Friday, April 23, 2010

carnivorous mushrooms

as a mom of elementary school kids,
i've seen my fair share of
crappy.library.books.

every week for four years,
m has checked out a book.
for two of those years,
g has also checked out a book.
that's a lot of books.

i'm not sure if their library
is chock full of crappy books,
or if my kids just gravitate toward
the crappy book section.

we've read books highlighting -
hamsters
maine coon cats
goldfish
dwarf rabbits
geckos
cichlids
lovebirds
parakeets
pugs
chinchillas
prairie dogs
ferrets
chameleons
snakes
turtles
newts and salamanders
mice
(fill in the blank)osaurus
rocks and gems (an encyclopedia)
-this one has come home at least five times-
rivers
mountains
volcanoes
lightning
etc.

i know i'm missing hundreds more,
but you get the idea.
crappy.

but then -
last week,
it happened!

g's selection -
"carnivorous mushrooms
lassoing their prey?"

woah.

"an eelworm wriggling through the soil finds itself attracted toward some curious tiny rings. these rings make a substance that the eelworm finds hard to resist. it decides to wriggle its way through a ring. it presses its body against the inside walls of the ring. suddenly, in just a tenth of a second, the ring tightens like a lasso! the eelworm is trapped."

"the rings belong to a fungus called arthrobotrys anchonia. it has many rings. each ring is made up of three cells. within a short time after capturing an eelworm, the arthrobotrys starts to grow into it. the fungus devours the eelworm from the inside."

well, now - that's more like it!
minus the nightmares, obviously.

and may we all strive
to avoid curious tiny rings.

6 comments:

Aaron said...

From elementary thru High School, I spent an inordinate chunck of my time reading (recreationally, mind you)a set of World Book Encyclopedias from 1957.

pajama mom said...

me too.
1965.
nerds rule.

Aaron said...

My set was so out of touch it still had an entry for "Negro". It listed "Some famous Negroes" such as Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte and Jackie Robinson. I don't know why that always struck me as funny, it just did.

I'm now the proud owner of a set of 1968 World Books I got at a rummage sale. They're very excited about space travel!

pajama mom said...

for reports, i copied mine word for word, certain no one would ever know.

just typing that makes me laugh.

Bonnie said...

Mine were "The Book of Knowledge" circa 1949. Wonderful books. I still have them. They had categories for the Earth, Science, Plant life, Golden Deeds, Stories, Poetry, Things to make and do....etc. Gosh, I may have to read them again.

pajama mom said...

golden deeds!
awesome!