Wood-decay fungus

Wood-decay fungus is like a little monster that lives in trees and makes them go bye-bye. You know how some foods get yucky and moldy if you leave them out for too long? Well, the same thing happens to trees when the wood-decay fungus starts growing on them.

When the fungus finds a nice place to live, like a dead or dying tree, it sends out tiny roots called "mycelium" all through the tree's insides. It's like the fungus is building a secret tunnel system in the tree! These tunnels weaken the tree's insides and make it crumbly, just like the bottom of a moldy loaf of bread.

Eventually, the tree can't hold itself up anymore and falls over. But even after it falls, the fungus doesn't stop. It keeps munching on the tree's insides until there's almost nothing left. The leftover bits of the tree turn into dirt, which feeds new plants and helps them grow.

So even though the wood-decay fungus might look scary, it's actually doing a really important job helping everything in the forest stay healthy and grow big and strong.