Decomposing Fungi

By: Sophia Lee, Cheyenne Dobine, and Kira O’Donell

Arlington Garden Poems Above my head, a bird is perched on a tele-

phone wire. Its head cocked slightly to the side as if to say “good afternoon.”

Far from me, a palm tree fans out behind a hedge.

The sound of little birds chirping fills my ears; far away I hear the rush of traffic, a slight vibration against my eardrums.

Jasmine fills my nose, sweet and airy. The smell sweeps through the garden, carried by the gentle breeze.

The soft skin just exposed from under a scab meets my fingers as I reach out for the curled up or-ange blossom.

Trampled petals have turned from bright or-ange to darker colors as the ends shrivel up and dry. A fallen rusted hairclip………

The spines that line the purple petals are the bristles of my toothbrush, all pointing in different directions. They flop off of the petal like a tongue.

My world turned upside-down, I no longer no-tice the abstract shapes of the leaves but rather the interesting shapes that they make in the air.

No longer hearing voices, car, or birds, the peace and the silence of the garden surround me.

By: Sophia Lee

P A G E 3

Hidden Beauty Sitting on the creaky bridge staring up,

Sprouting spikes barely hanging on to each of

their leaves.

The gloomy clouds shadow the majestic moun-

tains,

It’s the furthest sight to be seen.

Blooming rose buds,

Soon to show her spring colors.

You can almost smell the freshness of the morn-

ing,

With every breath letting the gulp of thin air enter

your lungs.

The raw touch of rocks surrounding,

As if the rocks themselves are gripping onto me.

Chirping birds singing happily in the distance.

This beauty, just waiting to be discovered.

BY : KIRA O’DONELL

Beautiful Day Above me, I see dark forest leaves growing on burly branches. In the distance, I see mustard yellow flow-ers next to many cacti. I hear the sound of children’s voices and anxious cars rushing by. I smell the great scent of pine with the es-sence of dry leaves. Next to me, I closed my eyes while picking up a dry, dead leaf, with no sense of life. I as twisted my head to the right, I saw a solitary tree, dying of being alone. The scene is of beautiful fuchsia flowers blooming slowly into magnificent beauties. Now in a new position, I see an aging tree with warrior spikes, standing tall in the late afternoon foggy sky. It takes time to notice the beauties around you but they are out there, blossoming. BY: CHEYENNE DOBINE

Letter from the editors The soil unit was a good learning ex-perience because we got to learn all about soil. We are all extremely proud of the things we accomplished this unit; our poster, our poems, and our speech, and our rain garden. During the soil we cre-ated a wonderful rain garden with our group. We will always remember the great moment of the soil unit, whenever we walk by. We also learned so much about soil, did you know it takes up to 1,000 years to form 1 inch of soil? We also learned about erosion and how it threatens soil. A cool fact we learned was the Fibonacci sequence, which is related in nature. After learning about Victory Gardens, we were inspired to plant our own gardens. We are so glad to have dis-covered the opportunity to learn about soil and about nature in general. At the end of this unit, we all felt more educated and more connected to the outside world of nature. Sincerely, The Editors

During the soil unit we learned about the Fibo-nacci sequence. The Fi-bonacci sequence is an unending sequence of numbers that reoccur in nature. These numbers are 1,2, 3, 5, 8, 13 etc. An example of how these numbers work are 1+1=2 and 1+2= 3. These flowers represent this sequence because they have a number of petals which is a num-ber in the Fibonacci se-quence. Everywhere you look I nature you will find examples of this sequence. We are still unsure of whether this sequence is a rule in nature or just a coinci-dence, but either way this is an extraordinary occurrence!

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How is soil formed? Soil is formed by weathering and erosion breaking down the earth’s crust, soon the small pieces of rock inhabit plants which help to make the soil richer. Hu-mus which is plants and animal waste that helps make the soil more fer-tile. Roots from the plants that live in the soil help to break down the soil more and more un-til the rock pieces are very small. Did you know that it can take up to 1,000 years to form one inch of soil?

Decomposing Fungi

Decomposing fungi should be the “organism of the year;” We have a very impor-tant job, to break down decomposing or dead organisms. You may hear my name and think, “Ewwwwww!!!!” but once you learn how I con-tribute to your life, your thoughts may change in an instant. We use organic substances to get our own energy and we eat organic compounds as our food! We fungi are an important part of keeping the soil and the things that grow in the soil healthy; one of our jobs is breaking down the hard to digest material into material that other organisms can use. Another thing that we do is help out in the nutrient cycle; we capture, store, release, and recycle carbon and other nu-trients that are vital to the survival of plants. Another thing that we help do is feed nutrients to the plants through our hyphae; this keeps the plants strong and nutrient rich. Without us, the plants that humans depend on to eat wouldn’t be as tasty or a healthy as we make them.

Soil is a vital part of the lives of both hu-mans and plants; soil is as important to life as water and air are. Most of the food that hu-mans eat depends on soil, the plants, and or-ganisms living in it; not only does soil provide food for humans but also for some of my friends, tiny little organisms that reside in the soil. Even though soil is a very important re-source to all sorts of life, it is quickly disap-pearing, a problem called “disappearing top-soil”. One of the main causes of our soil dis-appearing is soil erosion. Soil erosion is when the top layer of the soil, also called the topsoil, begins to get washed or blown away by wind or water. Just think about what life would be like for not only for humans but also lots of other organisms if there weren’t any soil. The thing is that we can’t just quickly make some more soil and put it down to replace the parts that have eroded away; it can take up to 1,000 years just to form one inch of soil!

I know that all of this disappearing topsoil stuff sounds doom and gloom, but the good

news is that decomposing fungi like myself are here to help. One of the things that we fungi do to help control soil erosion is bind particles of soil to our mycelium, this strengthens the soil structure helping to control the erosion. “All is connected... no one thing can change by itself” is a quote by Paul Hawken; this quote states that in order for our soil to change, for erosion to change, because every-thing is connected, decomposing fungi play an im-portant role in changing our soil and keeping it healthy and safe. Soil erosion and disappearing top-soil is a very important matter and decomposing fungi can help with this problem. We keep the food that humans eat nutrient filled and yummy; we help keep the soil, which provides a habitat for thousands of organisms fertile, and we decompose some pretty nasty stuff that you wouldn’t want all over the ground. Because of all these great and helpful contributions we make to the soil and many organisms, we should be named “organism of the year”.