Mushrooms to Beautify Your Living Room

[spacecowboy]

Mushrooms to Beautify Your Living Room

Writer: Meera Pandey & Veena S.S. / Date :2007-03-14 / hits: 179

The authors are senior scientist of Mushroom lab, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research located in Hessaraghatta, Bangalore, India.
E- mail: meera@iihr.ernet.in

Ornamental plant industry is a billion dollar global industry. This industry has a wide array of cut flowers, numerous foliage plants and tree species. Our forests are a home to numerous beautiful mushrooms in all shades of colours and sizes. Thomas Carlyle aptly summed up the mushroom beauty as "Nature alone is antique and the oldest art a mushroom." This oldest natural art however is yet to find its place in the ornamental plant industry. This is evident by the fact that until now there is not a single mushroom species which is grown as ornamental plant. But the scientists of the Mushroom Research lab at Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bangalore have ushered in a new era in global ornamental plant industry by standardizing for the first time; the cultivation of an orange coloured Polyporus species botanically known as Pycnoporus cinnabarinus .

This mushroom grows wild in the forest of Western Ghats and Andaman Islands on dead wood. The mushroom has beautiful expanded fan shaped structure (pileus) with a very short stalk. The upper portion of this pileus is orange in colour with light coloured concentric rings. The lower surface of the pileus is bright orange (darker than the upper surface) in colour with numerous very tiny pores through which spores (seeds) are liberated. This mushroom was collected by the authors during one of their explorations for wild mushrooms of Western Ghats . It was collected from Kodagu district of Karnataka. The mushroom was cultured, purified and the method of its seed production was standardized. After 2 years of extensive research its cultivation was standardized on saw dust based substrate. Once the mushroom start blooming, they continuously keep growing and expanding for 2-3 months. These mushrooms can be kept in the living rooms, balconies or can become a part of outdoor garden landscape. Direct sunlight must be avoided and water must be sprayed often (depending on the season) to prevent drying of the mushrooms. Now, with mushrooms entering our living rooms, hopefully they will no longer be shunned by the common man but will be looked upon as another beautiful creation of nature which we all should protect and preserve.


Figure 1. Mushroom in its natural habitat in Kodagu


Figure 2. In living room


Figure 3. In balcony



Figures 4 & 5. As outdoor Landscape

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(Original link www.MushWorld.com)
http://www.mushworld.com/oversea/vie...=5140&vid=7608

[weed4all]

it'd be neat to see shrooms mixed in with flower arrangments in the future. cool stuff cowboy

[Hippie3]

that is nice.

the colored oysters would be good, too.

[Green~Thang]

Originally Posted by Hippie3

that is nice.

the colored oysters would be good, too.

[SharkieJones]

I'd like to see a bride walking down the isle with an oyster bouquet.

[ANON]

nice

to me this makes more sense than actual flowers...Im a little biased though. Thanks SC.

[mikect05]

I feel inspired, thx.

[Nabby]

How would one keep oyster mushrooms fresh in a bouquet? Would they stay pretty and fresh looking as long as flowers would? If this is really feasible, I might be inclined to try it, if I ever get married...

[Hippie3]

leave them attached [hide jar under paper/lace]

[apokalypse]

Those oysters are beautiful. I'm getting some very soon, can't wait to grow them aaaaahhhhhhh