Someone please explain fairy-rings to me?

Question

I like collecting wild mushrooms and i think one of the tastiest is the fairy-ring champignion, but i can never understand how the fairy-rings form. I read that its because of the way the spores travel away from the parent mushroom but when the parent grew in a ring that doesn't make sense. I'd like to think that there's a good non-magical explanation for it...

Answer 1

The largest part of the fungus is actually a network of fibers underground (or in wood, etc) called the mycellium. This mycellium grows outward from where it starts growing and the actual mushrooms form at the edge of the area of mycellium. Since the mycellium tends to grow outward in a circular way, the mushrooms tend to form in circles, called fairy circles. You will also notice that the grass inside of a fairy circle tends to be greener. This is because of the nutrients found in the mycellium.

New fairy circles form when spores start to grow after blowing in from somewhere else.

Answer 2

You could have a great contest trying to find the funniest answer to this. Yes, if all the spores grew into mushrooms which then gives out spores, you would have something like a French crueller donot form. However, if you have 1 mushroom and there is no wind to mess up the shape, you get the fairy ring. At least you haven't heard of the fairy crueller.

Answer 3

Fungi...which cause fairy rings are made up primarily of hyphae or hair like structures that do all the feeding of the fungi.....in mushrooms and toadstools etc we tend to associate a fungus with the fruiting/sexual organs of the structure .....aka....the mushroom ( yes its the sex organs of a fungus)....so these only occur now and then.....

In the meantime the fungus is continually growing and feeding. Fungi start with a single spore and then the hyphae spread outwards in a circle... like the fungal mould spots on bread! Over time the older part of the fungus dies ( inside of the circle)...the fungus will reproduce now and then in a circle, which is the outer ring, which we see as a "fairy ring"....this ring will continue to increase in size year after year as the fungus continues to grow ( and the older parts will die off).

Under the "mushrooms" are the hyphae, all interconnected, feeding from the soil on dead matter etc....some of these fairy rings have been known to grow KILOMETRES across and you can only see others from the air they are so big.
Some fairy rings may not be complete as parts may die off, but the rest still continues to move outwards from their origin.

Answer 4

I believe the ring forms like this: A fairy ring actually starts out as a spot, but as it feeds on the decaying matter, it finds "fresher" medium to the outside of the spot, and eventually follows that fresher source of nutrient, which is always to the outside of the ring, away from previously consumed nutrients - hence the ever-expanding circle.

Answer 5

they grow outward from the center, like a pebble thrown into a pool of water