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A Welcome Note
A Welcome Note
Fungus is as inevitable as death and taxes.
It is the primary decomposer of most ecosystems and will grow anywhere it likes as big as it sees fit. In fact the largest (and quite possibly oldest) living organism on earth is a network of mycelium in Oregan’s Blue Mountains spanning over 1500 football fields that’s literally eating trees as you read this. Even way back to the dawn of time, fungi had been busy breaking down rocks for millions of years by the time we figured out how to breathe air, rolling out the green carpet for the mammals on-land debut. Fungus has been the cornerstone of life on earth and has facilitated unimaginable growth whilst remaining virtually invisible. A thankless job from an unknowable force that I intend to celebrate with this blog, diving into the weird and whimsical to better understand where we came from and what’s next.
New Blog Post Soon!
New Blog Post Soon!
How to avoid your very own SHROOMDOOM...
New Blog Post Soon!
New Blog Post Soon!
Run from the blast of the SHROOMKABOOM!
Mycology Crash-Course
Mycology Crash-Course
The Fungi Kingdom is among the most varied and widely abundant organisms on earth which covers everything from yeast and mould to fungus and mushrooms. Just to be clear Fungi are categorically not plants. Fungi lack the chlorophyll that defines plant life and allows for growth through photosynthesis, it is also the pigment that makes plant life green! Instead, fungus makes energy not from the sun but from organic matter, breaking it down using enzymes produced by the hyphae. Fungi have a very wide palette being able to eat most organic material, most feed off dead matter like fallen leaves or trees decomposing their environment. Others may feed off living matter, acting more like a disease. Things like athletes foot and ringworm are a fungus that feed off living human matter. Fungi acting as the world’s natural waste disposal makes it vital to the survival of ecosystems across the globe. Without fungus turning dead material into fertile land our symbiosis with plant life and the natural world would fall apart.
Why is it important?
Why is it important?
Fungal products are used everyday maybe without even knowing it. Yeast is used in making bread and beer, mushrooms of all types are ate as everything from a snack to a delicacy, and fungal medicines are used for transplanting organs and treating cancer. Fungi's variety is really it's defining quality. A lot of fungi live in symbiosis with plant life, providing them with nutrients in exchange for organic material and other chemicals they can't naturally produce. These fungi are known as mycorrhizal fungi and either wrap around or infuse themselves with the roots of the plant allowing for this exchange. The mycelium that bounds these roots together can unite entire forests, weaving a complex natural network that has been observed to facilitate real time communication through plants. As crazy as it sounds, mycorrhizal fungi literally allow trees to talk to each other, equally distributing resources and even sending warning signals for things like floods. Fungi are working around the clock behind the scenes to keep the lights on wherever life flourishes.
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