Fungi have a vital position in the plants ecosystems, especially in the association to plants and soils as they exist on earth. .
The Kingdom Fungi includes some of the most important organisms, both in terms of their ecological and economic roles. By breaking down dead organic material, they continue the cycle of nutrients through the ecosystems. In addition, most vascular plants could not grow with the symbiotic, fungi, or mycorrhizae, that inhabit their roots and supply essential nutrients. Other fungi provide numerous drugs (such as penicillin and other antibiotics), foods like mushroom, truffles and morels, and bubbles in bread, champagne, and beer.[ CITATION Uni06 l 1033 ] .
This report reviews the results of simple planting of specimens to successfully grow fungus in a moist chamber to study the growth of fungus on organic substrates over a one week period of time. The organic substrates chosen for this particular experiment were inclusive of a banana, milk, orange, cottage cheese and bread. Each substrate represented a differing food group such as fruit or citrus, dairy or milk, as well as flour or yeast categories. With the knowledge that fungus requires warmth, moisture and darkness to grow, it is postulated that providing this environment will allow most substrates to experience fungal growth. This report is a simple observational review of identified substrates, the process and procedure utilized to potentiate this observation for fungal growth, the resultant fungal growth that occurred with discussion of findings inclusive of similarities and differences found to be actualized by the experimental process. .
Methods.
Participants.
This simple observational experiment is performed at home in the writer's kitchen. The participant is a student at Western Governors University by the name of Elizabeth Persaud. Her participation is solely as a learner in the Clinical Microbiology – C453 course.
