I’ve done a video earlier on this subject. A year back to be exact. I’m doing it again in order to draw your attention to this issue that fascinates me greatly – the appearance of mushrooms. Today, mushrooms are available in shops. In my childhood, that was not the case. During the rains, they would appear in some corner of the garden plot and we used to pluck them for a couple of days. Big and small mushrooms, milky mushrooms, button mushrooms and so on. As soon as they expanded to the fullest extent, they would wither. The curry, made by adding salt and turmeric powder and other ingredients, was really delicious. Today we can purchase them but it is fun to watch them erupt from the soil. So when I bought this piece of land, I wondered whether I would see them appear here. Someone advised me to leave some hay and cow dung on the soil as that would aid the growth of mushrooms. But that did not work. But suddenly, five years back, mushrooms appeared – the needle mushroom variety – in a very small area. The next year, they appeared on a larger area and that began to catch our attention. From our Facebook posts, it became evident to us that the mushrooms kept regular time – they appeared on October 28 for three consecutive years. They came up at a spot down below as well but when we tilled that area, mushrooms stopped sprouting there. So we have left that area undisturbed now.
Let me tell you about mushrooms in the shortest manner possible. Termites or white ants live beneath the top soil. When pieces of wood do not get digested despite their activity, termites bring a kind of fungus to work on them and make them edible. The seeds of that fungus sprout to form mushrooms, and then seed dispersal happens all over again. The job of the fungus is to decompose the wood pieces, and they are put on that task by the termites. That is why termites are known as the first farmers of the world. So if you spot mushrooms, be sure there is a termite colony just beneath them.
As I told you mushrooms appeared here on the same date for three consecutive years. On the fourth year, they appeared two days late. In a sense, four days late because last year was a leap year. So we were alert this year. It rained on the previous and the next day. Last year was comparatively dry. This year, mushrooms came nine days late – on 9 November. We had left that area totally undisturbed until recently. But when a wall that stood there collapsed, we had to reconstruct it. Maybe the disturbance is the reason for the altered rhythm. Nature is very sensitive. With the slightest interference, microbes are also disturbed. I don’t know much about this subject but someone interested in Botany or Zoology may find it worth researching on. You can check whether there is a phenomenon like natural repetition.
Long back, my mother used to say that mushrooms appeared immediately after lightning struck. The north-east monsoon brings lightnings in the evenings, and mushrooms appear the next morning. But I don’t think the lightning has anything to do with it. This is a lightning-prone area but I noticed that the appearance of mushrooms is not caused by lightning. I don’t know much about this but let this be an incentive for those of you who are interested in this subject.