Colorful,
mysterious, and often fantastically shaped, fungi have been a source of
wonder and fascination since the earliest hunter-gatherers first
foraged for them. Today there are few, if any, places on Earth where
fungi have not found themselves a home. And these highly specialized
organisms are an indispensable part of the great chain of life. They
not only partner in symbiotic relationships with over ninety percent of
the world’s trees and flowering plant species, they also recycle
and create humus, the fertile soil from which such flora receive their
nutrition. Some fungi are parasites or saprotrophs; many are poisonous
and, yes, hallucinogenic; others possess life-enhancing properties that
can be tapped for pharmaceutical products; while a delicious few are
prized by epicureans and gourmands worldwide.
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In this lavishly illustrated
volume, six hundred fungi from around the globe get their full due.
Each species here is reproduced at its actual size, in full color, and
is accompanied by a scientific explanation of its distribution,
habitat, association, abundance, growth form, spore color, and
edibility.
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Location
maps give at-a-glance indications of each species’ known global
distribution, and specially commissioned engravings show different
fruitbody forms and provide the vital statistics of height and
diameter. With information on the characteristics, distinguishing
features, and occasionally bizarre habits of these fungi, readers will
find in this book the common and the conspicuous, the unfamiliar and
the odd. There is a fungal predator, for instance, that hunts its prey
with lassos, and several that set traps, including one that entices
sows by releasing the pheromones of a wild boar.
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The Book of Fungi
A
Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species from around the World
by Peter Roberts and Shelley Evans
University Of Chicago Press, 2011
Order
a copy
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