The Hidden Kingdom of Fungi
Keith Seifert
Greystone Books, $27.95
Take a stroll by means of the woods after it rains, and you’ll catch a glimpse of the unbelievable range of fungi. You may spot the real-life model of the red-and-white “power-up” mushroom from the online game Super Mario Bros. or the aptly named lifeless man’s fingers, a blackened fungal progress that resembles a hand rising from the grave. Perhaps you’ll discover a cluster of frilly pink cabinets on a log or a placing purple mushroom that’s a doppelgänger for underwater coral.
But for all that you would be able to 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 to date have found and named solely 140,000 or so. Most of that identification was carried out with microscopes, however during the last twenty 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 e-book 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 “necessary evil” and offering a primer on the fashionable classification system, likening it to “a phone book for looking up the evolutionary address of a fungus.”
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From there, the e-book explores fungi’s evolutionary journey and the varied symbiotic relationships they’ve with different organisms (SN: 2/23/15). These relationships have muddied scientists’ image of ecology and evolution. In the normal view of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin, competitors is seen because the driving drive of pure choice. But Darwin “underplayed the significance of cooperation in nature,” Seifert writes. Take the evolutionary success of lichens, a extremely various group that has unfold all over the world. These complicated organisms include an alga and fungus residing collectively in a mutually helpful relationship.
Throughout the e-book, Seifert delves deeper into fungi’s sophisticated relationships with different organisms, masking the function fungi play in forest ecology, agriculture, fermentation, the constructed surroundings and even the human physique. Here, there’s one thing for everybody. Nature lovers will get pleasure from studying concerning the “Wood Wide Web” (SN: 8/9/97), an underground community of mycorrhizal fungi that connect with tree roots, enabling bushes to alternate water, vitamins and minerals. Gardeners and farmers can acquire 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. But 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 may cause sickness (SN: 11/29/21).
As the e-book ends, Seifert focuses on how people and fungi can construct a greater world collectively. Humans have already used fungi to create a variety 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 stable constructing supplies. We’ve put only some fungal species to work to date, however the potentialities are limitless. Seifert paints an image of what a more healthy, extra sustainable future may appear to be, with fungal foam beds and bioluminescent lamps. Such a future isn’t some far-off fantasy, he writes, not less than from a technological standpoint. But 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 are going to make peace with fungi, we need to be aware of their biodiversity and embrace their talents for biodegradation, symbiosis, and biochemistry that make them such significant players in the environment,” he writes. “Only then will we be able to work with them effectively for our own prosperity and health, while they also collaborate with us.”
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