Scientists discover hyper-intelligent, fast-growing mushroom that could have a major impact on our planet

In the hunt for compelling alternatives to plastic, researchers in Finland may have just found a winner — and it’s already growing all over the sides of trees.
The substance in question is a type of mushroom known as Fomes fomentarius. It grows on the rotting bark of trees and has historically been used mainly as a fire starter, lending it the nickname “tinder fungus.” (It has also been called “hoof fungus” because its shape resembles a hoof.)
However, a research team at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland thinks that it could be much more than that. 
“F. fomentarius fruiting bodies are ingeniously lightweight biological designs, simple in composition but efficient in performance,” the team’s study, published recently in Science Advances, said. “Growing the material using simple ingredients is an alternative solution to overcome the cost, time, mass production, and sustainability of how we make and consume materials in the future.”
In short, instead of mass-producing plastic at an enormous cost to our planet, in the future, we could simply grow a mushroom with similar structural integrity to plastic at scale.
Scientists discover hyper-intelligent, fast-growing mushroom that could have a major impact on our planet