You read that correctly! Apparently, mushrooms can talk to each other. Believe it or not, ripleys have reported that scientists believe that certain mushrooms may be able to communicate between themselves too, using a supposed vocabulary of 50 words! Mushrooms have always been fascinating case studies, thanks to their unique and potentially terrifying properties. The dreaded death cap mushroom, for instance, is so toxic that it causes sickness severe enough to cause irreparable damage to the cells in mere hours. Half of those poisoned by the death cap die; a fate that, in 1534, befell Pope Clement VII.

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Mushrooms, clearly, are not to be underestimated; particularly not now that we know they seem to be communicating with each other.  Fungi are often much more than what we see. In 1998, the largest known organism on the planet, four square miles in extent, was discovered. What initially appeared to be multiple fungi were actually all a part of the same whole!

Believed to be up to 8650 years old, the Armillaria ostoyae is found in the Blue Mountains of Oregon in the USA. Scientists tested samples in the region and found that they were related, part of one gigantic organism! Also known as the “Humongous Fungus,” the Armillaria ostoyae was connected through a string of hyphae that made up many small parts of the singular organism. It is through these small varied connections that the gigantic organism is able to thrive. 

Now, you won’t hear tiny mushrooms talking away to each other at night in shady forests (that would truly be the stuff of nightmares), but rather through the magic of electrical impulses. Read more on this story here.