What do you know about mushrooms? Perhaps you haven't thought much about them other than a quick meal or having some shiitake mushrooms mixed into your morning omellete. (Delicious by the way. ) But they are in fact super powered in ways you might not expect.
Mushrooms-not a plant, they're so much more!
Although commonly thought of as a plant-mushrooms are actually more like a human and breath air not carbon dioxide.
The button mushrooms below are the most common type found in America.
But there are hundreds of different types of mushrooms around the world. (Some edible, but many are deadly to humans as well.)
Here are some wild ones just to give you a sense of the diversity.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Where do they come from though?
Mushrooms are actually the fruiting body of mycelium. You've probably seen what looks like a white hair winding through healthy garden soil in the past. It looks like this...
The mycellium winding through the soil can be only one cell width apart and it survives in a hostile world of attacking viruses and bacteria in much the same way that we do.
Look at this one all alone in the middle of a forest.
Because they're constantly under attack it means that mushrooms/mycelia have developed amazing defenses against all kind of viruses and bacterias which also attack us humble humans. (Including small pox.)
Maybe better than Tylenol because it's blue???
Mushrooms are so powerful when they fruit (rise from the ground) that they can even rip through pavement.
So you can eat them, use them as medicine and do road (de)construction with them, what else could there possibly be?
A mushroom internet!
Scientists have discovered that the mycelium underneath our feet is actually a giant internet of resource trading pathways. Mycelium will trade nutrients between trees in a forest as needed forming a vibrant root super highway.
There are many more interesting facts about mushrooms than what I've outlined here though. I've barely scratched the surface. Please have a look at the work of Paul Stamets for more of the fascinating information about mycelia and the mushrooms of the world.
And watch here:
https://www.ted.com/talks/paul_stamets_on_6_ways_mushrooms_can_save_the_world
And don't forget these extremely rare DANCING mushrooms...
Just kidding. They're not real of course.
What kind of mushroom is your favorite? Let us know in the comment section below.
Thank you for reading!
(CH)
p.s. very special thanks to my friend 