“Fungus-like protuberances can help tall chimneys and towers withstand high winds, according to scientists at Imperial College, London (GB 2 362 938). If smoothly curved “growths”, like bracket fungi on a tree, are regularly spaced around a chimney, wind drag is drastically reduced. The best size for the protuberance is between a quarter and a half the chimney’s diameter, with a repeat distance of around six times the diameter. The same system could allow oil rigs and wind-turbine supports resist winds, Imperial says. It could also be used on undersea cables to reduce tidal drag.”

Wow! So now we know why fruiting bracket fungi are the shape that they are - they are helping to stabilise the host tree by reducing wind drag! Yet another fascinating example of the partnership between heartwood-hollowing fungi and trees. And also of humans finally catching up with what fungi have known about for thousands of years!