10 Sep New Book: The Allure of Fungi
Although relatively little known, fungi provide the links and flows between the terrestrial organisms and ecosystems that underpin our functioning planet.
The Allure of Fungi presents fungi through multiple perspectives – those of mycologists and ecologists, foragers and forayers, naturalists and farmers, aesthetes and artists, philosophers and Traditional Owners. It explores how a history of entrenched fears and misconceptions about fungi has led to their near absence in Australian ecological consciousness and biodiversity conservation.
Through a combination of text and visual essays, the author reflects on how aesthetic, sensate experience deepened by scientific knowledge offers the best chance for understanding fungi, the forest and human interactions with them.
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Publication Date: September 2018
Further information and orders: http://www.publish.csiro.au/book/7790
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 – An introduction to entangled worlds
Photo essay – The mycelial matrix
Chapter 2 – Meeting mushrooms
Photo essay – Endless forms most bizarre
Chapter 3 – Life in the subterrain
Photo essay – Fungal grub and fungal havens
Chapter 4 – A stubbly bun skirmish
Photo essay – Biological umbrellas
Chapter 5 – Wicked wild mushrooms – a morality tale
Photo essay – Recycling worlds
Chapter 6 – Organising fungi
Photo essay – Undersides
Chapter 7 – Knowing fungi otherwise
Photo essay – Collecting
Chapter 8 – Foraging and foraying
Photo essay – Lichenised lives
Chapter 9 – A call for fungal wisdom
About the Author:
Alison Pouliot is a natural historian and honorary fellow at the ANU. She moves between northern and southern hemispheres to have two autumns each year, guaranteeing a double dose of fungi. Her extraordinary photographs reflect her research on the ecology and conservation of fungi. In this book she documents a forgotten corner of the natural world that is both beguiling and fundamental to life.
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