The mycelium - The English mycologist Alan Rayner has spent many years studying the behaviour of mycelia in forests. In the introduction to the reference given in the button, he wrote:
"...there is perhaps a natural tendency to regard ...the mycelium as a boring, uniformly absorbent mass of hyphal threads which, whilst important in energy capture, only really become interesting when parts of it aggregate and differentiate into a fruit body...... I have increasingly come to regard the mycelium as a heterogenous army of hyphal troops, variously equipped for different roles and in varying degrees of communication with one another. Without a commander, other than the dictates of their environmental circumstances, these troops organise themselves into a beautifully open-ended or indeterminate dynamic structure that can continually respond to changing demands. Recall that during its potentially indefinite life, a mycelial army may migrate between energy depots; absorb easily assimilable resources such as sugars; digest refractory resources such as lignocellulose; mate, compete and do battle with neighbours; adjust to changing microclimatic conditions; and reproduce."
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