Column Introducing and Supporting Student Activities

Welcome to the Microscopic World Beneath Your Feet
- Enjoy Autumn Mushroom Observation

https://nara-lab.edu.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Sharing the Fascination of Mushrooms with Children

If you glance down at your feet, you may notice tiny inhabitants of the forest peeking out. Mushrooms live quietly, or sometimes vividly, in the autumn forest. Two graduate students, deeply fascinated by these mysterious organisms, are engaged in cutting-edge research while also dedicating themselves to volunteer activities.
Tomohiro Tanaka and Norito Mori, both from the Department of Natural Environmental Studies, participated as volunteers at the popular “Mushroom Observation Event” organized by the Konbukuro Pond Nature Forest. Held every autumn, this event attracts many families with children.
The two students were responsible for ensuring the participants’ safety, explaining the mushrooms the children discovered, and helping them identify the varieties they had collected. “Children find an astonishing number of mushrooms, even when adults don’t notice them,” Tanaka says. The collected mushrooms numbered between 40 and 50 different kinds, and the process of sorting them out and asking, “What kind of mushroom is this?” felt like a treasure hunt.
The two are working in a laboratory studying mycorrhizal fungi, which live in symbiosis with trees. These fungi, such as matsutake, connect to the roots of living trees, exchanging nutrients and coexisting with them. Tanaka is working on the challenge of cultivating mycorrhizal fungi, which typically cannot be grown in artificial environments. Meanwhile, Mori is trying to determine why the subterranean mushroom Hymenogaster, whose spores cannot be dispersed by wind, is nevertheless distributed across islands separated by the sea. “Fungal mycelia spread underground and are invisible, so there is still so much we don’t know. But that’s precisely why we want to learn more!” they both said in unison.
“I want to share the lively buzz beneath our feet,” says Tanaka. As he explains, beneath the ground, networks of mycelia are actively at work, occasionally appearing above the surface as mushrooms.
Next time you walk through a park or forest, take a moment to imagine it. Beneath your feet lies a rich and quietly thriving world of fungi.

Interview and writing by Mayuko Araragi

Let’s divide into teams and explore Konbukuro Pond Nature Museum Park! Collect as many mushrooms as you could into your baskets. Occasionally, you will find rare mushrooms.

From left
Master’s Program, 2nd Year, Department of Natural Environmental Studies
Tomohiro Tanaka
Norito Mori