Aside from herbal remedists and picky pizza-eaters, most of us are unlikely to give mushrooms a second thought.
Christopher Bivins is pursuing mushrooms ( “mycology” is the scientific branch) as a field of study. Accompany the UC Merced graduate student for a couple hours while he leads a group of mushroom-gatherers in the Sierra Nevada foothills, and your thinking won’t be the same.
“Fungi are key players in every single ecosystem they inhabit,” Bivins said before listing several examples. Mushrooms break down decomposing organic matter, form mutually beneficial relationships with living trees, control populations of plants and insects, and provide scientists with source materials for antibiotics…