What's Under the Cap

Most people see a mushroom from above: a cap and a stem. Get down to ground level, though, and the underside is where the interesting structure is.

Gills are a surface-area trick

Those fine, radiating ridges are gills, and their job is to make spores. Folding the spore-producing surface into dozens of thin plates packs a huge area into a small cap. A single mushroom can release millions of spores, each one tiny enough to drift on the slightest air current.

The mushroom is only the fruit

What we call a mushroom is just the reproductive part of a fungus. The organism itself is the mycelium, a network of threads running through soil, leaf litter and dead wood, sometimes over large areas. Fungi like this are the recyclers of the forest floor, breaking down fallen leaves and wood and returning nutrients to the soil.

Working in low light

This one sat half-hidden in dry grass on a dark afternoon. Shooting from almost ground level puts the gills in view, and letting the background fall away into shadow keeps the attention on the cap's curve and texture.