[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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