Can mushrooms ‘speak’?

Researchers who tapped into the network that connects fungi say that its patterns of electrical signals resemble human speech. Previous studies have suggested that fungi use electrical signals to communicate and process information across tiny connective threads called mycelium. In the new study, researchers inserted tiny electrodes into substrates colonised by four species of fungi. They found that spikes of electrical activity often clustered into groups that resembled vocabularies of up to 50 words and could be similar to human language. But some researchers are sceptical.

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Although this is unlikely to be evidence of a semiotic system, let alone a language, it may well be a precursor to semiotic systems, where what is exchanged is social value, rather than symbolic value. Such systems, previously thought to be exclusive to animals, have more recently been identified in some plants.