I enjoy reading about the passions of those out of the mainstream. Perhaps it’s jealousy. An answer to what I am passionate about has eluded me for decades. Sheldrake has spent his decades literally deep in muck and dirt learning about fungus and how complex it can be.
The mushrooms that we see are the fruiting bodies of fungus deep underground. The fungus itself, the mycelium network, can extend over thousands of yards and connect to hundreds of plants by mingling with the roots.
There is a fungus in Oregon that spans more than 3.5 square miles and is thousands of years old.
Fungi are a diverse kingdom. They can farm algae and bacteria. They can be parasites or mutualists to the plants around them. This relationship (parasite or mutualist) can change week by week. We don’t yet know how or why these shifts happen, only that they do.
The book touches on magic mushrooms. Why do some fungi produce hallucinogens? Is there a benefit to the fungus? Is this an unintended side effect? These questions are still open. The book covers some of the research into magic mushrooms that tries to answer these questions.
For whatever reason, this was a book that I found easier to read back to front, chapter by chapter, rather than front to back. I became bogged down when I started reading the book from front to back, so I flipped over to the last chapter, then the prior. Some books flow more quickly when I do this. I would never do this for fiction. But why not for non-fiction?
This book was a good tour through fungus. I haven’t caught the passion for fungus, but I appreciate Sheldrake’s breadth of experience.
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