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Fungi: spores are in many ways similar to seeds. David Attenborough, The Private Life of Plants: Travelling, BBC 1995
Fungi are neither plant nor animal. David Attenborough, The Private Life of Plants: The Social Struggle
Some fungi trap living animals. ibid.
Fungi can’t photosynthesis because unlike plants they have no chlorophyll. David Attenborough’s Kingdom of Plants II: Solving The Secrets, Sky Atlantic 2012
Most of the body of the fungus is beneath the ground, a tangle of tiny threads. ibid.
Fungi: technically speaking it is the largest known living organism on the planet. ibid.
Most fungi make a living by feeding on the dead tissues of other organisms, both plant and animal. ibid.
Fungi are essential links in the cycle of life. ibid.
It’s a metropolis. Home to millions of ants ... A single colony harvests half a ton of grass a year, more than any other animal on these plains. But since they themselves can’t eat it why do they do so? The answer lies underground ... This is a fungus that is found nowhere else on Earth. And the ants cultivate it assiduously ... They construct their nest so that it has an automatic air conditioning system. David Attenborough, Life e6: Insects, BBC 2009
Without fungi, rain forests could not exist. David Attenborough, Planet Earth e8: Jungles, BBC 2006
The threads of certain fungi form a glowing underground network. But why would a fungi shine in the permanent darkness of the soil. We just don’t know … Some species only glow above ground and at night. Attenborough’s Life that Glows, BBC 2017
Moulds are masters of decay – they are a type of fungi. After Life: The Strange Science of Decay, BBC 2011
Each mould is trying to seize territory by outgrowing its competitors. But they are also using powerful chemical weapons to try to kill off other moulds and rival decomposers like bacteria. ibid.
Fungi are vital to life on this planet. They are amongst the Earth’s oldest life-forms. ibid.
With fungi unable to break down wood, over time more and more carbon was removed from the air and locked up in dead trees. ibid.
The fungi sends out a network of tiny threads. ibid.
Fungi saved the world. ibid.
Fungus: and the richest site on the human body for fungus – that would be the heel, home to about eighty different type of fungi. Dara O’Briain’s Science Club 6/6, BBC 2013
Of all life on earth there is something more mysterious yet more vital to our survival than anything else ... Much of its life is hidden underground ... The mushroom. Robert Fortey, The Magic World of Mushrooms, BBC 2015
A secret life so magical, so weird, that it defies imagination. ibid.
Fungi evolved as a kingdom in their own rights, distinct from plants and animals. ibid.
The thrill of discovery, the thrill of the chase. ibid.
A huge web of tiny threads. ibid.
They have successfully recycled the world’s waste for hundreds of millions of years. ibid.
In the dank dark forest floor, one of nature’s most mysterious transformations is about to happen. Invisible for most of the year, an extraordinary array of fungi explode from the ground. It’s these fungi that are some of the wood’s most prolific recyclers. Secret Life of the Forest s1e3: Autumn, Channel 5 2023
You can’t see us but we flourish all around you. Everywhere. In everything. And even inside you. Whether you believe in us or not. From your first breath to your last, in darkness and in the light, we are the oldest and youngest, we are the largest and smallest, we are the wisdom of a billion years. We are creation. We are resurrection. And condemnation. And regeneration. We are mushrooms. Fantastic Fungi: The Magic Beneath Us, Netflix 2019
Mushrooms are clandestine and very much the trickster. So they’re hiding from you all the time. ibid. Paul Stamets, mycologist
Mushrooms represent regrowth, rejuvenation, regeneration. Fungi generate soil that gives life. ibid.
These threads grow one cell at a time … even three-dimensionally. That mass of threads is called a mycelium. ibid. mycologist
Plants die. Animals die. Fungi inherits the Earth … We are descendants of mycelium. ibid.
They correct everything on Earth. They support life. They convert life. They carry life. They are remarkable beings. If humans become extinct, what’s the next species to take over the Earth? ibid.
The root system trades that carbon for nutrients. ibid.
The entire ecosystem is infused with fungi. ibid. Stamets
You realise that you’ve been limited all this time with your perspective of reality. ibid.