozens, to hundreds, of years,
rings becoming so large they are not easily noticed to be rings

Answer 4

Fairy Ring Mushroom

Answer 5

the mushroom is only the sex organ of fungus that can grow underground as big as a house

Answer 6

Hi. Because the spores from which they came fell from the first mushroom and fell around it.

Answer 7

It is a fungus, and they grow in a patch (as you say circle).

Answer 8

It is their nature.