'BEING PLURAL'

"But Dr. Suzuki, who had worked with matsutake for many years, did not accept this finding as the whole story. 'It depends on what question you ask,' he explained. He told me about Armillaria root rot, a complex of species in which clear species boundaries may not be relevant. Armillaria root rot spreads across whole forests, stimulating boasts of 'the largest organism in the world.' Differentiating 'individuals' becomes difficult, as these individuals contain many genetic signatures, helping the fungus adapt to new environmental situations. Species are open-ended when even individuals are so molten, so long-lived, and so unwilling to draw lines of reproductive isolation. 'Armillaria root rot is fifty species in one species,' he said; 'it depends on what you are dividing species for.'"

Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (Princeton University Press, 2015), 231.