On Food and Cooking

network of fibers, or hyphae, which ramify
through the soil to gather nutrients. A single
cubic centimeter of soil — a small fraction of
a cubic inch — can contain as much as 2,000
meters/yards of hyphae! When the
underground mass of fibers has accumulated
enough material and energy, it organizes a
new, dense growth of interwoven hyphae into
a fruiting body, which it pumps up with water
to break above the soil surface and release its
offspring spores into the air. The mushrooms
that we eat are these fruiting bodies. (Morels
form unusual hollow fruiting bodies with a
distinctive honeycombed cap; the depressions
bear the spores.)
Because the fruiting body is critical to the
mushroom’s reproduction and survival, it’s
often protected from animal attack by
defensive poisons. Some mushroom poisons
are deadly. This is why wild mushrooms
should be gathered only by experts in
mushroom identification. One mushroom