Research
Simple fungi can recognize shapes, like circles and crosses, when looking for wood to eat
Earth.com · By Eric Ralls ·
The Brief
- A wood-rotting fungus grown on a cross-shaped arrangement of wood blocks attached more of its threads to the outer blocks than to the inner ones.
- When grown on a circle, the fungus showed no such pattern.
- The fungus has no brain, eyes, or nerves.
Why it matters
The findings suggest fungi can respond to the spatial layout of wood when foraging for food, which may matter for understanding how they decompose wood and colonise resources.
Who’s affected
- mycologists and fungal biologists
- researchers studying wood decomposition and ecology
- #fungi
- #wood decay
- #shape recognition
- #mycology
- #fungal behaviour
Daily Wonder, Pink Oyster Mushroom A fungus has no brain, no eyes, and no nerves. Yet a wood-rotting fungus, given a cross of wood blocks to grow on, attached more of its threads to the outer blocks than to the inner ones. Given a circle to grow on, it showed no such pattern and…