A team of Japanese researchers inserted electrodes into mushrooms and watched their voltages spike after a storm
What has no eyes, ears, brains or nerves, but still manages to talk?
The answer is mushrooms — which, despite appearing docile and still as plants, are most definitely not, as they do not even photosynthesize. Yet these inanimate fungi have incredible ways of communicating that researchers are only beginning to understand.
A new study in the journal Fungal Ecology found that a certain breed of mushroom seems to “talk” using electrical signals — and intriguingly, they get especially chatty after a nice rain. The way they talk after the weather — perhaps about the weather? — has not been reported before.
To study this, a team of Japanese researchers inserted subdermal needle electrodes into the caps and stipes of a type of mushroom called Laccaria bicolor. It’s also known as the “deceiver” mushroom because once it ages and fades, it can be hard to identify.
Mushrooms are essentially the fruit of certain fungi, which spend most of their life underground forming webs called mycelium. When a fungus wants to reproduce, it forms mushrooms that drizzle spores, which are akin to seeds in plants. Mushrooms can arise in a multitude of weird shapes and forms, from resembling bird’s nests to dog’s noses. In the case of L. bicolor, they are a roasted peach color on the cap with distinctive lilac gills. These mushrooms are known as ectomycorrhizal fungi, which means they form symbiotic relationships with forest trees.
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