The Allure of Fungi

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By: Alison Pouliot

eBook - September 2018 - eRetailers

An interdisciplinary exploration of fungi, showcasing stunning photographs.

Although relatively little known, fungi provide the links between the terrestrial organisms and ecosystems that underpin our functioning planet. + Full description

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.

- Short description

News

Head to our blog to read our Q&A with author Alison Pouliot about her passions for fungi and photography.

Reviews

"Photo essays comprising stunning macrophotography of fungi appear between substantive chapters. Pouliot’s use of a very shallow depth of field in most of the photographs evokes a sense of mystery, appropriate for a kingdom that remains poorly known to science, especially in Australia... The skilful use of stories and images does not merely embellish or enliven the text, but evokes a deeper, emotional understanding, making it a book both engrossing and motivating."
Andrea Gaynor, Australian Book Review, October 2018

"Pouliot’s passion shines like a luminous ghost fungus (Omphalotus nidiformis) as she takes us from the Swiss Alps to the Australian outback... unearthing the bizarre and the beautiful with a writing style that would make this an entertaining read for even the most nervous fungiphobe."
Simon Webster, Organic Gardener, 2018

"When it comes to fungi, natural historian, ecologist and photographer Dr Alison Pouliot’s captivating knowledge and expertise is guaranteed to immediately pique your interest for this most fascinating subject... a worthy addition to a bookshelf."
Gail Thomas, Good Fruit and Vegetables, 27/8/18

"Love them or hate them, fungi are essential organisms for supporting our planet’s ecological functioning... Beautiful photos and interesting stories make this a must-read for those keen to know more about some of the most fascinating organisms on Earth."
Carole Gridley, Gardening Australia, October 2018

"Alison Pouliot uses the interconnectedness of fungi to look at plants, animals, fungi, indeed ecology, in a profoundly different way. This is a quite extraordinary book. It is about fungi but it is also about the living world, the inanimate world, history, literature, culture (both horti and arty), gardens and taxonomy, among other things."
Max Bourke AM, Australian Garden History 30(3), January 2019

"Alison's 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."
Gail Thomas, Geelong and Surf Coast Living Magazine, Autumn 2019

"Pouliot’s work is a timely reminder of the marvels of fungi, and that globally coordinated policies for fungal conservation are essential to ensure they are preserved for future generations."
Eleonora Egidi, Austral Ecology, 15 February 2019

"This fascinating and complex book will make a great addition to any ethnology, mycology, natural history or environmental science library. It conveys a wealth of important biocultural documentation through clearly communicated original writing and is a pleasure to read."
Sue Forster, The Victorian Naturalist 136(1), February 2019

"Aside from enjoying edible mushrooms, we're all pretty unfamiliar with the richly diverse world of fungi. This brilliant, highly illustrated book will change all that."
Grass Roots Magazine #250, December 2018

"Alison is a woman whose enthusiasm for her subject is palpable. With her there is always a sense of engagement and she has a way explaining the mysteries of the world of fungi in a simple way that is never patronising."
Richard Cornish, Lost Magazine, 1 March 2019

"Alison lures us into the often mysterious world of fungi."
Michele Kohout, Australasian Plant Conservation 27(4), March-May 2019

"No dry academic tome, The Allure of Fungi is a thoughtful meditation on nature and on fungal-human relations."
Tanya Loos, Cosmos Magazine, Issue 83

"Pouliot has done a tremendous amount of research in unearthing a trove of mushroom lore and myth."
Britt Bunyard, Fungi Magazine 12(1), Spring 2019

"The author's writing style is rich, evocative and poetic."
Deborah Metters, Land for Wildlife Magazine 13(1), February 2019

"The Allure of Fungi has been...exercising its own significant allure through stunningly beautiful macrophotography of sporebodies in mossy forests (an allure compounded, for me at least, by Pouliot’s bold sticking-up-for-the-parasites, and her weird hybridising of memoir, manifesto, natural history and ethnomycology)."
Alexis Harley, Sydney Review of Books, 25 March 2019

"I found this book fascinating and could not put it down. And now I have finished it I want to read it over again."
Geraldine Harris, Castlemaine Naturalist 44(7), August 2019

"Hopefully, through the efforts of people like Pouliot, the message that mushrooms matter will start gaining wider appreciation. I heartily recommend The Allure of Fungi."
Steve Trudell, The Mycophile, September-October 2019

Details

Features

An interdisciplinary exploration of fungi, their role in nature and relationships with different cultures
Engaging personal anecdotes take readers on a journey of discovery into the world of fungi and fungus enthusiasts
Evocative text and stunning macrophotography are combined in an amalgam of history, science and art

Acknowledgements
Prologue

Chapter 1 – An introduction to entangled worlds
Beyond mushrooms to mycelium
Thinking, un-thinking, re-thinking fungi
Fungal places – from Down Under to the Swiss Alps
Seeking fungi
What’s inside?
Photo essay - The mycelial matrix

Chapter 2 – Meeting mushrooms
First fungal acquaintances
Describing the undefinable
Biological umbrellas
From goblets to lattice balls
Lichenised life on the edge
Extremist specialists
What fungi do – alliance as norm
Rethinking parasites
Fungal rotters
Photo essay - Endless forms most bizarre

Chapter 3 – Life in the subterrain
Different hemispheres, different fungi
Undesirable dwellings – dirt, litter and dung
In not on
Litter and literacy
Disco in a cow pat
A cargo of the uncanny
Displaced fungi
Retreating underground
Photo essay - Fungal grub and fungal havens

Chapter 4 – A stubbly bun skirmish
Mushrooming from shady obscurity
From moushrimpes to mucerons
Of toads and toadstools
Articulating fungi
Idiomatic mushrooms
Ergonomic fungi
A meander of mycelia
Words to conserve
Metaphorical mushrooms
Re-chanting the fungal lexicon
Photo essay - Biological umbrellas

Chapter 5 – Wicked wild mushrooms – a morality tale
Thievish and voracious beggars – origin myths
Rotting and disgusting – unsettling traits
Fairy cakes and trompettes de la mort
The death cap arrives in Australia
Sniffing out safety – toying with toxic mushrooms
Indeterminate and morphologically bizarre
Trouble from elsewhere – conservation and invaders
Photo essay - Recycling worlds

Chapter 6 – Organising fungi
The last of the natural historians
The desire to divide
Bounded and boundless – individuality and plurality
Why names matter
Naming and claiming – scientific and vernacular names
Tallying fungi
What makes a mushroom?
Photo essay - Undersides

Chapter 7 – Knowing fungi otherwise
A farmer’s way of knowing
Aboriginal knowing
Feeling like a mushroom – sensory knowing
Fine-tuning to fungi
Fungal olfaction – reigniting smell
Getting back in touch
Slow motion mushrooms
Photo essay - Collecting

Chapter 8 – Foraging and foraying
Train-stopping mushrooms
Fungologists seeking funguses – foraying for fungi
Strange and new-fangled meates – foraging for fungi
On morel grounds
High altitude hunting
Wild desires and treacherous gratifications
Rethinking fungal expertise
Photo essay - Lichenised lives

Chapter 9 – A call for fungal wisdom
Fungi in a changing world
A fiscal fungal fantasy
Lists and the list-less
Reassessing biodiversity
Looking with the heart – from managing to caring
Re-enchanting the fungal imagination

Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
View the full table of contents (PDF, 501kb).

Authors

Alison Pouliot is a natural historian who is passionate about fungi. 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.