11 Things You Need to Know About Fungi

Jaceybonavia/ Fungi, Plants, Pollution

When considering the eukaryote domain of life, most of us think of plants and animals. Another major kingdom is fungi. We severely underrate fungi. We would not exist without fungi, and fungi can be utilized to help save the world.

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Merlin Sheldrake’s 2020 book, Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures, completely shook my understanding of fungi, myself, and the entire world.

1. Fungi as Food

The one time many of us do think of fungi, is when we are thinking about edible mushrooms. Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungi.

Truffles are particularly valuable mushrooms. When alive, they emit chemicals with strong smells to attract animals to eat them, spreading their spores.

Many fungi, including black truffles like these, are edible. — Black Truffle Mushrooms

2. Mind & Behavior Altering Effects of Fungi

Some types of fungi also have an unbelievable ability to alter some animal species’ minds or behaviors, including humans.

Humans

Some people ingest psilocybin mushrooms, also known as magic mushrooms. These are both psychedelic and entheogenic. People use entheogens for spiritual purposes.

Psilocybin can reliably induce experiences classified as “mystical.” Mystical experiences include feelings of awe; of everything being interconnected; of transcending time and space; of profound intuitive understanding about the nature of reality; and of deeply felt love, peace, or joy. They often include the loss of a clearly defined sense of self.
Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life (2020):108

That sounds pretty amazing to me, and people have used psilocybin mushrooms throughout history to have these experiences. I will not try them nor recommend them, though. It is illegal in the United States.

Some fungi--psilocybin mushrooms--are psychedelic. — Psilocybin mushrooms

Insects

Fungi can also alter insect behavior. One type of insect-manipulating “zombie fungi,” Ophiocordyceps, infects carpenter ants. It causes them to climb plants and bite major veins of the plants at a specific height and time.

3. Fungi as Pesticides

The same fungi that direct ant movement ultimately kill the ants. Fungi grow from the ants’ feet, connecting them to the plants. The fungi then consume the ants from the inside and sprout mushrooms from their heads.

Seriously, I’m not making this up. You can check out Merlin Sheldrake’s book for photographs.

Entomopathogenic fungi can also kill termites. This means that some types of fungi are effective, non-toxic pesticides. (I personally think that it is usually, if not always, inappropriate for us to kill insects, though. Insects are important ecosystem members.)

Some fungi act as pesticides, killing termites and carpenter ants, like the one pictured. — Carpenter Ant

4. Fungi as Medicine

Earlier, I mentioned that some types of fungi can be used as mind-altering psychedelic drugs. Fungi have also made huge contributions to the field of medicine as ingredients in anti-bacterial and anti-viral drugs.

Humans have always used fungi, including molds, for their healing properties. However, in 1928, Alexander Fleming made a discovery that would change medicine forever.

Fleming discovered that a mold produced a bacteria-killing chemical called penicillin. Penicillin became the first modern antibiotic and has since saved countless lives.
Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life (2020): 9

We also use fungi medicinally to suppress immune systems for transplants, lower cholesterol, fight viruses (including pox and flu viruses), and fight cancer.

This image shows a bottle of pills because fungi are included in many pharmaceuticals. — Fungi are included in many pharmaceuticals.

5. Fungi as Erosion Control and Soil Builders

Most fungi create networks of fine tubular white filaments (called hyphae). This tangled network of hyphae is mycelium. When mycelia grows in relationship with plant roots, we call them mycorrhizal fungi. According to Sheldrake (2020), these mycorrhizal fungi compose between 1/3 and 1/2 of all of the living mass in soil, creating a net that holds soil in place, preventing erosion.

Mycelia are also master decomposers. As they decompose organic materials, they create nutrient-rich humus, an essential component of healthy soil. Fungi are particularly impressive in their ability to decompose the lignin of wood.

Mycelium. Fungi grow into mycelial networks that help prevent soil erosion. They also break down wood and other materials to create humus.

6. Fungal Remediation

Beyond creating healthy soil, fungi contribute to regenerating the environment by decomposing contaminants and pollutants. This process is called mycoremediation.

They are able to degrade pesticides (such as chlorophenols), synthetic dyes, the explosives in TNT and RDX, crude oil, some plastics, and a range of human and veterinary drugs.
Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life (2020): 185

Radiotrophic fungi, which harvest energy from radioactive particles, are able to grow in places like Chernobyl (above) and Hiroshima. — **Radiotrophic** fungi, which harvest energy from radioactive particles, are able to grow in places like Chernobyl (above) and Hiroshima.

7. Fungi as Alga and Plant Partner

Fungi form powerful relationships with algae and plants.

Together in symbiosis, fungi and algae become lichen. The alga collects light and carbon dioxide to create sugars to share with the fungus. The fungus, in turn, shares minerals and other nutrients with the alga.

Likewise, although they remain distinct entities, mycorrhizal fungi and plants have a similar symbiotic relationship. In fact, the first plants did not have roots; fungi acted as their roots when they first began to grow on land.

Lichens, like the one in the image, are formed by the symbiosis of fungi and algae. — Lichens are formed by the symbiotic relationship of fungi and algae.

8. The Wood Wide Web

Mycorrhizal fungi take from, and give to, plants. They also, however, connect plants with one other, transferring resources from some plants to others. For example, fungi may move energy from a large, tall plant to a small, shaded plant.

Mycorrhizal fungi also likely deliver information between plants in an ecosystem. For example, if one plant is being attacked by a pest, the mycorrhizal fungi will bring that information to surrounding plants. In turn, the plants can prepare and defend themselves.

Abstract image of a network. Mycelial networks connect plants throughout an ecosystem. These networks have been compared with the World Wide Web of the internet and the neural networks of our brains.

9. Fungal Fabrication

In point five, we learned about fungi’s role as decomposers. In contrast, in a process called “mycofabrication,” we can also build or compose things with fungi.

We are now using fungi to make boards, particle boards, bricks, tiles, concrete replacements, plastic packaging replacements, foams, animal leather substitutes, furniture, and so much more. People are even considering “mycotecture” (i.e., growing fungi into fungal buildings).

Fungal materials can be grown quickly and composted when no longer needed. Companies like Ecovative Design have designed fungal products to be very strong and useful. They create products that are lightweight, water-resistant, fire-retarding, insulating, and compression-resistant. The possibilities seem endless.

Check out Ecovative Design’s YouTube channel for more videos like this one.

10. Fungi as the Savior of Bees

Most of us know that bees are suffering colony collapse disorder and that the decline in bee populations threatens human agricultural output. Viruses spread to bees from varroa mites contribute to colony collapse disorder.

Wood-rotting fungi are filled with antiviral compounds. Recent studies show that introducing bees to wood-rotting fungi dramatically reduces viruses in bees, extending their lives.

The antiviral properties of fungi are saving the lives of bees like the honeybee pictured. — The antiviral properties of fungi are saving the lives of bees like this honeybee.

11. Alcohol and Bread

Finally, yeast is a profound fungus, which humans have been in a relationship with throughout history. We rely on yeast for fermentation, including the production of alcoholic beverages, such as beer.

We also rely on yeast for the production of leavened bread. As an Italian American, I may be most grateful to fungi for giving us bread.

Yeast, which causes bread to rise, is a type of fungi. This is homemade bread that yeast helped me make.

These eleven points show that the fungal kingdom is powerful. Fungi have an immense potential to save the world. It is also important to note that fungi are not always beneficial to the plants and animals with whom they interact; they can also kill plants and animals.

I encourage you to continue to expand your knowledge of this poorly understood and severely under-appreciated kingdom.