Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures

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Nearly 2400 species are illustrated in full colour, with detailed notes on how to correctly identify them, including details of similar, confusing species.

The superficial morphologic similarities between actinomycetes (filamentous bacteria) and molds suggest that the two groups have undergone parallel evolution. Despite the production of branching filaments and mold-like spores, the actinomycetes are clearly prokaryotes, whereas fungi are eukaryotes. Moreover, the sexual reproduction of bacteria, which typically occurs by transverse binary fission, should not be confused with asexual processes of budding and fragmentation associated with mitotic nuclear division in fungi. Most of the molds that produce septate vegetative hyphae reproduce exclusively by asexual means, giving rise to airborne propagules called conidia. On the other hand, elaborate mechanisms of sexual reproduction are also demonstrated by members of the Eumycota. Four distinct kinds of meiospores (products of karyogamy-meiosis-cytokinesis) are recognized: oospores (Oomycetes), zygospores (Zygomycetes), ascospores (Ascomycetes), and basidiospores (Basidiomycetes). The fungi realm has been called the “hidden kingdom,” a mysterious world populated by microscopic spores, gigantic mushrooms and toadstools, and a host of other multicellular organisms ranging widely in color, size, and shape. The Kingdom of Fungi provides an intimate look at the world’s astonishing variety of fungi species, from cup fungi and lichens to truffles and tooth fungi, clubs and corals, and jelly fungi and puffballs. This beautifully illustrated book features more than 800 stunning color photographs as well as a concise text that describes the biology and ecology of fungi, fungal morphology, where fungi grow, and human interactions with and uses of fungi. I find this a horror, and want to assert our human need to do so, even if the ant experiences nothing that we should call suffering, and it is only as drama that the spectacle is appalling. The fact that Ophiocordyceps has evolved to do this and has no choice makes little difference. A creature’s perceptions and desires have turned into enemies steering it to its death. There is no symbiosis or negotiation. Even a farm animal, a free-range one anyway, has some agency while it lives, but this ant has none. It becomes purely a means to an end desired by another. Human beings sometimes do this, and other abominable things that they often succeed in regarding as right, or normal, or not worth noticing, yet humans alone, as far as we know, have a highly developed ability to see their own natural behaviour as wrong. Reading about the fate of these ants made me grab at the idea of a conscience, however imperfect, that makes us different from fungi, or from a male tiger killing a female’s cubs to bring her into season.

Mycelium, Sheldrake says, is the tissue that holds together much of the world. The filaments thread through the soil, and through living and decomposing bodies, plant or animal. Each exploring tip is looking for water and nutrients, which it will begin to absorb, sending chemical signals to other parts of the network. In some species, scientists have also detected electrical waves. Other filaments nearby that receive these messages turn towards the nourishment. The network can store information. Scientists have tried removing the food source and severing all the connections. New filaments appear and set out in the right direction. It is hard not to call this “memory”. Fungal plasma membranes are similar to mammalian plasma membranes, differing in having the nonpolar sterol ergosterol, rather than cholesterol, as the principal sterol. The plasma membrane regulates the passage of materials into and out of the cell by being selectively permeable. Membrane sterols provide structure, modulation of membrane fluidity, and possibly control of some physiologic events. A joyful photo-essay on the glorious diversity of fungi. It will not hurt your brain or your wallet. Because of all the beautiful photos, you will hardly even notice you are learning things, that you are developing a structured view of the kingdom of fungi."—Kathie T. Hodge, Cornell Mushroom Blog

An up-to-date, comprehensive and brilliantly illustrated book on fungi foraging in Britain and Europe. It covers every known edible species, and all the poisonous groups, as well as a few other extremely common ones.

Yeasts are fungi that grow as solitary cells that reproduce by budding (see ch. 73 Fig. 4 and 5). Yeast taxa are distinguished on the basis of the presence or absence of capsules, the size and shape of the yeast cells, the mechanism of daughter cell formation (conidiogenesis), the formation of pseudohyphae and true hyphae, and the presence of sexual spores, in conjunction with physiologic data. Morphology is used primarily to distinguish yeasts at the genus level, whereas the ability to assimilate and ferment various carbon sources and to utilize nitrate as a source of nitrogen are used in conjunction with morphology to identify species. The questions grow more complicated. Mycorrhizal fungi are species whose mycelia penetrate and entangle themselves with plant roots. A symbiotic exchange occurs, in which the photosynthesising plant feeds the mycelium with carbon, and receives from it nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients. I nearly wrote “receives in return”. Descriptions of this relationship can barely reject the language of bargains. There is frequent adjustment. Plants funnel chemical information from the air to the fungus, whose mycelia bring similar signals to the plant from underground. In woodland, the network, involving numerous species, can be so extensive and dense that trees detect what happens to each other across long distances. Some people call this the “Wood Wide Web”. This book provides an intimate look at a vast variety of fungal species and fungal life as never done before. . . . The overall appearance of the book is well laid and highly recommended as a coffee table book for students, scholars and fungal lovers."—Melvina D'souza & Kevin D. Hyde, Fungal Diversity Okay, so I couldn’t write this list and not include one on psilocybin mushrooms! The author of Mycelium Running, Paul Stamets provides an authoritative guide to psychoactive fungi, complete with visual and biological information on over 100 species. Throughout the guide, he carefully explains how to forage responsibly for these special mushrooms and poisonous look-a-likes to avoid. Additionally, he discusses how ancient cultures around the world used these mushrooms, as well as modern-day practices. If you’re looking for a great trip, Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World is your book!

Finally, the groundbreaking POC Fungi Community can be found on Facebook. Mixing social justice and political activism with mycology, the POC Fungi Community is an important resource for rethinking what mushrooming can accomplish in the world. A) Life cycle of S cerevisiae. (B) Basidiospore formation by Filobasidiella neoformans, sexual state of Cryptococcus neoformans. (1 and 2) Dikaryon formation. (3) Nuclear fusion (Karyogamy). (4 and 5) Meiosis. (6) Basidiospore formation. (7) Mitosis (more...) Appropriately, Sheldrake is tentative in these descriptions, and offers a range of terms and metaphors, for none seems exactly right. Each articulation seems either too anthropomorphic or too reductive. Some expressions attribute too much intelligence, choice or even feeling to the mycelium; some too little. Sheldrake is feeling his way towards new vocabularies and concepts. A great deal of ecological thought now asks us to take more note of the relationships of interdependency that embed and sustain us, including many too large or small for unaided vision. The interpenetration of these systems raises questions about the boundaries of our selfhood. It is difficult now to think simply in terms of inside and outside, or self and not-self. Sheldrake uses the term “involution”, coined recently to shift emphasis from the evolution of separate life-forms to the emergence of these systems.A lavish work. . . . [A] book with a message about both the beauty and importance of fungi that should be widely available in bookshops worldwide and so help raise the global awareness of kingdom Fungi. I cannot commend it too strongly, and if you have not yet seen it you are in for a real treat—perhaps a mycologist's equivalent of being a kid in a candy store."— IMA Fungus The Kingdom of Fungi is a feast for the senses, and the ideal reference for naturalists, researchers, and anyone interested in fungi.

How dazzling is the world of mushrooms? The fan-shaped cinnabar oysterling looks like something you would find undersea. The violet webcap is vibrant. These are among the more than 600 fungi described and illustrated in this scholarly and beautiful book.”— The New York Times The tips circulate “information”, and, in response, the mycelium makes advantageous changes to its behaviour. This is more than mere chemical reaction. Here is a responsive entity with interests that its actions can serve or harm. Sheldrake tries out the idea of swarm-intelligence, but a swarm consists of separate individuals, whereas the network of fused or entangled hyphae functions as a physical whole – or much more like a physical whole. Studying fungi makes these lines harder to draw. Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Shape Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, by Merlin Sheldrake

Reference

Merlin Sheldrake, a mycologist who studies underground fungal networks, carries us easily into these questions with ebullience and precision. His fascination with fungi began in childhood. He loves their colours, strange shapes, intense odours and astonishing abilities, and is proud of the way this once unfashionable academic field is challenging some of our deepest assumptions. Entangled Life is a book about how life-forms interpenetrate and change each other continuously. He moves smoothly between stories, scientific descriptions and philosophical issues. He quotes Prince and Tom Waits. The second edition draws on an additional three years of surveying done over a wider area, adding 23 new species to the 177 already described in the first edition Identification: A grey to fawn cap that is at first egg-shaped and then later bell shaped. The surface is smooth and splits into a few tiny scales from the apex, the edges are often wavy and split. Stem is white and hollow. Cap is around 4-8 cm across and stem is 5-15 cm tall.