Decay and Degradation

Abstract

The biological character that sets off the fungi from the rest of the higher organisms, animals, and plants is that fungi release their digestive enzymes into their surroundings. They digest food sources outside them-selves and then absorb the products of digestion as their nutrients. Almost any material can be digested as food by fungi. It could be argued that our most memorable encounters with fungi center around their abilities to deteriorate things. Fungi can cause decay and ultimate destruction of Standing trees, fallen timber, and all sorts of timber constructions, which can be expensive! It was probably dry rot that made the Speedwell so un-seaworthy that it could not accompany the Mayflower in crossing of the Atlantic Ocean toward the New World in 1620. And it was the decayed State of the Investigator that caused Captain Flinders, the explorer and navigator who first charted the entire Australian coastline, to put in at Mauritius and abandon the ship. England was then at war with France, and the French authorities on the island imprisoned him as a spy for almost seven years.