http://wordie.org/words/mycelium Comments for the word 'Mycelium' http://wordie.org http://wordie.org/words/mycelium#comments The white, thread-like <a href="/words/mycelia">mycelia</a> are cultivated in vaulted chambers as large as a man's head, located deep within the <a href="/words/formicary">formicary</a>. They form great loose masses, hung from the ceiling, and binding together cut leaves, plucked and placed there for them by the ants. Normally these thread-like <a href="/words/hypha">hypha</a>e are uniform in diameter. Under the cultivation of the ants, however, they are induced to develop knobs at their tips, which have been called "kohl-rabi heads," because of the resemblance to that garden vegetable. It is upon the liquid secretion of these bulbs that all the adults of the colony live, and it constitutes their sole food.<br /><br />- Caryl P. Haskins, <i>Of Ants and Men</i>, 1939, p. 39 Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:07:05 +0000 http://wordie.org/words/mycelium#comments