[Source – Pixabay]
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Little umbrellas, soft buddies beaming in damp, dark sites
In the jungle, have more to say, they’re saying now
Through the wood wide web, the underground kites
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Fungi flies, less on whim, on purpose more, humble and old
Hyphen hyphae, thready threads, join the words spoken
By a baby plant and those tall giant trees old
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Together, symbiotic, altruistic, in harmony and love with growth
Of one and all; living, dying, killing like the Armillaria
Its dear host trees, devouring forests, sailing forth
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Layering layered humus, rich, fertile, full with nutrients timely
Rejuvenating the drunken dull poisonous air
Feeding on persistent toxins, stubborn plastic finely
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Breaking, storing carbon in the soil, toiling freely, fungi
And friends mineralise earth, unburdening it quietly
“Decomposing since one billion years“, said fossils of fungi
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Its fruits – mushrooms – mushroom pleasantly,
Well aware of the change hitting the planet
And the mighty meets, sees the ground, underground naturally
There the mycelia run, binding all in one
Showing, nicely, what is to be done.
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[Source – Wikimedia Commons]
Fungi marched onto land more than a billion years ago. Many fungi partnered with plants, which largely lacked these digestive juices. Mycologists believe that this alliance allowed plants to inhabit land around 700 million years ago. Many millions of years later, one evolutionary branch of fungi led to the development of animals.
― Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
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[Source – Wikimedia Commons]
I see the mycelium as the Earth’s natural Internet, a consciousness with which we might be able to communicate. Through cross-species interfacing, we may one day exchange information with these sentient cellular networks. Because these externalized neurological nets sense any impression upon them, from footsteps to falling tree branches, they could relay enormous amounts of data regarding the movements of all organisms through the landscape.
― Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World
Watch these short clips and be amazed –
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Read more about our – neither plants nor animals – friends, the fungi –
A Billion-Year-Old Fungus May Hold Clues to Life’s Arrival on Land
The Untapped Potential of the Amazon’s Plastic-Eating Mushroom
Soil Carbon Sequestration and its Relationship with Climate Change
Benefits of Fungi for the Environment and Humans
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A refreshing read! 🙂
Ya-hoy, thanks a lot! 😀
Superb writing 🤗
Thank you so much.
Keep reading!
great coming together of science and poetry via www network!
i had been meaning to share my fascination with Armillaria (and also, Aspen and Posidonia Asutralis – unmushrooms, but biggiies). With mushroom altogether its been a love-loathe-love relationship. but here is lovely. i will like to come back to this piece again.
i think i had also mentioned this, anyway, i don’t know if you have seen this intro, but worth seeing once https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGzYQnIMhlM
also, there is something missing here “Fungi marched onto land more than a billion years ago. Many fungi partnered with plants, which largely lacked ‘these’ digestive juices”. will like to check back at some time else.
also also, this is an intereting bit of mushroom relationship
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant%E2%80%93fungus_mutualism
its always brilliant to revist and redicover at chiming stories 🙂
Wow! How interesting and gripping, the mutualism part (ants cultivating fungus like humans farm crops), your fascination with mushrooms and unmushrooms (we shall discuss it someday) and the opening scene of ‘The Last of Us’ (I haven’t seen this show as yet)… fungi – friends, competitors or just survivors. Very fascinating!
Here’s the missing part – “Animals are more closely related to fungi than to any other kingdom. More than 600 million years ago we shared a common ancestry. Fungi evolved a means of externally digesting food by secreting acids and enzymes into their immediate environs and then absorbing nutrients using netlike cell chains. Fungi marched onto land more than a billion years ago. Many fungi partnered with plants, which largely lacked these digestive juices.”
Thanks for reading, sharing and commenting. 🙂
Ya-hoy!
oho. i wrote a long comment. but it disappeared, hopefully it does not pop up and embarass me with the double-triple posts (like i haddoneit in the past :P)
well, it was mostly about the appreciating the subtle bringing togther of science and poetry via www!!!
also, i had written about my fascination with Armillaria and the unmushrooms – Posidonia Australis and Aspen (i have a tshirt of this too, why, who knows :PP)
also, about my love-loathe-love relationship with mushrooms in general and a short description of how here i will revisit sometime else too.
then i had shared a curious, ‘last among us’ intro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGzYQnIMhlM
i know, Cordycepys are a little passe, but it was intriguing to find them suddenly at the centre of a post-some-apocalyse now
then i had also shared an ant-fungus mutualism wiki page. which i lay found interesting
also, i sowed a seed of how i did not understand the juices bit here “Fungi marched onto land more than a billion years ago. Many fungi partnered with plants, which largely lacked ‘these’ digestive juices”, and did not ask for apology, but will do now. apologies in advance for not looking it up myself, and just being lazy.
but on the brighter side, its always a delight to randomly arrive at chiming stories some day, and find all your prayers and questions answered 🙂
This vanishing act happened because of the links that you shared I guess, but so what, nothing got lost, all is here. 😀
Oh, a T-shirt too… ha ha ha, and you don’t know why… ha, ha, ha… it is the magic of living in the moment.
No need to apologize, I have shared the missing bit above, but hey, fungi likes lazy creatures, hee hee, spot jogging, 30 Surya Namashkar now!! Trying to scare you. 😛
So glad you like visiting the blog so often. Thanks, this inspires me (to write and in general as well). 🙂
Ya-hoy!