Mould

We have been learning about mould and fungi. This is an explanation about the life cycle of mould and how mould is used in our day to day lives. Next time I would spend more time trying to explain difficult vocabulary. Overall I am happy with my effort.

Planning

How does mould grow and how does it affect me? To start off you may think mould is a plant. Mould is actually a fungus ( not a plant or animal). Did you know that you encounter mould every single day and are unaware of it?

When you think of mould you most likely think of that gross stuff that grows on old sandwiches. You would be partly correct but mould is also essential to your everyday life. Some examples include milk; cows need fungus in their stomachs to digest their food and derive nutrients to make milk. Cheese; fungus is used in cheese to break down and reform milk to make it solid and give it flavor. Soda; Fungus keeps your soda bubbly and carbonated. Mushrooms are a member of the fungus family.  Yeast is a fungus that eats starch and excretes gas which makes air bubbles in your bread.  

Mould grows in about seven stages. When a piece of mould matures it sends out spores. Spores are like seeds for fungi and are airborne. The spores then land on something organic ( piece of bread, pile of leaves e.g). The spore sends out hypha ( hyphae in plural) a hair like tube that makes up the main mass of mould.

The hyphae penetrate the enzymes (produced by an organic thing that changes one substance to another or decomposes it) on the surface they have chosen. The spore grows more and more hyphae that intermingle together creating a net of hyphae called mycelium. Once the mycelium has grown it becomes mould. The new mould then matures ( grows up) and sends out spores. It all happens again.

Spores are microscopic sized particles that act as seeds for mould and fungi. Like a tree has seeds, spores  float on breezes and wind to find a place to grow.

Bread is one of the main things mould grows on, especially white bread because it is high in sugar and starch. Most people keep their bread in somewhere cool and dark like a refrigerator. Spores are attracted to places like that. Because moulds do not contain chlorophyll ( the main cell in plants that helps it get nutrients) mould becomes very aggressive when it comes to food. That’s why one slice of bread could have millions of spores on it in the first few days.

Fungus and mould is an essential thing in our lives and there is nothing like it in the entire planet!