|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Enchanted Rings
| Article
# : |
19864 |
|
|
Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
|
| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1991 |
1,815 Words |
| Author
: |
George Knaphus and Lois H. Tiffany
George Knaphus and Lois H. Tiffany are professors of botany at
Iowa State University. |
Suddenly, against the green of the lawn, a ring of big, ivory white mushrooms demanded admiration. The circle, about 20 feet in diameter, was not perfect; the mushrooms were not quite regularly spaced. But the individual mushrooms, edges neatly turned under, had the perfection of new snow. The symmetry of the caps was accentuated by scraps of tissue resembling a handful of popcorn bits, carelessly scattered on then as an afterthought. Shreds of velvet trailed at the edges, leftover remnants from the rings of tissue that circled the stalks.
The spell of beauty endures but briefly and gives way to the question "Why do they grow in a circle?" Children and adults have asked that question for centuries, and the answers given are not only varied but tell a story of the incremental development of knowledge through the years. The obvious circle of mushrooms is only part of the phenomenon: Luxuriant green grass lines the inside of the mushroom circle, contrasting with the sparser growth and lighter color of the grass outside the ring. It takes an especially sharp eye to notice these rings when the mushrooms are not present, which is most of the year.
Many mushrooms occur in rings. The species most often associated with this phenomenon is Marasmius oreades, a fungus often labeled "the fairy ring mushroom" because of a definite trail of dead brown grass that seems to link the mushrooms in the convoluted ring. Most people who have crossed a large lawn, playing field, or golf course in summer have noticed these mushrooms and may even have looked closely enough to see that narrow "path" of dead grass. These brown circles, present before, as, and after the mushrooms appear, were the rings that brought both wonder and fear to our ancestors centuries ago. How appropriate that superstitious people would see the brown rings, would speculate and come to believe that a fairy queen had led her elves and fairies in a ring-a-ring dance that compacted the earth and killed the grass. Thus, for hundreds of years, we have had the "fairy ring."
Fairies were treasured fantasies of the period from A.D. 500 to 1500. They were described as small, a few inches to as much as three feet in height, and usually were said to be ruled by a queen. Writers from Chaucer to Shakespeare to Kipling invited fairies into their literary world.
People in many parts of the world found the troop of dancing fairies a satisfactory explanation for the rings that formed in grasslands and meadows. The rings were considered by some to bring illness or misfortune to people or
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
