Can I Hurt Mushrooms by Picking Them? ------------------------------------- In a word, no. As mentioned above, a mushroom is merely the **fruiting body** of a fungus, the growing portion of which is called ~mycelium~ and extends in a large network under the ground. Picking a mushroom, as long as it is done in a responsible manner, causes no injury to the ~mycelium~, and may in fact cause some species of mushrooms to fruit again. Responsible picking means only taking as many mushrooms as you yourself can consume, and no more. It also means not going over the soil with a rake other implement in an attempt to turn up unemerged buttons. It means not knocking down a standing snag just to get at a few Pleurotus fruiting at the top. Use consideration for the environment, and leave something for those who follow. -=- Prepared by Brian McNett, Editor of MycoInfo .