I really enjoyed this quick read about fungi by Merlin Sheldrake, the most interestingly named author I've read since Zephyr Teachout. This book taught me a lot about fungi, which are apparently more similar to animals than they are to plants.
One of the most interesting things I learned in this book was the mutualism between fungi and plants. The two can trade nutrients, as fungi connect themselves to plants' root systems. In fact, when plants transitioned from life in the sea to life on land, they did so in collaboration with fungi, which served as their root systems for tens of millions of years. At the beginning of the Devonian period, 400 milion years ago, when plants were just moving on land, the largest living organism on land was Prototaxites' fruiting body, which was a two-story tall mushroom. This enormous fungi was the largest living structure on dry land for at least forty million years, much longer than human existence. Plant roots behave like fungi, however, the roots can't compare to what fungi have. Mycorrhizal hyphae (fungus roots) are fifty times thinner than the thinnest roots and can be a hundred times longer than those plant roots.
Humans have cultivated plants for more than twelve thousand years, but the earliest known cultivations of mushrooms are from about two thousand years ago in China. That said, humans have cultivated yeast, a fungi, for probably just as long as plants if not longer in pursuit of beer. There was some scientific debate about which yeast was used for first- bread or beer- but now it seems like the growing consensus is beer and other alcohols.
I also learned that lichens are actually entire communities of organisms, packed with fungi and bacteria and alga. That is just so weird- all these different combinations of fungi, bacteria, and alga types form different types of composite lichens that can take forms that are bush-like, fanning out, or crusting over a rock.
Some other facts:
- LSD was first isolated from ergot fungi and yeast is a type of fungi as well necessary for making bread and alcohol.
- Coal is unrotted plant matter, which is so hard to find because fungi find almost all plant matter and decompose it. What they don't get eventually becomes coal over time.
