Beautiful, mysterious and misunderstood, mushrooms are finally having a moment | Lucy Jones

Fungi provide awe in abundance so get out there and forage in the mulch, while there ’s still timeMushrooms are having a moment. Cultural depictions of fungi are proliferating: from Seana Gavin ’s psychedelic mushroom collages shown at Somerset House last year; to the bestselling book Entangled Life, by the mycologist Merlin Sheldrake;we ’re seeing there is more to the fungus than meets the eye. Trials into thetherapeutic potential of psilocybin– derived from “magic” mushrooms – are even returning to modern medicine.And after one of the wettest summers in memory,local mushrooms are flourishing as well. Fungi-spotting reports from the public to the Royal Horticultural Society are up 76% compared with 2020, because of a bumper year.Lucy Jones is a journalist and the author of Losing Eden and The Nature Seed.Continue reading...

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - December 1, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Lucy Jones Tags: Fungi UK news Biology Science Source Type: news