** \[ up: [[Fungi]] ]** --- # Mushrooms [[“Mushrooms dominate the popular fungal imagination, but just as the fruits of plants are one part of a much larger structure that includes branches and roots, so mushrooms are only the fruiting bodies of fungi, the place where spores are produced.”]][^1] [[“Mushrooms are a fungus’s way to entreat the more-than-fungal world, from wind to squirrel, to assist with the dispersal of spores, or to prevent it from interfering with this process.”]][^2] [[Mushrooms “are the parts of fungi made visible, pungent, covetable, delicious, poisonous.”|Mushrooms “are the parts of fungi made visible, pungent, covetable, delicious, poisonous.”]][^3] *Not all fungal species use the mushroom method to disperse their spores*; in fact, “the overwhelming majority of fungal species release spores without producing mushrooms at all.”[^4] - *See also:* [[Fungi#Reproduction|Fungi – Reproduction]] --- Mushrooms are made of/by [[Fungi#Hyphae|hyphae]].[^5] > “Fruiting bodies, such as mushrooms, arise from the felting together of hyphal strands.”[^6] --- Mushrooms are not only capable of dispersing spores. - [[Truffles]], [[Truffles “produce aromas that have made them among the most expensive foods in the world.”|“produce aromas that have made them among the most expensive foods in the world.”]][^7] + [[Shaggy ink cap mushrooms]] [[Shaggy ink cap mushrooms can “push their way through asphalt and lift heavy paving stones, although they are not themselves a rough material.”|“push their way through asphalt and lift heavy paving stones, although they are not themselves a rough material.”]][^8] [^1]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 5. [^2]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), pp. 5–6. [^3]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 6. [^4]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 6. [^5]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 7. [^6]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 7. [^7]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 7. [^8]: Merlin Sheldrake, *[[Sheldrake. 'Entangled Life', 2021.|Entangled Life]]* (UK: Vintage, 2021), p. 7.