When people think of fungi they probably don’t appreciate all that they do on our earth. Mushrooms (sometimes magic), toadstools & causing food to rot probably the main contenders. I want to take a moment to offer a playful hyphenated version of some (probably not even all) of the extraordinary things fungi is capable of based on my research over the years.

*Poems were written yesterday but too tired to upload before midnight. Fell asleep in computer chair.

[NB The main poem is first & last lines only]

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fun-gi (a hyphenated exploration)

so much more than mere mushrooms, they are — 

dark-dwellers : moistness-lovers : rock-eaters : soil-makers : space-survivors : vision-inducers : mind-benders : medicine-makers : animal behaviour-manipulators : rain-generators : zombie-fiers

menu-adorners : food-producers : cheese-ripeners : grain-brewers : fruit-fermenters : bread-risers

…

influencers : of every aspect of the living Earth

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Factoid 2 – micro to macro

size really does matter

from single-celled, microscopic
beer-brewing yeast

to one massive multicellular
Armillaria ostoyae Oregon organism 

weighing 100s of tonnes & estimated 
to be at least 2 millennia old

it’s lovingly nicknamed 
the Humongous Fungus

(the beer yeast meanwhile is known
simply                           as Jeff)