The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi
Keith Seifert
Greystone Books, $27.95
Take a stroll by way of the woods after it rains, and you may catch a glimpse of the unimaginable range of fungi. You may spot the real-life model of the red-and-white “power-up” mushroom from the online game Tremendous Mario Bros. or the aptly named lifeless man’s fingers, a blackened fungal progress that resembles a hand rising from the grave. Maybe you’ll discover a cluster of frilly pink cabinets on a log or a putting purple mushroom that’s a doppelgänger for underwater coral.
However for all that you could see, you’ve barely scratched the floor of the fungal world.
Scientists estimate there are between 1.5 million and 15 million species of fungi however up to now have found and named solely 140,000 or so. Most of that identification was carried out with microscopes, however over the past 20 years, DNA sequencing has allowed researchers to differentiate giant numbers of microfungi. It’s these not often observed and poorly understood fungi that mycologist Keith Seifert focuses on in his guide The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi.
Seifert has spent his profession “obsessing over Latin names of fungi” however acknowledges that taxonomy could not come simply to his readers. So he begins with a observe on scientific names, explaining why they’re a “needed evil” and offering a primer on the fashionable classification system, likening it to “a telephone guide for trying up the evolutionary deal with of a fungus.”
From there, the guide explores fungi’s evolutionary journey and the assorted symbiotic relationships they’ve with different organisms (SN: 2/23/15). These relationships have muddied scientists’ image of ecology and evolution. Within the conventional view of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin, competitors is seen because the driving power of pure choice. However Darwin “underplayed the importance of cooperation in nature,” Seifert writes. Take the evolutionary success of lichens, a extremely numerous group that has unfold around the globe. These complicated organisms encompass an alga and fungus residing collectively in a mutually helpful relationship.
All through the guide, Seifert delves deeper into fungi’s sophisticated relationships with different organisms, protecting the function fungi play in forest ecology, agriculture, fermentation, the constructed setting and even the human physique. Right here, there’s one thing for everybody. Nature lovers will get pleasure from studying concerning the “Wooden Vast Internet” (SN: 8/9/97), an underground community of mycorrhizal fungi that connect with tree roots, enabling timber to trade water, vitamins and minerals. Gardeners and farmers can achieve relevant data concerning the fungi that may assist or hurt crops. Foodies will discover themselves singing fungi’s praises after studying concerning the yeasts and molds that give us the “sacred fungal trilogy” of wine, cheese and chocolate. However many readers may cringe as Seifert takes them on a room-by-room tour of which fungal species lurk in an individual’s home or shares how fungi could cause sickness (SN: 11/29/21).
Because the guide ends, Seifert focuses on how people and fungi can construct a greater world collectively. People have already used fungi to create a spread of merchandise like penicillin, stone-washed denim and the meat substitute Quorn. Now, fungi are additionally serving to with environmental cleanup and the creation of leather-like textiles and strong constructing supplies. We’ve put only some fungal species to work up to now, however the prospects are limitless. Seifert paints an image of what a more healthy, extra sustainable future might appear to be, with fungal foam beds and bioluminescent lamps. Such a future isn’t some far-off fantasy, he writes, no less than from a technological standpoint. However there’s extra than simply technical know-how in making a extra sustainable and symbiotic world.
We additionally should rethink our angle towards fungi, Seifert says. “If we’re going to make peace with fungi, we want to pay attention to their biodiversity and embrace their skills for biodegradation, symbiosis, and biochemistry that make them such important gamers within the setting,” he writes. “Solely then will we be capable of work with them successfully for our personal prosperity and well being, whereas in addition they collaborate with us.”
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