beginner’s corner
To contrast, higher life tends to
heavily invest in the quality and care
of each of their offspring. They have
comparatively few offspring, and each
child represents a substantial cost
in resources and time. Small litter
or single child birthing habits are
common to more complex life. A benefit
to this is that the developmental head
start and additional nurturing gives
each individual child a better chance
at successfully maturing to adulthood.
Fungi use the opposite approach.
Instead of investing in a small number
of well-cared-for offspring, they repro-
duce by ejecting (sometimes forcibly)
individual cells called spores and use
phenomenally large numbers to stack
the odds in their reproductive favor.
Since the cost to make single-celled chil-
dren is substantially less than making
multi-celled complex babies, fungi can
afford to make orders of magnitude more
of them. The sheer number of spores
released make up for a lack of develop-
ment and an excess of mortality.
Fungal reproduction relies on a huge
number of spores produced to ensure
at least a few eventually wind up in
a hospitable environment to develop
in. Here’s an analogy: Instead of going
through childbirth, the hair and skin
96
grow cycle
cells humans shed throughout the day
became more people. While in the
animal world rabbits are legendary
for their ability to procreate, a sporing
fungus may release millions, billions,
or even trillions of spores every cycle,
each with the potential to start a new
colony. The spores are small enough
to be invisible with the naked eye and
light enough to stay suspended in the
air for extended periods of time, trav-
eling long distances on the slightest of
wind currents.
With so many fungal colonies spewing
so many spores into the air, it isn’t
surprising to find that an air sample
with “only” 500-1,000 spores per square
meter is considered clean and in the
normal and healthy range. The same
amount of air in an area with fungal
contamination may have several thou-
sand to a few hundred thousand spores.
A wet towel wadded into a ball and
left in the corner of a humid room will
develop a mildew smell as random
mildew spores from the air land and
germinate, wild yeasts can be collected
simply with a medium in an open jar,
and where there is wet greenery debris
in the wild, composting fungi will find
it. Fungal spore pervasiveness is an
integral part of life (and death).
“
F UNGAL
REPRODUCTION
RELIES ON A
HUGE NUMBER OF
SPORES PRODUCED
TO ENSURE AT
LEAST A FEW
EVENTUALLY WIND
UP IN A HOSPITABLE
ENVIRONMENT TO
DEVELOP IN.”