Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms: Forays with Fungi Across Hemispheres

In this captivating study, ecologist Pouliot (Wild Mushrooming) expounds on mushrooms she’s encountered during her fieldwork. She recounts happening upon ghost fungus, which glows in the dark, near Rossiter Bay, Australia; finding lobster mushrooms, the name for host mushrooms engulfed in the tissue of the parasitic fungus Hypomyces lactifluorum, in Oregon; and observing a puffball mushroom that played host to slugs and flies near the Doubs river in Switzerland. Historical background fascinates, as when Pouliot explains that ergot, which can grow on grains and causes spasms and hallucinations if consumed, may have been responsible for the symptoms of alleged witchcraft victims during Europe’s witch-hunting craze between 1580 and 1630. Pouliot calls for conservationists to do more to protect fungi, noting that controlled burns intended to prevent wildfires by destroying “combustible organic matter” prioritize the survival of large trees while eliminating smaller plants that provide “essential food and habitat” to mushrooms. Pouliot’s tales from the field highlight the surprising abilities of fungi (Hypomyces lactifluorum takes over the reproductive anatomy of its hosts “to manufacture its own spores”), and her insights into how aesthetics intersect with conservation efforts stimulate, as when she notes that the fly agaric’s reputation as the “pretty red fairy mushroom” has made it popular in New Zealand, despite it being an invasive pest threatening the survival of indigenous species. The result is an enjoyable tour of the fungal kingdom. (Sept.)