Scientists Say Mushrooms May Communicate With Each Other Using a Secret Language Made Up of 50 Words

Mushrooms are the fleshy bodies of fungi that usually grow above ground, on some trees, or soil. If you are not familiar with fungi, they are still considered living organisms that belong to their own kingdom, separated from our own animal kingdom. They are also not plants; they are their own thing, with unique characteristics and a distinct evolutionary path.

They can not produce the same sounds that humans and other animals can, but would you believe that these mushrooms could talk to each other? Some scientists think so, because of a new study that recorded them communicating with each other in a way that resembles human language structure.

Fungi’s Electrical “Language”

A recent study by Professor Andrew Adamatzky at the University of the West of England suggests that mushrooms could communicate with each other. The research detected a certain pattern of electric impulses after inserting microelectrodes into four species of fungi—enoki, split gill, ghost, and caterpillar mushrooms.

What is interesting is that the pattern of electric impulses transmitted via their mycelial networks resembles a structure that is similar to a human vocabulary. That means each pattern is similar to a human word, and they have observed up to 50 unique words.

Read more: The Guardian

Complexity in Fungal Communication

Mushrooms Can Talk to Each Other - How Plants Communicate and Think

The research has also observed that each different mushroom produces varying levels of complexity in its sentences when sending it over to communicate. Out of the four mushrooms tested in the study, the split gill mushrooms (Schizophyllum commune) have demonstrated the most amount of complex sentences. In this case, it means their combination of words, or pattern of electric impulse spikes higher and lower more often, and has a wider length on average.

The distribution of these fungi words means they might be more intelligent than we assumed. Each of those patterns of electric impulses across all mushroom types resembles those found in human languages. If their way of communication is this complex, it means their way of processing that information is also more advanced than we think.

Possible Functions of Fungal Signals

The exact motivation and function of these communication signals are still unknown. Each meaning of the patterns of the electric impulses will be hard to decode. However, the leading theory of scientists is that they are primarily using their communication network to convey information when a new food source is discovered or the safety of the fungal structure is threatened.

If this theory is right, then the scientists have just discovered that fungi’s way of communication and its purpose are analogous to animals’ vocalizations and various signals to coordinate group behaviors for hunting food or survival in general.

Read more: The Scientists

Implications and Future Research

The discovery of potential communication of fungi and mushrooms, which resembles a 50-word human language, challenges our notion that they are not intelligent creatures, unlike animals and humans. Further research is important to understand more about the nature and purpose of the electric signals that mushrooms are sending to each other.

However, if we can prove that they share information about environmental conditions, food sources, and threats to their survival, they will be considered as a species possessing all the fundamentals of an intelligent organism. This will change and affect the fields of ecology and bioinformatics the most.

Apparently Mushrooms Can Talk and Have A Vocabulary Of About 50 Words (New Research)

Author's Final Thoughts

The idea that mushrooms can communicate with each other using a vocabulary of 50-word electric impulses is fascinating and opens up our minds to explore the possibilities that other organisms on this planet might be just as intelligent. This discovery reminded us that complex communication systems might exist in various forms across the planet in a way that we can not comprehend because we are a different species.

Read more: New Study Finds Octopuses May Have Developed a Way to Survive Climate Change by Rewriting Their Brains Through RNA Editing