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What an interesting idea, I can't help but visualize Zangermarsh[1] :-) Interesting question about what it might gain evolutionarily by being tall, perhaps more moisture exposure but as others have pointed out fungal mats get that by just being wide and covering a lot of area. Of course if you were competing with a fungal mat being tall might be one strategy.

[1] Its a World of Warcraft zone





The fruiting body of a fungus is typically a reproductive mechanism. Bigger mushroom = more spores (ie. size does matter).


And by taller than others the spores would be more likely to be carried over everything else by the wind and travel further distances. A short mushroom's spores might end up only traveling a few feet before hitting, say, another mushroom.


For pop-culture references, I was thinking Matango.

http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2007/03/22/a-more-interes...


Actually, giant mushrooms replaced trees in the "Beyond the Dark Portal" expansion to WarCraft II.

For example see the 2nd screenshot there: http://allgamesplayed.com/pc/warcraft-2-pc/


Haha that zone totally came to my mind too. It's actually quite cool how many different types of zones Blizzard has made in that game... I wonder if they'll ever run out of ecosystems.




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