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Mushrooms, which appeared on Earth at least 700 million years ago, may well have invented the internet before us. The connections between the filaments of the mycelium, their underground network, could even be more numerous than those of the neurons of our brain. They are everywhere, and without them, life on our planet would be impossible, recalls a mycologist in this extract from “Special Envoy”.
Without them, we wouldn’t exist… and yet, often, we don’t know them well. There are millions of mushrooms around us, without our even guessing their presence – unless you are an informed mycologist. This is the case of Marc-André Selosse, who left his office at the Natural History Museum to venture with “Special Envoy” into the forest of Fontainebleau, and make us discover this great fungal kingdom which shelters wonders.
First received idea: what we call fungus “is only the tip of the iceberg”, explains the scientist in front of a young boletus. The foot surmounted by a hat that we pick to eat it constitutes the reproductive system. The cells it releases when mature will germinate in nature. These spores, Marc-André Selosse compares them to the pips of an apple, “Except when you pick up an apple, you see the apple tree. There, when you pick up what you call a mushroom, you don’t see the rest of the mushroom, which is a huge microscopic network.”
The largest living organism is not a whale… but a fungus
The mushroom itself is therefore this monumental web that we call the mycelium: millions of filaments that branch out just under our feet. It can reach up to 9 square kilometers: this is the area of the largest specimen listed, in the heart of the Malheur forest, in Oregon. It would have existed for 2,500 years, and it is the largest known living organism. On a global scale, the total length of the mycelium that grows in the first ten centimeters of the Earth would represent… half the width of our galaxy!
This “social network” formed under the roots of trees is also nourishing: the plant provides sugar to the fungi, while the very fine meshes of the mycelium can retain water and minerals, returned to trees and plants during episodes of drought. This symbiotic association called mycorrhiza, “It’s a kind of Spanish inn” which allows both partners to eat. “Without this association, the trees cannot live. The mushroom is one of the craftsmen of the world around us”, concludes the scientist. And, when one is in a forest like that of Fontainebleau, he adds, “of the beauty of the world around us”.
Extract from “Champions mushrooms”, a report to see in “Special Envoy” on June 22, 2023.
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