Mushroom (big stink mushroom)

Mushrooms: Heroes of autumn
A mushroom is the fruiting body of a fungus. Usually this fungus lives invisibly under the ground or under tree bark. The network of fungal threads gets above ground shoots where mushrooms grow and we see them. The mushroom is similar to the fruit of an apple tree: the apple. However, in the case of the mushroom the 'tree' is not visible.

The fungi in the forests clean up organic material such as leaves, twigs and, for example, dead worms. Without these fungi it would only be a mess in the forest! Most of the clearing in the forest is done by fungi, actually they are a kind of vacuum cleaners! Without the fungi the forest would perish in its own garbage.

Besides cleaning up the mess they also turn it into food for animals, plants and trees. Some trees even depend so much on the fungi that they can only grow in the vicinity of the fungus, which makes exactly the right food for the tree! The soil fungus transports all nutrients via its fungal threads to the roots of the tree, isn't that nice?

It's a nice cycle: the fungus converts organic material into food.