Following yesterday’s post on plant medicine, here’s another one. Paul Stamets, author of Mycellium Running, probably wouldn’t call himself a curandero; he’s more of a researcher, teacher, and collector of the most amazing organisms on planet Earth, bar none.

Is this the largest organism in the world? This 2,400-acre (9.7 km2) site in eastern Oregon had a contiguous growth of mycelium before logging roads cut through it.Estimated at 1,665 football fields in size and 2,200 years old, this one fungus has killed the forest above it several times over, and in so doing has built deeper soil layers that allow the growth of ever-larger stands of trees. Mushroom-forming forest fungi are unique in that their mycelial mats can achieve such massive proportions. — Mycellium Running

I like to think of humans as mycellium: most of us are living “underground,” without notice, but open-source networked with hundreds or thousands of others in our various ways; we collect, integrate, and spread nourishment of many kinds for one and all. Thus, do WE participate in the ongoing “fabric of life.” And thus does every feeling, every thought, every action count.

Via Bob.