The Accumulation of Understanding

" … Unlike the roots of plants, the fungal network is unbounded, unshaped. It not only conforms to the shape of the landscape, but it is one with the landscape. It is fed by external digestion of the accumulated organic material, absorbing the essence directly into the cells. The thin filaments will not be noticed in their persistent effort to absorb the available energy, until a fruiting body springs forth with almost explosive suddenness, a testament to the residual power of the sun still residing in the soil. The remarkably various toadstools and mushrooms are the monumental constructions of mighty nations of cooperating cells, as the pyramids were to the Egyptians. …" – as remembered from a dusty old pamphlet in my father’s stored papers