Mushrooms of the Headwaters Reserve – California Redwoods By Wes Bingham Dave Largent , retired mycologist from Humbodlt State University, spoke to the Club and the grade 7 class at the French School, Ecole Cote du Soleil, about his Headwaters Reserve project. The Reserve was set aside for special preservation (not recreation) by the American government. It is one significant environmental victory in the 150-year history of the destruction of the once magnificent redwood forest of Northern California. You might recall news of the fight with young people living in the trees, etc. The government began with an assessment of the flora and fauna of the Reserve. Dave’s work was the most complete inventory of mushroom ever done in any forest. The number of species of mushrooms greatly exceeded those of vascular plants. Mushrooms are extremely important to the life of trees and forests. They probably evolved together. Basically, the underground mycelium digests dead organic matter and dissolves minerals. Plants cannot do this. The mushroom uses these nutrients, but also sends them directly to the roots of plants via hyphae (cellular tubes). The trees grow better with these otherwise inaccessible nutrients and the fungus uses the sugars formed by the plant’s photosynthesis. This is an example of symbiosis, specifically a mycorrhizal (mushroom-root) relationship. Mushroom flora differ greatly in alder (too much nitrogen produced by the roots), fir (exomycorrhiza don’t enter the roots vascular tissue) and redwood-cedar (endomycorrhiza connects directly with the “veins” of the roots. After the talk, Dave led a mushroom identification walk at the Riding Association. An amazing number of different mushrooms were found at the site in a very short time.