Their Story

  

Moving through the undergrowth, breaking down organic matter, bringing life and nutrients, and connecting the forest within mycorrhizal networks of the “wood wide web” of mycelium, fungi will always be there. Supporting life, and converting life. Treasures of the forest floor.

Mushroom spores are microscopic, reproductive cells that allow fungus to replicate and grow. One mushroom will release around 30 million spores per day.

Once the spores have landed in a suitable moist environment with sufficient food, such as wood and leaf litter they begin to germinate. The spore enlarges as it hydrates, respiration increases, and then hyphae grow out from the spore in all directions. This new growth of hyphae forms a new mycelial colony.

       

Spore Prints

As the mushrooms expel their last breath, millions of spores are released.

Air currents are created by the mushrooms generating heat, leaving a pattern created by the mushroom as the spores are released and land on the paper.

This is the fine art created by the mushrooms.

        

When it rains, it spores

After spores are released into the air, a mushroom spore acts as a nucleus around which water vapour in the air gather and condense into droplets. When enough of these droplets are formed, they stick together to form clouds and eventually result in rain.

 

~ Living spores have been found and collected in every level of earth's atmosphere.

~ Mushroom spores are electron-dense and can survive in the vacuum of space.

~ The outer shell of the spore is the hardest organic compound to exist in nature.