And their identities differ between different lichen groups. Recent discoveries show that lichen groups consist of stable partnerships involving a third or even fourth fungal partner. But look harder and things become weirder. Lynn Margulis turned to them to support her idea of endosymbiosis. Taxonomists have long struggled to make sense of this inter-kingdom collaboration where an organism is made up of two separate lineages. Really questioning the concept of identity are lichens, the symbiotic partnership between a fungus and an alga. Like water, “ mycelium decants itself into its surroundings“.” “Mycelial fungi are maze dwellers these amorphous, shape-shifting entities have no fixed shape. Pressure changes as in a hydraulic network? Volatile chemicals? A likely candidate that Sheldrake highlights are electrical impulses. Mycelium communicates this information across its network with surprising rapidity, though how is still open for debate. When it finds something to digest, hyphae leading there grow more numerous, while those leading nowhere are pruned. 58).Īnd while there is no “brain”, no centre of control, mycelium somehow communicates information through its network. Like water, “ mycelium decants itself into its surroundings” (p.

These amorphous, shape-shifting entities have no fixed shape. Hyphae can branch and fuse, exploring in all directions simultaneously. Mycelial fungi are maze dwellers, probing the underground world in search of resources. Mycelium is “ better not thought of as a thing, but as a process-an exploratory, irregular tendency” (p. Leave it to Sheldrake to dissolve boundaries and make you rethink everything you thought you knew about living organisms. Here, they form mycelium: networks of fine, tubular cells called hyphae.

Most of what a fungus does happens underground. However, they are only the above-ground fruiting bodies that serve to disperse fungal spores. Say “fungus” and most people will think of mushrooms. Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures, written by Merlin Sheldrake, published in Europe by The Bodley Head (a Vintage imprint) in September 2020 (hardback, 352 pages)

Sheldrake mushrooms