Thank you for this article and the explanation about how mycelium makes connections and why. I learned some, but having been totally ignorant before, this opened a new windows for me.
Thank you for your article. It's going into my reference file, because I'm writing a sci-fi book about the survival systems of trees. But a good sci-fi book should always be based on a strong foundation of scientific principles.
Thanks so much for this, Eugenia. Been dwelling a lot on the ways we shrink nature and the stories we tell about it when we only frame it as benevolent. There’s a whole other world of lessons to be found in the tension and balance of self-interests, etc. Cheers.
Thanks for sharing your fresh perspective. I learned a lot from this article. Clearly you have a deep wisdom and understanding and it resonated with me.
This is the best explanation of how mushrooms work I have ever read. I particularly like the differentiation of the single-celled yeasts, and the multi-celled hyphae that add to themselves one cell at a time, branching and re-branching into that cottony stuff we call mycelium.
I love it that you push back on our desire to turn fungi into a generous and nurturing entity. Although you have to admit, in all kinds of ways, mushrooms are pretty darned poetic. 😊
Thank you, Eugenia, for this thoughtful article. I work in mycology- first in industry with Fungi Perfecti's R&D team, and now in academic science. I also feel a deep commitment to help regenerate our social and economic systems to be more harmonious with the natural world. I really believe that’s possible, and fungi and microbes are incredible potential sources of inspiration for ecological and technological innovation. I'm trying to understand and utilize mycological metaphors in a scientifically-grounded way.
What you're writing about is a continual concern of mine, and I really hear you. There’s a risk in collapsing complex science into simplified, feel-good narratives. We are also in a real crisis, and we do need bold new systems. For example, the current political/funding crisis here in the US is directly harming mycology, mostly young mycologists, including my lab and our soil mycology research. So not leaning into systems change harms the sciences too. But our understanding of fungal networks, particularly mycorrhizal systems, is still emerging. We’re at the tip of the iceberg, with knowledge on mycelial networks, both in higher fungi and mycorrhizal ones. But I think we can thread the needle with metaphor regarding science that is still in progress.
This is difficult and complex work. I don’t think we should shut down these conversations as they’re essential IMO. But we definitely need more input from practicing scientists to ground this inquiry in nuance and possibility. Right now, much of the narrative is led by folks from business and organizational design. I’m interested in helping bridge those worlds and creating more closeness between them. I would love to be in deeper dialogue about how we can integrate these domains with care and rigor.
I also secretly hope we can have a chat about this topic sometime so please reach out if that's ever of interest :)
So interesting, thank you - I had always understood the usage of the term 'mycelial network' when used/heard in connection with activism and movement building... not to be in the mycorrhizal sense, but rather in the 'we are all part of the same purpose/organism' sense...
Mostly based on the idea that the mycelium makes up the vast majority of a fungus's bulk and being - usually hidden, often underground, and the mushrooms are just the lil' old fruiting bodies, who pop up from time to time...
And so, the main way I've heard this 'we are the mycelium' term being used, it's more like:
"mushrooms will pop up here and there when conditions for fruiting/action are ripe, but don't think the mushrooms are all there is to this, baby! We're a vast mycelial network/organism pulling resources from far and wide, and working working working, to make sure those mushrooms pop up just at the right time, and sporulate accordingly when they can do the most good.
Most of us will not get to be mushrooms, that only occurs in a specific presentation of certain conditions. Most of us will do the work of being mycelium."
Or something. I guess I just wanted to shoutout to the folks using this mycelial metaphor in a non-avatar-ish way... (i am with you, Jake!)
Also, interestingly, the species of Amarilla Honey Fungus at the centre of Simard's example in that book can, if it needs/wants to, be ectomycorrhizal OR saprophytic - or pathogenic, as well. Huh. So it can just hang out with itself as one massive organism, or alternately invest in a much more ectomycorrhizal way of being, according to where its spores do land.
I'd love to read your thoughts on anthropocentric vs animalcentric (lifecentric?) - in the de Waal sense.... and how that relates to our inter-species relationships, both acknowledged and unacknowledged :)
wow that is much more than I intended to write, having just arrived to your work! go well :)
Eugenia, I really appreciate your criticism of the use of 'mycelial networks' or 'mycelium' as this new buzzword for all things networks. As a fellow fungi lover, I found your 2 points on the cherry-picked concepts to be particularly insightful and effective. What some humans have lost is the ability to understand collective self-interest, especially in this world where individual self-interest is upheld as the holy grail.
I don't think so Nanette. The word opportunism is frequently used in ecological literature to describe a particular, observable behavior. I'm not using it metaphorically. Nor do I see it as anthropomorphism. It's just language. (Now, of course all our words are human and I guess you could say that as a result, the words we use to describe the natural world are biased, though the point of science is to get past that.) That's not to say opportunism couldn't be constructed as metaphor. Here's one. An invasive species like the tiger mussel is opportunistic: it has exploited ecological opportunities and proliferated as a result. Tiger mussels could be used as a metaphoric stand in for a market monopoly. The metaphor might be something like calling Telsa, which dominates the electric car market, a tiger mussel. But calling Tesla opportunistic? I don't think that's metaphor. I think it's fact.
Thank you for this article and the explanation about how mycelium makes connections and why. I learned some, but having been totally ignorant before, this opened a new windows for me.
Thank you for your article. It's going into my reference file, because I'm writing a sci-fi book about the survival systems of trees. But a good sci-fi book should always be based on a strong foundation of scientific principles.
Thanks so much for this, Eugenia. Been dwelling a lot on the ways we shrink nature and the stories we tell about it when we only frame it as benevolent. There’s a whole other world of lessons to be found in the tension and balance of self-interests, etc. Cheers.
Thank you for this wonderful article debunking and clarifying without taking factions or dividing. An absolute joy to read!
Thank you so much for the article. I shared it with quite a few people now and I hope they will read it or listen to it too. 🙏✨
Thanks for sharing your fresh perspective. I learned a lot from this article. Clearly you have a deep wisdom and understanding and it resonated with me.
This is the best explanation of how mushrooms work I have ever read. I particularly like the differentiation of the single-celled yeasts, and the multi-celled hyphae that add to themselves one cell at a time, branching and re-branching into that cottony stuff we call mycelium.
I love it that you push back on our desire to turn fungi into a generous and nurturing entity. Although you have to admit, in all kinds of ways, mushrooms are pretty darned poetic. 😊
Speaking my language! Nerded out on the same thing not too long ago: https://open.substack.com/pub/solarpunkdc/p/mushrooms-are-the-ultimate-solarpunk?r=dmmlc&utm_medium=ios
thanks for sharing!!
This was absolutely fascinating - thank you!
Thank you, Eugenia, for this thoughtful article. I work in mycology- first in industry with Fungi Perfecti's R&D team, and now in academic science. I also feel a deep commitment to help regenerate our social and economic systems to be more harmonious with the natural world. I really believe that’s possible, and fungi and microbes are incredible potential sources of inspiration for ecological and technological innovation. I'm trying to understand and utilize mycological metaphors in a scientifically-grounded way.
What you're writing about is a continual concern of mine, and I really hear you. There’s a risk in collapsing complex science into simplified, feel-good narratives. We are also in a real crisis, and we do need bold new systems. For example, the current political/funding crisis here in the US is directly harming mycology, mostly young mycologists, including my lab and our soil mycology research. So not leaning into systems change harms the sciences too. But our understanding of fungal networks, particularly mycorrhizal systems, is still emerging. We’re at the tip of the iceberg, with knowledge on mycelial networks, both in higher fungi and mycorrhizal ones. But I think we can thread the needle with metaphor regarding science that is still in progress.
This is difficult and complex work. I don’t think we should shut down these conversations as they’re essential IMO. But we definitely need more input from practicing scientists to ground this inquiry in nuance and possibility. Right now, much of the narrative is led by folks from business and organizational design. I’m interested in helping bridge those worlds and creating more closeness between them. I would love to be in deeper dialogue about how we can integrate these domains with care and rigor.
I also secretly hope we can have a chat about this topic sometime so please reach out if that's ever of interest :)
I'd love that!
Eugenia, so great to get articles so well written and heartfelt, thank you.
I researched mycelial networks for my book 'Custodians' and was delighted to discover than this interconnected and interdependent reality was not just underground. I wrote about even newer developments on my Substack here: https://vincentmcmahon.substack.com/p/seeing-the-unseen-how-science-reveals
Cool!
So interesting, thank you - I had always understood the usage of the term 'mycelial network' when used/heard in connection with activism and movement building... not to be in the mycorrhizal sense, but rather in the 'we are all part of the same purpose/organism' sense...
Mostly based on the idea that the mycelium makes up the vast majority of a fungus's bulk and being - usually hidden, often underground, and the mushrooms are just the lil' old fruiting bodies, who pop up from time to time...
And so, the main way I've heard this 'we are the mycelium' term being used, it's more like:
"mushrooms will pop up here and there when conditions for fruiting/action are ripe, but don't think the mushrooms are all there is to this, baby! We're a vast mycelial network/organism pulling resources from far and wide, and working working working, to make sure those mushrooms pop up just at the right time, and sporulate accordingly when they can do the most good.
Most of us will not get to be mushrooms, that only occurs in a specific presentation of certain conditions. Most of us will do the work of being mycelium."
Or something. I guess I just wanted to shoutout to the folks using this mycelial metaphor in a non-avatar-ish way... (i am with you, Jake!)
Also, interestingly, the species of Amarilla Honey Fungus at the centre of Simard's example in that book can, if it needs/wants to, be ectomycorrhizal OR saprophytic - or pathogenic, as well. Huh. So it can just hang out with itself as one massive organism, or alternately invest in a much more ectomycorrhizal way of being, according to where its spores do land.
I'd love to read your thoughts on anthropocentric vs animalcentric (lifecentric?) - in the de Waal sense.... and how that relates to our inter-species relationships, both acknowledged and unacknowledged :)
wow that is much more than I intended to write, having just arrived to your work! go well :)
Eugenia, I really appreciate your criticism of the use of 'mycelial networks' or 'mycelium' as this new buzzword for all things networks. As a fellow fungi lover, I found your 2 points on the cherry-picked concepts to be particularly insightful and effective. What some humans have lost is the ability to understand collective self-interest, especially in this world where individual self-interest is upheld as the holy grail.
I love the network - fungi is = heath
Isn't opportunism also a metaphor and a form of anthropomorphism? Perhaps neither are necessary.
I don't think so Nanette. The word opportunism is frequently used in ecological literature to describe a particular, observable behavior. I'm not using it metaphorically. Nor do I see it as anthropomorphism. It's just language. (Now, of course all our words are human and I guess you could say that as a result, the words we use to describe the natural world are biased, though the point of science is to get past that.) That's not to say opportunism couldn't be constructed as metaphor. Here's one. An invasive species like the tiger mussel is opportunistic: it has exploited ecological opportunities and proliferated as a result. Tiger mussels could be used as a metaphoric stand in for a market monopoly. The metaphor might be something like calling Telsa, which dominates the electric car market, a tiger mussel. But calling Tesla opportunistic? I don't think that's metaphor. I think it's fact.