Thursday, 30 March 2017

Mushrooms, Nature's decomposer

NATURE'S ART WORK

What a beauty to behold when you see the art work of Nature in display on Mushrooms... they are known to decompose any material. The process and period to finish decomposing any material depends on the properties of that material.

 
From a numerous number to a wide horizon, there is not limit for their existence. Their adaptive habit of existence has given them a wide range of habitat to colonize. They occur on building made of clay-loamy soil, termite hills, standing or falling logs, leaves on the ground floor, dry and moist environments.These are not considered as plant or animals but definitely eukaryotic organism which grow and reproduce sexually and asexually like the living organisms. In shape they are graciously sized to fit their kind species. In sized they form an endowed body mass of chitin and in colours they form nature’s art work; pretty and lovely not to let go off sight without taken a snap shot.
Their fruiting body don’t live long but spores can stand the test of time and there is no place you go that they don’t occur. Out of their activities they create an enabling environment for plant to enjoy a by product as nutrient. 
They do not photosynthesize nor do they hunt for food but break down complex substance by secreting enzymes and at the end animals and plant benefit.

Economic/Biological importance
Some are friendly-edible while others are deadly-poisonous if consumed without caution. Very vital as antibiotics but again can cause permanent deformation in plant or animal if encountered without precaution. Some use for insect control and others as an industrial raw material.
Their role is endless but they are sometimes considered less important. Except for nature that has not failed to acknowledge their wide fitted contribution of this poor-beautiful object, mankind wouldn't find his environment habitable without mushrooms. Like the great scholars, I called them "The Decomposers" which are well known as Fungi.
Forms
Fungi exist in micro forms (not visible to the human eye) or macro forms (visible to human eye 
example are the mushrooms). The study of fungi in science is known as mycology.
Fungi come in diverse forms of shape of umbrella, thread-like, coral form, rounded;  texture and colours.
Reproduction
Reproduction is by the use of spores and in some cases zoospores found at various reproductive vegetative parts(gills) can be dispersed with the aid of water, wind or animals.

Images of few out of Thousands explains nature's art work
Fausse sp  found in Kwano field station, Gashaka Gumti National Park. Photo by Elisha ©2016

Pycnoporus cinnabarinus top surface found in Naraguta hills. Photo by Elisha ©2016
Amanita muscaria Photo by Elisha ©2016
Ganoderma applanatum Dried speciemen on a tree log. Photo by Elisha ©2016
Stereum ostrea Photo by Elisha ©2016
Pluteus umbrosus Photo by Elisha ©2016
Pluteus umbrosus. Photo by Elisha ©2016
Mycena aetites Photo by Elisha ©2016

Pycnoporus cinnabarinus underneath found in Naraguta hills. Photo by Elisha ©2016

Trametes versicolor Photo by Elisha ©2016
Coriolopsis sp  Photo by Elisha ©2016
Lycoperdon umbrinum. Photo by Elisha ©2016
Texture varies among species as some appears woody or soft; jelly or dry forms exist and are well adapted to their environments.
Clavulinopsis corniculata Photo by Elisha ©2016
Amanita bisporigera  found on walls of  buildings in Naraguta community Photo by Elisha ©2016
Lachnum sp found along riparian forest and moist habitat of Kwano field station Photo by Elisha ©2016
Podaxis pistillaris Occurs in Termite hills as observed in Amurum Forest Reserve. Photo by Elisha ©2016 
Many still in the wild waiting to be discovered, recorded and further be utilized as food or for medicine. If only you could carefully observe a dumping refused site, better still you immediate environment there you could find amazing species of this great Kingdom of organism called Fungi likely to belong to one of this Phyla (Division): Microsporidia, Chytridiomycota, Blastocladiomycota, Neocallimastigomycota, Glomeromycota, Ascomycota, and Basidiomycota.
 Never you attempt to consume any mushroom without a confirmatory knowledge even if it's familiar for substrate type can influence it chemical composition.
Sources:
  • Kent H. McKnight and Vera B. McKnight Accessed 2016. Peterson field guide. ISBN 0-396-91090-0.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungus accessed 2017.
  • Alexopoulos , C. J. , C. W. Mims , and M. Blackwell . 1996 . Introductory
    mycology. Wiley, New York, New York, USA.

Wednesday, 15 March 2017

What is a GRASS



ARE ALL HERBACEOUS PLANTS GRASSES?

Lawn of Eleusine indica.Photo by Elisha ©2017
When someone point at a group of plants growing around or when people hear the word “grass” the first thing that pops in their mind is “oh That grass…!” in this case from a layman  point of view all plant as long as it(they) is(are) not tree(s) is referred to as grasses. Are all herbaceous plants grasses? From a professional point of view, all herbs are not grass. The word “grass” is not just any plant but a particular kind of plant that have special features.
Grasses or gramineae are one of the 5th largest family with over 700 genera composed of over 12, 000 species. They are monocotyledonous flowering plants; that is, they do not have visible flowers as seen in most flowering plant; they have scattered vascular bundles, maybe hollow or corky with no tap root but have adventitious roots and leaves ranked alternating. They are well distributed in most habitat types such as rocky outcrop, savanna, marsh lands, along streams or water bodies some even occur in water. Based on these special characteristics they have been grouped into the plant family called Poaceae.

Major characteristics of Grasses

Grasses are diverse in forms such as leaf shape and sizes, density of hair, unique grain size and shape, but one thing is prominent about them which is the fact that they have inter-nodes and ringed at the inter-node. Other features include presence of hair-like structure that could either be soft or tough strong to penetrate human skin. Leaf is narrow and tapering with parallel veins. Petiole appears as a sheath material covering the stem from the node.

Herbs mistaken for grasses

Other forms of herbs mistaken for grasses include seagrasses, rushes and sedges, they are not grasses but in appearance they resemble. But because they do not possess these simple characteristics highlighted other plant types such as herbs should not be mistaken for grasses.

Few have been domesticated by human for food. Those domesticated grasses include Sugarcane, bamboo, cereals such as rice, maize, millet, wheat to name but a few.


Benefits of grasses

Many of the different species have benefited human, arthropods such as insects, spiders and herbivores which includes cattle at many stages of life. 

To human their uses includes:

  • Source of Food: Domesticated ones serve as a good source of carbohydrates example is maize, sorghum, millet, wheat, rye, barley rice, and oat.
    In the food chain, they are the primary producers of about 95% of the total energy. They are a source of food to most herbivores which we human depends directly or indirectly.

  • Industrial material: Sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum) is an industrial material used to produce sugar.

  • Building material: Roofing material for houses examples are thatched grass, bamboo use for furniture and crafts.

  • Some are used as beverage such as the lemongrass (Cymbopogom citratus); cereals are also use in brewery.

  • Beautification: Many creeping species used in landscaping; lawn grass are used for ground cover (carpet) at home, recreational centers and along walk ways. Aside beautification, grasses prevent soil leaching and erosion.
  • Many grasses are considered as weed and if not controlled; they may create home for unwanted visitors such as reptiles, leaf hoppers, spiders and termites.
Because of their similarities, identifying numerous genera have become difficult. But to deal with that, field exposure, experience and consistency is vital.

Major Keys for Identifying grasses is to look out for the following : Cyclic inter-nodes along the stem, Leaf petiole as sheath covering the stem, presence of hairs, Leaves always linear with tapering end and spikelets of flowers . All grasses have a panicles or spikes bearing the fruit.

Few of these grasses are shown below:

Commonly called beard grass. Photo by Elisha ©2017
Commonly called signal grass. Photo by Elisha ©2015
Commonly called hungry rice (wild species). Photo by Elisha ©2015
Commonly called finger millet locally referred as Tamba. Photo by Elisha ©2016
Commonly called thatching grass. Photo by Elisha ©2017
Commonly called thatching grass. Photo by Elisha ©2017
Commonly called spear grass. Photo by Elisha ©2017
Commonly called russet grass. Photo by Elisha ©2017
Commonly called wavyleaf basketgrass. Photo by Elisha ©2016
Commonly called dallis grass. Photo by Elisha ©2015
Commonly called fountain grass. Photo by Elisha ©2015
Commonly called Natal grass. Photo by Elisha ©2015
Commonly called itching grass. Photo by Elisha ©2015
Commonly called bluestem grass. Photo by Elisha ©2017
Commonly called redstem grass. Photo by Elisha ©2017
Commonly called toothache grass. Photo by Elisha ©2017
Commonly called crowfoot grass. Photo by Elisha ©2014

You need to know that not all plants are grasses and at every point in time, these nature's gift of grass can be utilized to make life much more beautiful. Try to different a herb that is not grass and identify a grass; you will find how exciting it feels to have not call spinach a grass. 
Find out what you could do with a species of grass around you than just destroying it by spraying herbicide.

  Source(s)
Akobunku, I.O. and Agyakwa C. W. (1998) Second edition. A hand book of West African Weeds. International Institute Tropical Agriculture. JSB;.J: 978 13] 129 0