Write a short story about a botanist who discovers a part of a forest where plants are communicating with each other.


Anya was a college student studying botany, and was tasked with identifying a broad range of fungi in a local forest. Since she also enjoyed camping, she decided to go deep into the forest during a long weekend to complete her assignment. 

As she got deeper into the forest, away from civilization, the tree cover became thicker, and therefore the floor of the forest became darker. "Perfect for fungi growth!" she thought. She started seeing more and more fungi, some on the trees, some on rotting logs, and some on the forest floor. Peculiarly, most of the fungi she began to see as she got deeper in the forest were green, which was quite unusual.

She catalogued all the fungi she saw for the next several days. On her way out, she took the same path she came in on, but noticed that the fungi along her path had changed to possess typical colors of fungi, not the green she had seen when she came in. She explored perpendicular to her path, and found a slowly changing range of colors, until she saw the same green she had seen when she came in.

She needed to return to school, but decided to come back the next weekend.

When she arrived back into the fungi's domain, she saw something breathtaking as she explored. Everywhere she had gone, a ripple of colors seemed to have formed. The fungi had reacted to her presence, and sent signals to the other fungi in the area, where the signal had been propagated. Some of the fungi on her original path had even returned to the original green color she had observed upon entering the forest. She also noticed the local fauna completely avoided the areas where the fungi had changed from its original green color. It seemed as though the fungi had developed a warning system for the forest to detect humans!