Mycelial coordination is difficult to understand because there is no center of control. If we cut off our head or stop our heart, we’re finished. A mycelial network has no head and no brain. Fungi, like plants, are decentralized organisms. There are no operational centers, no capital cities, no seats of government. Control is dispersed: Mycelial coordination takes place both everywhere at once and nowhere in particular. A fragment of mycelium can regenerate an entire network, meaning that a single mycelial individual—if you’re brave enough to use that word—is potentially immortal.

⚘ Merlin Sheldrake. Entangled Life

Symbiosis, an interdependent relationship between two species, is an important driver of evolutionary novelty and ecological diversity. Microbial symbionts in particular have been major evolutionary catalysts throughout the 4 billion years of life on earth and have largely shaped the evolution of complex organisms. Endosymbiosis is a specific type of symbiosis in which one—typically microbial—partner lives within its host and represents the most intimate contact between interacting organisms. Mitochondria and chloroplasts, for example, result from endosymbiotic events of lasting significance that extended the range of acceptable habitats for life. The wide distribution of intracellular bacteria across diverse hosts and marine and terrestrial habitats testifies to the continued importance of endosymbiosis in evolution.