It’s certainly been a good season for fungi. I’ve seen lots in my garden, including more of the unwelcome honey fungus. But the fungi that we gardeners know, and often dread, are just a tiny part of this fascinating world, as I’ve been finding out in a new book.
Fungi has been written by two experts in the field – Lynne Boddy, Professor of Fungal Ecology at Cardiff University, and Ali Ashby, a fungal biologist and former research fellow at Cambridge. (I was given a copy in return for a fair review.)
Now, I never liked science at school, being an arts student to the core, and this book does have a lot of scientific terms and facts – how fungi are made up, how they multiply, how they’re classified. That said, the information is conveyed in a way that even the most unscientific reader will understand it.
We learn about their senses – the fungus responsible for scab on apples responds to the vibration of raindrops on leaves – the way they work with plants and trees, and how they feed. Along the way, we discover ‘zombie ants’, fungal traps and what happens when they go to war.
The scale of this world is incredible: there are five million species of fungi, although it’s predicted that 90% of fungi remain undiscovered; thread-like fungi have microscopic tubes (hyphae) that are “around 40 times thinner than a human hair”; a field mushroom produces about 2.7 billion spores.
Meanwhile, there’s a 2,500-year-old fungi in Oregon that weighs about 400,000 kg and covers 9.5 sq. km.
It’s estimated fungi first appeared around one billion years ago and they are everywhere – including in our bodies.
Without them we’re told “we could not survive on Earth” and it’s possible land-living plants may never have evolved.
They’re still proving useful with research into a biodegradable leather made from fungi, new medical uses and even the possibility of single use plastics being broken down by the enzymes in fungi.
While the authors state that this is not an identification guide, there are some basic tips along with profiles of some – worth reading for the names alone, which include Yellow brain fungus, Witches’ butter and Rotting Poison Pie.
The book concludes with a look at their role in legend, ritual and some of the medical and commercial uses of fungi, along with some current threats to things as diverse as ash trees and bananas.
From the mushroom-coloured cover to the many illustrations, it is a beautiful book that is described in the introduction as “a book for the inquisitive”. It certainly fulfils that promise.
Fungi by Lynne Boddy and Ali Ashby is published by DK with an RRP of £25. You can buy it here for £20.00. (If you buy via this link, I receive a small commission. The price you pay is not affected.) Alternatively, you may wish to buy from an independent bookseller here. All prices correct at time of publication of this post.
Top illustration: Rhodotus palmatus, Wrinkled peach Illustration by Aman Sagoo.
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I’ve been enjoying this seasons fungi when out walking in the woods.
There seem to be a lot of them this year.