COMMON BONNET, FLY AGARIC, SCARLETINA BOLETE © JON HAWKINS; DRAB BONNET © ED MARSHALL; SULPHUR TUFT, HORN OF PLENTY. PARASOL MUSHROOM © GUY EDWARDES/2020VISION; JELLY EAR © CHRIS LAWRENCE; MAGPIE INKCAP © MARCUS WEHRLE; OYSTER MUSHROOM © MALCOLM STOREY.


NATURE’S UNSEEN ENGINEERS


If all fungi vanished overnight, first you might notice a shortage of tea, coffee, chocolate, wine or simply mushrooms on toast! Some would be grateful for no athlete’s foot or dry rot, but fungi themselves are largely invisible. Over 15,000 species of fungi have been recorded in the UK. But less than a third are visible to the naked eye. We see products and effects, but we rarely notice the living beast. Te mushrooms and toadstools we


see are fruitbodies, like apples. We rarely see the body of the fungus – the ‘apple’ tree. Years past, my walk to primary school took me along suburban verges lavished with eye-catching mushrooms. I was fascinated by bright white lawyers’ wigs, spongy yellow boletes bruising blue when poked and translucent parasols appearing one day and gone the next, but fungi themselves hide all around – and inside – us!


Closer to humans than plants One reason fungi are largely invisible to us is the way they eat. Fungal structure consists of mycelium, a microscopic tangle of thread-like hyphae, or single celled fungi like yeasts. Both live and feed inside material such as soil, wood, intestinal tract or petrol. Basically, anywhere they can get carbohydrates. Like animals, fungi absorb food from their environment, but animals digest and absorb nutrients internally, while fungi digest and absorb their food externally.


Only in 1969 were Fungi confirmed as


separate from Plants – despite fungi being more closely related to animals. Fungi grow their structure from material more like our fingernails than plant cellulose.


Fungi change the world More recently, we’ve started to unravel the unseen ways that fungi modify the world. Fungi influence ecosystems through decomposition and soil structure. One recently recognised influence is the mutually beneficial relationship between plant roots and soil fungi. Closer than hand in glove, mycorrhizal


partnerships are so globally vital that if all fungi vanished overnight, 80% of plant species would immediately struggle to survive. Tese plants trade sugars from photosynthesis for water and essential minerals provided by soil fungal partners. Te increased harvesting power


provided by mycorrhizal fungi helps crops and wild plants cope with extreme conditions, such as this year’s drought. Ongoing research suggests plants can also biochemically communicate threats such as insect atacks to surrounding plants purely via soil fungal networks – sometimes called the ‘wood wide web’.


Te unseen cost Being invisible comes at a cost. While 95% of approximately 6,640 global mammal species have been documented, only about 6.3% of an estimated 2.5 million fungal species have been named. And people don’t love and protect what they don’t know. Even in the UK, one of the ecologically


best documented countries in the world, fungi are under-recorded, and mushrooms are oſten casually picked or destroyed – something we’ve mostly learnt not to do with wildflowers. Te fungal kingdom is so understudied


that UK firsts still turn up annually and keen novices can record rarities. Beginners are encouraged and there’s always something new, even for experts. Fruitbodies are not just found in autumn and winter, but can be found all year- round. So, if you spot an interesting mushroom or you’d like to learn from others, contact your Wildlife Trust who should be able to point you towards your local fungus group.


Check out our events listing for any upcoming fungi-themed activities coming up near you: wildlifetrusts.org/events


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