The Basidium Blog – Fungi, Fieldwork & Microscopy

The storm breaks, and that scent rises — earth, decay, and something ancient. You’re out before the sun, scanning mossy logs like scripture. It’s not about finding the biggest flush. It’s about the moment your fingers brush a cap and you know: this was waiting just for you. The woods don’t speak, but they know your name.

You center the slide, adjust the fine focus, and lean in — and suddenly you’re falling into an entirely different world. Spores drift like alien seeds. Gill tissue curls like smoke caught in glass. It’s dizzying, how much is happening in something so small.

You start to recognize features — walls, ornamentation, the subtle sheen of maturity. You tell yourself it’s science, but deep down, it feels like something closer to divination. How can something this intricate exist in near-invisibility? You wonder how much else you’ve missed, walking around thinking the world stops at what you can see.