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7/28/14

Found this mushroom the other day and went on the web to try identify it. 
It appears to be a bolete covered with the white mycelium of a mycoparasitic fungus belonging to the genus Verticillium, a genus of conidial fungi. Same idea as the delectable lobster mushroom; a fungi-on-fungi arrangement.



As usual, my search yielded an overwhelming amount of new and amazing information about mushrooms. Including this ted-talk by Paul Stamets who, in the allotted 18 minutes outlines the extraordinary range, form, and frankly jaw-dropping histoire of these critical sentient fungi and six specific ways in which it could restore the health of the planet.

An article on BBC's website July 11 2015 about the "Wood Wide Web" can be read here. It details many examples of mycorrhizae; communication between plants via mycellia.

The article provides a link to a 5 min documentary on the work of Prof. Suzanne Simard, UBC Faculty of Forestry, who studies the underground communication network of trees;
"Mycorrhizal fungi form obligate symbioses with trees, where the tree supplies the fungus with carbohydrate energy in return for water and nutrients the fungal mycelia gather from the soil". There is a substantial text entry attached to the You Tube post which is a good read.