Seven Fun Facts About Fungi

Jenna Luecke
Jul 14
4 min read

Here at Funga, we are all (obviously) fungi enthusiasts. This under-appreciated kingdom of life never ceases to amaze us with its bizarre and beautiful characteristics. It’s exactly why we kick off every newsletter with a "Fun Fungi Fact." Below, we’ve rounded up a few of our favorites!

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1. Fungi might be the reason we believe in Santa.

What are the origins of our modern-day holiday lore, of Santa and his flying reindeer? Some scholars think that this legend started with psychedelic mushrooms. They cite ancient winter solstice rituals that involved consuming Amanita muscaria, a potent hallucinogenic. This red and white mushroom was dehydrated in a sock near the fire, cleansed of its more toxic properties with the help of reindeer (you don’t want to know how), and a common hallucination was the sense that one was flying.

2. Some fungi DO turn living beings into zombies, just not humans (yet).

The hit zombie-apocalypse video game and then show, The Last of Us, drew inspiration from a real-life “zombie” fungus which takes over and directs the bodies of ants that it infects. While these cordyceps are still far from infecting humans, the fungi-powered zombiefication has spread. Introducing: cave-dwelling zombie spiders (sounds like nightmare fuel, but the fungi makes the spider look like it’s wearing a fuzzy coat, it’s actually kind of cute).

3. The largest organism on earth is a fungus.

If you had to guess what the largest living organism on earth is, you might suggest a blue whale, or a redwood tree. But the largest organism known to modern science is: a fungus! Discovered in 1998, the “humongous fungus” occupies 2,384 acres (965 hectares) of soil in Oregon. That’s nearly four square miles (10 square kilometers), the equivalent of 1,665 football fields. And if that wasn’t enough bragging rights for one organism, it might also be the oldest living thing on earth. We can’t know for sure, but experts estimate that it is somewhere between 2,400 and 8,650 years old (the current oldest organism is a 4,853 year old tree).

4. Some fungi can glow in the dark.

Mushrooms are sometimes depicted in works of art as glowing and neon, usually in a cheeky aesthetic association with psychedelics. While this is often artistic license, some fungi are bioluminescent. Scientists suspect this glow attracts insects that help spread the fungal spores, but they don't know for sure. The phenomenon is even more perplexing in species like Mycena crocata, in which only the underground mycelium glows. What a fun reminder of the fascinating and often unseen world of mycelium!

5. Some fungi have super-strength.

Fungi are clearly nature's superheroes in many ways, but did you know that they have the super-strength needed to break roads? As some species of fungi (one is literally called "pavement mushroom") grow their fruiting body, the concentration of water can create enough hydraulic pressure to crack and lift slabs of asphalt. If you’re thinking “No way, I need to see a photo of this”, don’t worry. Reddit is particularly obsessed with this fungal phenomenon.

6. All fungi have more DNA in common with us than with plants.

Imagine you’re looking at a mushroom that has popped up in your yard. At a glance, do you think that mushroom is more genetically related to the plants around it, or to you? Despite the fact that it is anchored to one spot, rises from the ground, and emerges seasonally, that mushroom is more related to: YOU. Humans’ and fungi’s common ancestor split from plants approximately 1.3 billion years ago, before branching off from each other. Even with the matter of sheer genetics aside, think about it: mushrooms take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide, and they consume other organisms for fuel instead of photosynthesizing. The most anecdotal evidence—although to some, possibly the most convincing—is that the mushrooms we eat are often described as “meaty”. If you think you’re unsettled, Neil deGrasse Tyson has lost sleep over this.

7. Our radioactive trash is some fungi’s treasure.

Many fungi are decomposers, helpfully breaking down waste and dead matter in an ecosystem. But fungi in the Chernobyl exclusion zone seem to be taking this role to a whole new level, feeding on a very modern form of waste. In 1991, researchers remotely piloting a robot into the abandoned nuclear power plant found a fungus that seemed to be growing towards sources of high radiation. Tests were later conducted on samples of these fungi, revealing that the fungi grew faster in the presence of radiation, seemingly converting it into a chemical energy in the same way that plants utilize chlorophyll for photosynthesis. The scientist who led this testing calls this process (which is still considered a theory) “radiosynthesis”. Potential applications for these radiation-eating fungi are vast, from drugs that could protect astronauts from radiation, to raw materials for building infrastructure on Mars.