All About the Secret Language of Mushrooms

Almost every living thing on Earth communicates to one another somehow. From forest creatures growling and chirping, to farm animals braying, to plant leaves and roots sending out chemical messages underground. But what about the mushrooms you stumble upon in the wild? Can it be that fungi are not as quiet as they seem — that an invisible magic is being exchanged right under our noses?

How Do Mushrooms Communicate? 

Science tells us that in multicellular creatures, regions of the body can send messages to one another with the help of nerve cells. When bundled together in a network referred to as the nervous system, signals are sent via spikes of electricity (also called impulses). These patterns allow humans and other animals to see what’s going on around them, and to act accordingly. In a way, electrical impulses can be described as the “language” of communication. Only this time delivered by a network of highly specialised cells, instead of a text message or a DM.

Mushrooms are classified in the kingdom fungi, which means they lack a nervous system unlike humans and animals. Despite that, however, fungi seem to be able to send messages by passing on electrical impulses all the same. These jolts are sent by wispy threads called hyphae. They then build a mycelium: a web of filaments that link fungal colonies underground.

The Secret Language of Mushrooms

What’s interesting about fungal networks is how similar they are to the animal nervous system. Is it possible, then, for scientists to track the electrical impulses sent by mushrooms? Could this be done by checking how often and how strong they vibrate on the hyphae?

Research suggests that it may be possible, indeed. For example, when fungi that are able to digest wood were “fed” with blocks of lumber, scientists saw them shoot up electrical impulses at a much faster rate. It’s been theorised that mushrooms use hyphae to send news about food or danger to faraway mycelium, or to other hyphae-linked root systems like that of trees.

As such, scientists may soon be able to crack the secret code of mushrooms. Is it possible to learn the languages used by plants and fungi by studying the electrical impulses they send to one another?

Fungi Words and Sentences

According to a new study by Professor Andrew Adamatzky of the University of the West of England’s Unconventional Computing Laboratory in Bristol, fungi’s way of talking to one another may be more complex than we once thought. It is more than just a vague electrical signal, says the study. Fungi may be speaking to neighbouring colonies with the use of “words” in “sentences”.

To confirm his theory, Adamatzky studied the mycelium of four species of fungi. These were enoki, split gill, ghost, and caterpillar fungi. He then checked the spikes in electrical patterns by inserting microelectrodes into substrates, which had already been colonised by the fungus’s hyphae. What he saw next surprised him greatly…

Based on the readings, the fungi’s electrical patterns gradually morphed into vocabularies of almost 50 words. Here’s the crazy thing: the way in which the fungi’s “words” were arranged was a lot like the syntax of human languages. This was especially true for the coral-esque split gill fungi, which had made the most intricate “sentences” of the group so far.

“Assuming that spikes of electrical activity are used by fungi to communicate and process information in mycelium networks, we group spikes into words and provide a linguistic and information complexity analysis of the fungal spiking activity.

“We show that distributions of fungal word lengths match that of human languages.”

Like Howling Wolves

It’s a shocking revelation, for sure, but Adamatzky warns the public not to get too excited about “talking mushrooms”. He told The Guardian:

“We do not know if there is a direct relationship between spiking patterns in fungi and human speech. Possibly not. On the other hand, there are many similarities in information processing in living substrates of different classes, families, and species. I was just curious to compare.”

That being said, Adamatzky is sure that the electrical impulses serve a purpose. One theory is that these signals are sent from one part of the fungus to another to keep all of the “faraway parts” in sync. A lot like how wolves howl at night to keep track of their packmates. Another theory is that fungi use their mycelium to send news of a newly-found source of food (like a delicious piece of rotting wood, perhaps) or the existence of possible threats to the area.

Not Random At All

Because the study is among the first of its kind, the findings are far from being conclusive. Adamatzky pointed out that while the fungi are definitely communicating, they may not be saying words at all. At least not in the grammatical sense:

“There is also another option — they are saying nothing. Propagating mycelium tips are electrically charged, and, therefore, when the charged tips pass in a pair of differential electrodes, a spike in the potential difference is recorded.”

The professor also clarified that though the exact meaning of the electrical patterns are yet to be discovered, they are unlikely to be random. The fungi are sending out these signals for very specific reasons.

‘Fungus’ on Google Translate?

A few members of the scientific world remain sceptical about the findings. For starters, spiking electrical patterns in fungal networks have been observed in the past. Those were triggered by mushrooms looking for food, which caused them to “pulse” or vibrate their mycelium to transfer nutrients. Another reason is that Adamatzky’s study is still in its infancy. This makes his theory of “fungi talking in words and sentences” to be quite premature.

One such critic is Dan Bebber, who belongs to the British Mycological Society’s fungal biology research committee and is an Associate Professor of Biosciences at the University of Exeter. He explained:

“This new paper detects rhythmic patterns in electrical signals, of a similar frequency as the nutrient pulses we found. Though interesting, the interpretation as language seems somewhat overenthusiastic, and would require far more research and testing of critical hypotheses before we see ‘Fungus’ on Google Translate.”

Pure Infant Stage

Adamatzky admits that he still has a long way to go to convince his fellow scientists of the existence of a fungal mycelia language. Even so, he remains hopeful that his groundbreaking research will be vindicated. If not now, then perhaps in the near future?

He told The Guardian:

“We should not expect quick results: we are yet to decipher the language of cats and dogs despite living with them for centuries, and research into electrical communication of fungi is in its pure infant stage.”

The Secret Remains 

Pretty exciting news, right? Of course, there are plenty of other reasons, too, besides fungal communication. Such as the transfer of nutrients along the hyphae, causing its electrical pulses to “flicker”. However, the spikes could also mean multiple things at once. Why not the possibility of fungi actually talking to one another?

We’ve known about underground fungal networks for a while now, but this is the first time scientists have assembled “words” and “sentences” from electrical signals in mycelium. If proven 100% correct, then could it be that the fungi kingdom — including our beloved magic mushrooms and magic truffles — possesses a level of intelligence that humans simply cannot detect? For now, the secret language of mushrooms will have to remain undecipherable…