this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
204 points (98.1% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35393 readers
2 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

So, fungal spores are literally everywhere, and the requirements for fungus to thrive seem to be trivially low; give it a moderately humid environment and it'll grow on a bare concrete wall ffs eating god only knows what; the dust from the air maybe?

Well, and the great outdoors is full of slightly damp places, many of them downright soggy most of the time - and absolutely rife with organic material to snack on.

Where's the bottleneck? Why isn't the world a choking fungal hellscape?

all 36 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 196 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (7 children)

Spores are everywhere like you say and you only really see a tiny percentage of mycelium. Fungi kinda is everywhere already, but where it can grow well is much more limited.

Fungi can be remarkably picky about its growing conditions to thrive, otherwise, it's growth will be remarkably slow. However, if you put a tablespoon of dirt under the microscope, there could be dozens of mycelial strands in it trying to survive. They can all survive, to a degree, but there are a couple of issues preventing dominance.

If it can find a place to settle in and grow, chances are that many other spores may be trying to take hold as well. Fungi is insanely competitive and is constantly fighting for space. Fast growing fungi is what we normally see take over food sources and it's usually a type of trichoderma. Trichoderma will literally choke out other fungal growths simply due to its rapid development. If an existing colony is weakened for one reason or another and it gets a trich infection, it's game over.

For commercial mycelium development, (button mushrooms, oysters, etc.) growing conditions are generally perfect and the substrate used is tailored specifically per species. (It's mostly sanitized poo or specific types of wood.) Temperatures need to be adjusted for each growth phase as fungi can be very sensitive to that. Some strains of shiitake are rumored to require a physical shock to fruit. (Like, the substrate bag needs to be physically smacked hard. It's an odd characteristic.)

To sum all of this up, it usually comes down to competition. Where there isn't fungi, there is bacteria. Plants even have chemical defenses to both. Small critters and insects may eat all three of those things.

Next time you look at your garden, just remember you are looking at an actual battleground for millions of critters of all shapes and sizes.

[–] [email protected] 88 points 2 months ago (1 children)

TIL Mario smacking a brick until a mushroom pops out is based on reality.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (3 children)

And the mushroom making him bigger most certainly is not.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

The mushroom just makes him think he's bigger.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Well, one makes you bigger, one makes you small. Of course the one's mom gives out don't do anything at all.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Just go ask Alice if you don't believe that. Preferably when she is at about 10ft tall.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

No, no, that's pills (unless they make you small; or your mother gave you them, in which case they don't do anything at all).

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Thank you for contributing to make the fediverse a more interesting place.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Sure thing. I like to share stuff since I do a lot of random stuff. I also like to learn new things so I try to make it a habit to appreciate any corrections people make to what I say. Live, learn and share!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I have read somewhere that shiitake, and many other mushrooms from Japan only fruit when shaken hard because it has developed in an earthquake prone country.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

The other theory is that mycelium starts to develop in a tree that is about to die, and when the tree falls, that is the trigger for fruiting.

(I personally have no clue where these theories originated from and can't speak to them.)

FYI, your Lemmy client did a triple post from Lemmy world and it exposed your alt on .ca.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

What does "exposed your alt on .ca" mean?

Can you intertwine Lemmy accounts from different servers somehow?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The exact same comment was posted from a Lemmy World account 2-3 times, and once from another account on Lemmy .ca.

My wild speculation is that the user made a comment, it lagged, the refresh button was hit a couple of times resulting in multiple POST commands. Maybe the session continued to appear lagged for the user and they switched accounts, resulting in yet another duplicate POST being executed with the new session token. Again, that is just speculation.

In my experience, dupe comments are common with phone clients, either on Lemmy or Reddit. I suppose the same could happen with PC browsers if there is system or VPN lag.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I remember a House episode where people got fungal infection in California after a small earthquake/tremor.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Oysters are fungi? I thought they were shellfish

[–] [email protected] 23 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Dunno if you're joking?

Oyster mushrooms are a type of edible mushroom.

Oysters are indeed shellfish.


Also,

Oyster cards are an RFID travel card in London.

And,

What kind of noise annoys a noisy oyster?
A noisy nose annoys a noisy oyster.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

also: The Oyster was an erotic magazine published in London in 1883

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Dunno if you're joking? (...) Oysters are indeed shellfish.

Hey, when barnacles are apparently friggin' crustaceans, it's sort of a fair question, I'd say.

Sea critters are weird.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Also, oyster crackers are delicious!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 2 months ago

It's true. They only care about themselves.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 2 months ago

I have read somewhere that shiitake, and many other mushrooms from Japan only fruit when shaken hard because it has developed in an earthquake prone country.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 2 months ago (1 children)

In addition to other reasons listed in replies, there's a fair bit of bacteria that excrete antifungal compounds into their environment so that they can colonize it more effectively than the mold.

There are viruses that attack fungi, too.

Any environment that hasn't been sterilized by some means is a constant microbial warzone between bacteria, fungi, algae, archea, viruses, etc. with the current winners being determined by how favorable the conditions (moisture, pH, toxin concentration, etc.) are to each species.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Springtails and certain mites also love to eat fungus. I use them to keep mold under control in my terrariums

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Mold needs the proper conditions to grow.

Probably most important to your question is nutrients. Mold needs certain nutrients in order to grow, which is why it doesnt grow on everything. Some materials that have the nutrients mold needs include various foods, drywall, cotton, and some types of wood.

Mold also need decently specific moisture in its evironment (humidity of over 55%), a proper temperature range, shielding from UV rays that kill it, and if these conditions are met, mold can grow in about 24-48 hours.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Why don’t arse cheeks get moldy?

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

Because you wash them often enough that they don't get moldy, hopefully.

Yes, you can actually have mold grow on your skin. But there are a lot of bacteria competing for food with the mold, as well as body oils and waste secretions, on top of the body's immune system being pretty good at taking care of invasions.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

Yes, you can actually have mold grow on your skin. But there are a lot of bacteria competing for food with the mold, as well as body oils and waste secretions, on top of the body’s immune system being pretty good at taking care of invasions.

There are quite a few different types of fungal skin infections (athlete’s foot, ringworm, fungal nails, an array of yeast infections), some can be pretty damn persistent!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

You also constantly shed skin, so any mould that tries to get a hold would have a difficult time staying on.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Your body's immune system may be pretty good, but fungal infections are some of the most difficult to fight. For example, if you get fungal meningitis, it's a massive headache to deal with.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

They definitely can

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago

it is a fungal hell scape, Valley Fever https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccidioidomycosis

Ringworm, Yeast infections

if you have a weakened immune system. It's a nightmare you have to take so many precautions.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

Aaaand then there's slime moulds. Some of which can run a maze...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mold

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's not a fungal hellscape because the rest of us live at the mercy of fungus.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

TIL fungi domesticated everything else on earth.

I, for one, welcome our new mushroom overlords.