Have you seen mushrooms growing in circles?
Photo: wbeegle
I’ve noticed some mushrooms growing in circular patterns, sometimes several feet in diameter. Is there a name for this phenomenon? What causes it?
What you saw is known as a “fairy ring” – from the old belief that fairies danced inside the circle of mushrooms.
Only a few kinds of mushrooms form fairy rings. You might’ve seen the mushroom called the Giant Puffball. Mushrooms are a type of fungus, and fairy rings form as a result of the way certain types of fungi grow.
These fungi start growing underground from a single spore. The spore sprouts a tangle of tube-like threads, which spread out horizontally in all directions – like spokes radiating from the hub of a wheel. That’s what gives rise to the circular pattern. The part of the fungus you see – the mushrooms – springs up at the edge of the circle.
Scientists can measure the advance of a fungus from the increasing size of a fairy ring – so they can figure out when the ring started to grow. Some fairy rings have been found that may have been growing for four hundred years.
NEW! Find related content with Sphere
More resources on “plants”…