Glossary of terms of the mushroom world
Welcome to the wonderful world of the third kingdom - mushrooms!
First of all, we would like to congratulate you on your interest in the world of mycology, we understand that all the new concepts in the field can be confusing, so we have gathered here some phrases and words to familiarize yourself with.
If you are still missing any information, we are here to help.
Phrases and concepts
Spawn:
A seed is actually the biological material with which we "seed" the mycelium in the selected growing medium. A seed usually refers to a cereal seed that inhabits the mycelium of a fungus in order to later sow growing media, but a seed can also be a liquid culture, a sawdust seed, and more.
Growing medium - Substrate:
A growing medium for mushrooms can be composed of different materials depending on the type of mushroom you want to grow. The mycelium will inhabit the growing medium, consume and break down the nutrients in it. The growing medium, in addition to nutrients for the mycelium, will also provide a sufficient amount of liquid for the exit of fruiting bodies.
Innoculation:
The process of "sowing" mycelium in a clean growing medium for continued population. Insemination can be of a growing medium, of a seed or a vessel with a food medium for the mycelium.
Fruiting Bodies:
The fruiting bodies are actually the mushrooms we all know. The fungus itself (the mycelium) lives on its growth medium, and given suitable conditions the mycelium will develop fruiting bodies in order to continue multiplying. Each fungus will release spores at maturity that will continue and turn into a new mycelium.
Colonization:
The process of growing the mycelium on some growth medium, whether a petri dish or a "blooming" medium.
Mycelium:
The mycelium is actually the fungus itself, its body is white and thready like a spider's web that grows and develops on a substrate of food available in nature or cultured culture. The mycelium is built of thread-like arms in order to move to new food sources and to transmit information from one part of it to another just like a sophisticated nervous system.
Culture:
A culture in the field of mycology is actually a mycelium on a petri dish, which is a multiplicity of cells of the fungus
Genetic isolation - Isolation:
Many times we will see the expression "genetic isolation" in the field of mycology. Genetic isolation is essentially the reduction of the genetic pool in any culture by transferring small parts of it to different Petri dishes in order to identify different genetic lines from it that will function differently.
Flush - Flush:
Flash is an expression equivalent to "harvest" or "harvest", it describes a single bunch of fruiting bodies from a growing medium.
A substrate that gave 4 flashes, flowered 4 times.
Fruiting Chamber:
Flowering room or flowering room is the place where we will present our growing media to suitable conditions for the release of fruiting bodies. These conditions can vary between different varieties of mushrooms. In the flowering room, we would like to create conditions of high humidity, temperature and suitable lighting
Flowering - Fruiting:
Blooming of mushrooms is actually the stage when our growing media will produce fruiting bodies. The phrase efflorescence is controversial because it is imprecise. Mushrooms do not bloom but produce fruit bodies, the more accurate verb would be "privatization" but this is also not accurate, so it was decided to stay with flowering.
Primordia:
Primordia is the initial stage of the fruit bodies.
hypal knots
Hyphal knots are connections between "arms" of a mycelium that meet at a point and produce the beginning of a primordia
Spores:
Spores are the means of reproduction of the fungi. Spores are microscopic pollen that emerges from the leaves/pores of the mature fungus. The spores are carried by the wind until they land on a new food source where they will hatch and in turn turn into a new mycelium that will produce fruiting bodies.