Q.There is a myth that immediately after heavy rains in forest, mushrooms appear in large number and make a very large ring or circle, which may be several metres in diameter. These are called as 'Fairy rings'. Can you explain this myth of fairy rings in biological terms?

Fairy rings are simply the visible fruiting bodies of a mushroom-forming fungus growing at the outer edge of an underground fungal colony.

• Mushrooms are basidiocarps, the fruiting bodies produced by fungi of the class Basidiomycetes.
• These fungi grow as a mycelium, a network of thread-like hyphae, spreading outward through the soil from wherever the fungus first established itself. …

Mushrooms are not standalone organisms; they are the fruiting bodies, called basidiocarps, produced by fungi belonging to the class Basidiomycetes. The main body of such a fungus is its mycelium, a branched network of thread-like hyphae that lives largely hidden underground or within decaying matter, drawing nutrients as it spreads. …