Words are violence
Comment on mycology
AstridWipenaugh@lemmy.world 8 months agoNot clones, more of a ship of Theseus scenario. A fungal network can be “one thing” because we see it as a single interconnected system. But parts grow and die over time. It doesn’t have individual cells that are infinitely old, but the one wholistic fungal organism, as we define it, can live forever through regrowth. There are types of jellyfish that can also “live forever” in this same way.
veganpizza69@lemmy.world 8 months ago
fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Botanists call this “cloning”.
Like when you cut a bit off one plant and make a new plant you have 2 plants but they’re genetically identical.
Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 8 months ago
There’s never two fungi here though, the mycelium is always continuous. There’s never another individual structure either, like ribosomal cloning, it’s just more hyphae.
fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
Amazing.