5 Things About Mushrooms That’ll Blow Your Mind

Mushrooms talk to one another

A scientist at the University of the West of England inserted tiny electrodes into four species of fungi and discovered that shrooms seem to use electrical impulses to communicate internally, say, about food or an injury. The impulse clusters are so intricate, they actually resemble words.

We are closely related to fungi

Fungi were the first organisms that came to land, using rocks as food, and fungi gave birth to animals about 650 million years ago. We’re descendants of the descendants of these fungal networks.

Fungi may have come from outer space

Mushroom spores could theoretically travel through space. It is a crazy notion to think that mushrooms could be alien life! But before you dismiss the idea, take a look at the theory. The main concept was formulated by the ingenious psychonaut philosopher Terrence McKenna.

Like no other form of life on our planet, the spores of mushrooms are almost perfectly suited to space travel. They can survive high vacuum and insanely low temperatures; the casing of a spore is one of the most electron dense materials in nature, to the point where McKenna says it is almost akin to a metal; global currents are even able to form on the quasi-metallic surface of an airborne spore, which then acts as a repellent to the extreme radiation of space. It is a mind boggling thought that something could evolve to be so perfectly suited to explore the universe.

Fungi are more closely related to animals than plants

Fungi reside in their own kingdom of life, outside of plants, animals, and bacteria. Their sedentary life leads many to think of them as a type of plant. In reality, they are far more closely related to animals. Animals and fungi are both heterotrophs, meaning they get their energy from other life. The cellular structure of fungi also shares characteristics with human cells. This cellular sister of ours is why they work so well as medicine in our bodies.

There are millions of species of fungi yet to be discovered

It is difficult to say how many species of fungi exist. Though 120,000 species of fungi have been identified, scientists estimate that there are millions of unidentified species.