Fungus, they appear seemingly out of nowhere. But this nowhere is not nowhere but the life-full earth. Neither plants nor animals they have a kingdom all of their own. They web the earth with a super network of connectivity and partnership, unseen, until the rain calls up a fruiting body, sometimes elegant, sometimes delicate, sometimes bizarre, sometimes huge and grotesque. Why? To drop spores— only? To remind the world that they are there? To remind us that there is more than darkness beneath our feet? Without them decay would all but stop. They are one of the engines of life.
