How Mushrooms Help Trees Communicate Underground

Tell a Story for the Trees

Now that we know that trees talk too, what are they saying and thinking? Write a story from a tree’s point of view using one or a few of the questions below (or any you come up with too!). Send us a copy of your story!

Where does the tree live?
Forest, yard, right of way, parking lot?
Who are the tree’s friends?
Birds, squirrels, other trees, forest animals, mycelium, you?
Who are not the tree’s friends?
Invasive plants and bugs like ivy or borer beatle?
How close are other trees?
Within talking distance or do the trees have to shout to talk?

Send Your Story

Some Mycorrhizal Mushrooms Found in the PNW

shan · tr · el

Likes a wide variety of trees, like the douglas fir, spruce, pine, oak, western hemlock, sitka spruce, aspen, and birch trees.

por · chee · nee

Lives near a wide variety of trees, like the douglas fir, spruce, pine, oak, western hemlock, sitka spruce, aspen, and birch trees.

mott · soo · tak · ee

Likes pine trees. Matsutake's can sometimes be found hiding under leaves and branches at the base of a pine.

Check Out These Fungal Blooms

Make a Mushroom Spore Print

Mushrooms have spores, which are super tiny little cells. Theses spores act like seeds and allow fungi to reproduce. They fall from the bottom of the mushroom cap. If you take a spore print, you are able to see lots of them together in a unique design. Here is how to make one!

Find a Mushroom

Mushrooms like to grow in damp shady areas, on older logs, and under fallen leaves. Once you find some, you can gently pick a ripe (firm and not too soggy) one from the base. Only take as much as you need and no more than half of them. This ensures that there is enough for others and that there is enough of them left to put their spores in the ground so more will grow next year. You can also use mushrooms you find at the grocery store too. Be sure to give thanks to the fungi for allowing you to use its mushroom, as it took a lot of energy for the fungi to make it.

Tip: The fall and springtime are usually when they like to pop up!

Extra activity: While you are out looking, if you take a small piece of soil and turn it up, you may see lots of small white strands, these act like roots and are a part of the fungi too, they are called mycelium (my-cee-lee-um). Be sure to place the soil back as it was and give thanks.