Alien Worlds Part Part Deux... Giant Mushrooms Instead Of Trees Sound Possible?

[Spacescifi]

Imagine an Earth-like world that has giant mushrooms instead of trees dotting the landscape.

Fruits and veggies come either from bushes or vine plants... meaning lots of berries and starchy plants like potatoes and carrots, but no apples, oranges, or any fruit that comes from trees exists here.

Is a world like that even possible in theory?

 

Right away I see possible issues, since trees clean the air, and mushrooms are fungi who don't do that as far as I know.

Also the sheer amount of fungus under the ground would be massive with mushrooms that huge.

Good thing is that giant mushrooms would provide better shade than trees already do, bad thing is wood will not be as easy to get in large quantity, and I have no clue what you can build with mushrooms.

Wood would be expensive since there would be less of it.

 

I have no idea what effect giant mushrooms would have on animals, though some would eat them I imagine or try.

Birds would perch and poop all over them.

 

Thoughts?

Edited October 16, 2023 by Spacescifi

[xXIndestructibleEVAXx]

Before the evolution of trees, massive fungus formed forests, although they didnt have the classic toadstool shape.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prototaxites

 

[magnemoe]

Well you have Morrowind.

Now mushrooms are not plants and don't have photosynthesis but breaks down dead matter. 
They are also way to weak to be the size of trees who require wood strength materials. 
But some alien plant who looked like mushrooms is pretty plausible. More so in dry environments there you have plants like cactus who already looks alien. 
My guess is the main benefit of leaves on trees over an large sun collecting surface is that is handles wind better. 

[darthgently]

As possible as it was on Earth.  Go Google the nutrient pathways and reproductive "symmetrical" differences between plants and fungi.  You may find it very interesting.

[kerbiloid]

Then some of them get sapient.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fungi_from_Yuggoth

[tomf]

Depends on what you mean by "fungi". This is alien biology so they presumably aren't related to our fungi. 

If by fungi you mean a sessile organism that obtains it's nutrition by breaking down dead organisms like most notable earth fungi then what is producing the matter to break down, and why do they need to grow metres into the air when dead stuff is on the ground?

If you want umbrella shaped photosynthetic organisms then sure, except given they aren't related to anything on earth I think the common name given to them is going to be plants because in common use a plant is a "multicellular organism that photosythesises"

 

[darthgently]

4 hours ago, tomf said:

and why do they need to grow metres into the air when dead stuff is on the ground?

To be fair, the part of fungi that rise up are the fruiting body and are elevated to disperse spores, not to feed

[wumpus]

4 hours ago, darthgently said:

To be fair, the part of fungi that rise up are the fruiting body and are elevated to disperse spores, not to feed

I suspect that the easiest way to test this is to find large mushrooms in the forest and weigh one down with increasing weight until it crushes, and then pluck another and weigh the stem.  It should be relatively easy to find the amount of mass a mushroom stem can support.

If you really want trees, you are going to have to assume some sort fungus that evolves a hard cellulose internal structure  without crossing over into being a tree (presumably lack of photosynthesis would be the obvious issue).  Best guess of the shape for a giant mushroom with an elevation to disperse spores would be a cone/pyramidal shape (use above experiment to calculate the angle/shape) with most of the mass spread out near the ground/underground.  Of course then you have to figure out where the energy source comes from if it can't photosynthesize and blocks anything below it from photosynthesizing as well.  Perhaps something along a river, draining nutritious silt?

[magnemoe]

2 hours ago, wumpus said:

I suspect that the easiest way to test this is to find large mushrooms in the forest and weigh one down with increasing weight until it crushes, and then pluck another and weigh the stem.  It should be relatively easy to find the amount of mass a mushroom stem can support.

If you really want trees, you are going to have to assume some sort fungus that evolves a hard cellulose internal structure  without crossing over into being a tree (presumably lack of photosynthesis would be the obvious issue).  Best guess of the shape for a giant mushroom with an elevation to disperse spores would be a cone/pyramidal shape (use above experiment to calculate the angle/shape) with most of the mass spread out near the ground/underground.  Of course then you have to figure out where the energy source comes from if it can't photosynthesize and blocks anything below it from photosynthesizing as well.  Perhaps something along a river, draining nutritious silt?

For dispersion I think it would be much easier to do stuff like generate pressure who burst or use animals like plants do. 
But you need photosynthesis for an good ecosystem so it would be an photosynthetic alien plant who looks like an mushroom because evolution. Say animals lived on the top to escape predators and they would defend the plant. 

They used mushrooms in Morrowind because trees had an much higher polygon count before looking semi decent back in 2002, people loved it. 
Image above is from elder scroll online morrowind expansion who goes to morrowind 1000 year earlier so graphic is much better as its 4-5 years old. Time warp, also how graphic in games kind peaked. 
 

[kerbiloid]

Calvatia gigantea aka Lycoperdon giganteum.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvatia_gigantea

Born to be a an alien fungi. Doomed to be a ball.

In the Kerbal world, they can be planetoids.

Edited October 19, 2023 by kerbiloid