Lynn Forrester, age 10, of Victoria, . C . ,

Do mushrooms have seeds?

Mushrooms, toadstools and puffballs grow from midget seedlets called spores. The stubby umbrella which pokes above the ground is actually the fruiting body of the plant. The spores, countless numbers of them, are nestled on the underside of the mushroom umbrella, warm and safe until they ripen. Then they leave home and take to the air like a cloud of fine dust.

The fickle breezes waft the tiny spores around and finally drop them, maybe far from home. But the little spores can grow only in sheltered spots where the soil is very rich and moist. Only a few succeed. Trillions of the little spores fall on dry or poor soil and even into the sea. A lucky mushroom spore grows a mesh of pale threads under the rich, moist earth. This, the mycelium, is actually the true mushroom plant which, in time, will poke up stubby umbrellas bearing spores for a new generation of mushrooms.