This mushi's name means 'false bamboo', and it very much lives up to its name. It makes its home in a bamboo forest, taking the form of a pure white bamboo.
This is actually beneficial to the bamboo--this mushi acts as a symbiote rather than a parasite. It strengthens the bamboo with nutrients the plants wouldn't otherwise be able to get, making the forest greener; in return, it takes different nutrients that it needs from the bamboo's roots. It seems to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. As the grove it has chosen gets bigger, it sends out shoots of its own, resulting in more white mushi-bamboo--its children.
The main problems posed by this mushi is when someone chooses to drink water from the parent magaridake. They are then trapped within the mushi's bamboo grove, unable to get out of the mushi's sphere of influence.
The effect of the magaridake on water from the stalk.
If the mushi is chopped down, this effect disappears, and the mushi walks away.
Another thing that can result from this mushi (or any mushi, really, but this is the only example we get in canon) is an Oniko. This is a very rare type of hybrid between a mushi and a human, and no one really knows how or why it happens.
A woman embracing a white bamboo.
The resulting Oniko.
In a case like this, the children must drink water from their parent stalk. Much like a plant, they don't actually need to eat; they get all their nutrients from that water (and possibly the sun). However, should the parent stalk get chopped down, they quickly wither and die. If the magaridake should return to an area where they are buried, however, it will revive any of its children as bamboo shoot-babies shortly after its return.
Magaridake and Oniko
This mushi's name means 'false bamboo', and it very much lives up to its name. It makes its home in a bamboo forest, taking the form of a pure white bamboo.
This is actually beneficial to the bamboo--this mushi acts as a symbiote rather than a parasite. It strengthens the bamboo with nutrients the plants wouldn't otherwise be able to get, making the forest greener; in return, it takes different nutrients that it needs from the bamboo's roots. It seems to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. As the grove it has chosen gets bigger, it sends out shoots of its own, resulting in more white mushi-bamboo--its children.
The main problems posed by this mushi is when someone chooses to drink water from the parent magaridake. They are then trapped within the mushi's bamboo grove, unable to get out of the mushi's sphere of influence.
The effect of the magaridake on water from the stalk.
If the mushi is chopped down, this effect disappears, and the mushi walks away.
Another thing that can result from this mushi (or any mushi, really, but this is the only example we get in canon) is an Oniko. This is a very rare type of hybrid between a mushi and a human, and no one really knows how or why it happens.
A woman embracing a white bamboo.
The resulting Oniko.
In a case like this, the children must drink water from their parent stalk. Much like a plant, they don't actually need to eat; they get all their nutrients from that water (and possibly the sun). However, should the parent stalk get chopped down, they quickly wither and die. If the magaridake should return to an area where they are buried, however, it will revive any of its children as bamboo shoot-babies shortly after its return.