Picking a mushroom is a bit like picking an apple. You think you’ve got the whole organism, but you’ve really just snapped off the fruit. The actual fungus is hidden underground or inside rotting wood - a vast tangled network of pale threads called mycelium.
Each thread is called a hypha, and it’s only one cell thick. But hyphae branch and weave through soil endlessly, breaking down dead leaves, wood and other organic matter and absorbing the nutrients. One mushroom poking out of a lawn might be attached to mycelium spreading metres in every direction underfoot.
The numbers are staggering. A single teaspoon of healthy forest soil can hold up to several kilometres of fungal threads, all working invisibly to recycle nutrients. Without fungi, dead trees and leaves would just pile up forever and the planet’s nutrient cycle would grind to a halt.
