Earth
is believed to support more than 1.5 million fungal species,
some have life
span of thousands of years!
(above removing fungus from pool deck
by pressure washing)
Greater
Orlando
(407) 281-3761
Find A Local Pressure Washing Contractor
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The Most Common Question
is : What Is That On The Wall, Roof, Deck?
Any of numerous eukaryotic organisms of the
kingdom Fungi, which lack chlorophyll and vascular tissue and range in form
from a single cell to a body mass of branched filamentous hyphae that often
produce specialized fruiting bodies. The kingdom includes the yeasts, molds,
smuts, and mushrooms.
fun·gus
n., pl. fun·gi or fun·gus·es.
Fungus
is the third kingdom of this world, living, yet neither plant or
animal.
Fungi can be divided in three groups:
symbiotic, mycorrhiza, and saprophytic.
(saprophytic is the fungus most common
on roofs) It is absolutely an essential part of our
ecosystem, while some species are responsible for serious diseases
in plants and animals without it the entire planet would die! Fungus
is a global stucture, so when you remove the fungus from your buildings,
even if you think you killed it. all you really did is scrape a
few cells off of this global structure. from our perspective we
don't notice it as much growing on the bark of a tree or in the
soil as we do on a freshly painted wall or roof.
- Fungi are a group of organisms that
exist as a vast network of tiny threads growing in and out of
all kinds of organic matter. As they grow, the threads secrete
enzymes that break down the substances around them, releasing
nutrients into the environment. Without fungi, the world would
be completely covered with organic debris that would not rot,
and nutrients would not be available for plant growth. All plants
would die.
-
- The invisible fungal structure may
be extremely large, often extending for miles as, for example,
the occurring in the north-central United States . weighs roughly 11 tons and occupies over
37 acres. Scientists have determined this fungus is more
than 1500 years old, it is one of the oldest and largest organisms
on earth, and its mostly underground, so don't plan your vacations
around it.
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Basic
Introduction
There are few species of
fungi relative to other organisms. However, fungi
are everywhere and can utilize just about any material for food such as
your house. One reason that they seem to occur everywhere
is that they produce large number of spores that often can be dispersed
long distances. Moreover, fungus spores also have other attributes that
ensure the survival of fungi. Spores are often less susceptible to adverse
environmental conditions than the mycelium or yeast cells and germination
of spores oftentimes will not occur until environmental conditions are
optimal for their survival.
also spelled mould, in biology, a conspicuous
mass of mycelium (masses of vegetative filaments, or hyphae) and fruiting
structures produced by various fungi (division Mycota).Fungi of the genera
Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Rhizopus form mold and are
associated with food spoilage and plant diseases.
downy
mildew 
disease of plants, especially in cool
humid regions, caused by several fungi, including species of Basidiophora,
Bremia, Peronospora, Phytophthora, Plasmopara, Pseudoperonospora,
and Sclerospora. White, gray, bluish, or violet downy patches of
mildew form mostly on the undersides of leaves in damp weather. Pale-green
to yellow or brown areas usually develop on the upper leaf surface opposite
the downy growth. Affected leaves often wilt, wither, and die early. Stems,
flowers, and fruits are sometimes infected. Seedlings may wilt and collapse.
Garden plants, bush fruits, vegetables, and certain trees, shrubs, field
crops, and weeds are susceptible.
Slime molds
Long classified together in the Myxomycophyta
as part of the Fungi,
Slime "molds" are now known to
be quite unrelated to the fungi. There are three main groups of slime
molds, which do not form a clad.
Plasmodial slime molds, are basically
enormous single cells with thousands of nuclei. They are formed when individual
flagellated cells swarm together and fuse. The result is one large bag
of cytoplasm with many diploid nuclei. These "giant cells" have
been extremely useful in studies of cytoplasmic streaming (the movement
of cell contents) because it is possible to see this happening even under
relatively low magnification. In addition, the large size of the slime
mold "cell" makes them easier to manipulate than most cells.
A second group, the cellular slime molds,
spend most of their lives as separate single-celled amoeboid protists,
but upon the release of a chemical signal, the individual cells aggregate
into a great swarm. Cellular slime molds are thus of great interest to
cell and developmental biologists, because they provide a comparatively
simple and easily manipulated system for understanding how cells interact
to generate a multi cellular organism. There are two groups of cellular
slime molds, the Dictyostelida and the Acrasida, which may not be closely
related to each other.
A third group, the Labyrinthulomycota
 or slime
nets, are also called "slime molds", but appear to be more closely
related to the Chromista, and not relatives of the other "slime mold"
groups.
What these three groups have in common is
a life cycle that superficially resembles that of the fungi. When conditions
become unfavorable, these slime molds form sporangia
- clusters of spores, often on the tips of stalks. Spores from the sporangia
are dispersed to new habitats, "germinate" into small amoebae,
and the life cycle begins again. Similarities in the life cycle do not,
imply a close relationship, certain bacteria (the myxobacteria) and even
an unusual ciliate have very similar life cycles, aggregating to form
spores on a sporangium.
Slime molds have almost no fossil record.
Not only do slime molds produce few resistant structures (except for spores,
which are often overlooked or unidentifiable, but they live in moist terrestrial
habitats, such as on decaying wood or fresh cow dung, where their potential
for preservation is low. Some fossil slime molds have been found in amber
Lichens 
Lichens are unusual creatures. A lichen is not a single
organism the way most other living things are, but rather it is a combination
of two organisms which live together intimately. Most of the lichen is
composed of fungal filaments, but living among the filaments are algal
cells, usually from a green alga or a cyanobacterium.
In many cases the fungus and the alga which together
make the lichen may each be found living in nature without its partner,
but many other lichens include a fungus which cannot survive on its own
-- it has become dependent on its algal partner for survival. In all cases
though, the appearance of the fungus in the lichen is quite different
from its morphology as a separately growing individual.
rusts / smuts
-
This group of about 16,000 species, known as the
club fungi, includes the most familiar fungi: mushrooms, toadstools,
stinkhorns, puffballs, and shelf fungi. Division Basidiomycota also
includes two groups of important plant pests- rusts and smuts. Several
of these parasites affect agricultural crops, particularly cereals
and grains.
Botany.
- Rust fungus.
- A plant disease caused by a rust fungus, characterized
by reddish or brownish spots on leaves, stems, and other parts.
dangers
Fungi also cause a number of plant and animal
diseases: in humans, ringworm, athlete's foot, and several more serious
diseases are caused by fungi. Because fungi are more chemically and genetically
similar to animals than other organisms, this makes fungal diseases very
difficult to treat. Plant diseases caused by fungi include rusts, smuts,
and leaf, root, and stem rots, and may cause severe damage to crops. However,
a number of fungi, in particular the yeasts, are important "model
organisms" for studying problems in genetics and molecular biology.
Because of the rarity of the few fungal pathogens
that can infect people, the general public has little knowledge of these
sometimes fatal diseases, and it is something with which they should be
aware.
The diseases of warm-blooded animals caused
by fungi are known as mycoses (sing.=mycosis). Although such diseases
are relatively few, the fungi that cause them have a wide host as well
as geographical range. Most of these diseases are not fatal, but once
contracted, they may forever be a source of constant irritation and can
lead to permanent scaring,
Can
cleaning up mold be hazardous to my health?
Yes. Mold spore counts are more
than a 1000 times higher than background levels during the cleaning of
moldy materials.
- If cleaning indoors, use a mask or respirator to protect
you from breathing airborne spores.
- Wear protective safety gear & clothing that is easily
cleaned or discarded.
- Ask bystanders to leave areas when being cleaned.
- Wash hands and face
sources and additional information:
Fungi as Human
Pathogens / Fungus Infections / health - mold
/ Introduction to the Fungi
Michigan Fungus Collection (MICH)
/ Talking rot...and
mildew / Forest Fungi of New Zealand
/Berkeley.edu/humongous
fungus another
really big fungus presently
TOP
I have been working on this page for a long
time, Just cant get it to read right, some of my resources are conflicting,
and all the names are difficult
You may think I'm crazy but once I saw a
fungi moving, maybe it was trying to get out of way of pressure cleaner
or chemical reaction regardless of reason it was on the move.
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