Single combat, assassination, chemical warfare, even mind control: the Geneva conventions don't apply when fungi go to war
TO CRUNCH your way across a meadow or through a wood on a crisp winter's day is to traverse a battlefield. That rural tranquillity is a mere veneer. Beneath the soil, in those piles of falling leaves or that moss-covered tree stump, war is being waged.
You might see the standards of some of the troops standing proudly above the surface: perhaps a field mushroom, or a bracket fungus. The passivity is deceptive. Out of sight, scenes of peculiar barbarism and brutality are being played out. One-on-one combat, stealth assassination, chemical warfare, even mind control: when mushrooms get martial, the Geneva conventions most definitely do not apply. You may find some of the scenes I am about to describe disturbing.
Before we delve into gory details, however, a big word in defence ...
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