Fungi and Squash: The Parasitic Relationship

As you may infer from my title, this blog post is about Fungi and Squash. You also may see that this is a parasitic relationship. I had to do a report on a symbiotic relationship in science class. I had to take a photograph of a parasitic, commensal, or mutualistic relationship in our area. I also had to write a paragraph about the symbiotic relationship of my choice and how it is important to the ecosystem. I was so interested in this subject that I decided to do some extra research on my own! For instance, I had no idea that that my decorative winter vegetable could be giving back to the earth it came from. That's because the fungi decomposes the squash, which makes the squash give minerals and vitamins back to the earth, making other squash and trees and plants grow to be big some day.

You may wonder why the fungi grows on random surfaces. Well, when, lets say a leaf, contains too much nitrogen, the fungi will grow until it decomposes the leaf. But before we get into the main swing of things, did you realize that there are many processes to decomposition. First, when rain water comes, it will leach the leaf, which will make it easier to decompose. The same thing happens to the squash. Since the area I live in is very wet, it was easier for the fungi to be created. After the leaching, the fungi grows, decomposing the squash. I also discovered that the more oxygen uptake, the longer it takes to decompose. Personally, I always thought that my squash just decided to rot away on it's own, now I know the truth! Who knew decomposition could be such a complex topic?