Mushrooms are so fucking weird
Physiologically, the cells of a mushroom are more similar to the cells of a steak than those of a plant
You put a mushroom into a mri and you’ll get an image that shows they have as much electrical activity as any brain.
We know that the mycelium, the main body of the mushroom, is interspersed into the soil, that the head of the mushroom itself is just the flower or fruit.
We also know that most plants grow better in soil with a living mycelium, and that branches of it will create small nodes that attach to the plants roots
Large old trees have shown that they have smaller rings in years where younger plants did well. Young plants do better when there’s older plants and mycelium present, even when there is no difference in nutrient content. The older plants are using the mycelium to communicate, to detect the presence of young plants and delegate resources to them. They’ve done this for millions of years, living in communal symbiosis.
They’ll help deliver water to places they’re more dry, sugars to places with less sunlight, and even carry minerals and other nutrients from place to place. The plants access the mycelium as a social network, to communicate their needs and offer any access resources they have.
Plants have had internet millions of years before humans ever even walked the earth
