Fungi worldwide
Culture
Fungi in art, literature, food and tradition — from folklore and painting to fermentation and the materials now being grown from mycelium.
- entries
- 19
- illustrated
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- with sources
- 19
- entries
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- sources
- 64
- images
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Opening essaysztukaJohn Cage: fungi between field walks, collections and artCage’s interest in fungi leads to collective learning, an archival letter and an artist’s book. We connect these traces while distinguishing observation, documentation and interpretation. 6 minUnited StatesMuseum of Modern ArtRead Culture
Culture and meaning
Mycoprotein: when the mycelium is the productIn cheese and in beer a fungus transforms someone else's raw material. In mycoprotein the raw material is the fungus — and that changes the questions to ask of it. 6 minFrontiers in MicrobiologyRead 
ChinaShiitake: from the log to the bag of sawdustThe world's most widely eaten mushroom now grows on pressed sawdust rather than on a tree. Changing the substrate reorganised the whole culture of the species. 5 minChinaApplied Microbiology and BiotechnologyRead 
Fairy rings: a shape drawn by hungerA ring records an advancing mycelial front. Accumulation of self-DNA and autotoxicity is one proposed model, not a universal mechanism established for every species. 5 minIMA FungusRead 
FranceRoquefort: a mould with an address written into lawThe appellation specification does not simply say "Penicillium roqueforti". It says the strains must come from the microclimate of the caves beneath one French village. 5 minFranceInstitut national de l origine et de la qualitéRead 
DKUnterhefe No. 1: the yeast that began the pure-culture standardCarlsberg first used a pure culture in production in 1883. The breakthrough was a system for propagation, contamination control and sharing cultures between breweries. 5 minDKG3 Genes Genomes GeneticsRead 
PolandMushroom picking in Pan TadeuszIn Book Three of the Polish national epic the big collective scene is not a battle or a feast but a mushroom hunt — with its own heading and its own ranking of species. 5 minPolandWikiźródłaRead 
literatura-i-ilustracjaUnited KingdomAlice's mushroom: a scene that rescales the worldThe caterpillar's mushroom is no atlas species; it is a narrative device by which Alice's body and Wonderland's rules lose any fixed measure. 6 minUnited KingdomBritish LibraryRead 
historia-ideiUnited StatesErgot and Salem: a tempting but weak keyPoisoning by ergot alkaloids can cause severe symptoms, but a resemblance between a few of them does not explain the 1692 witch trials. 6 minUnited StatesJournal of the History of the Behavioral SciencesRead 
fermentacjaJapanKōji: the fungus that breaks rice into flavourAspergillus oryzae is no decorative addition: its enzymes open up starch and protein, preparing miso, shōyu, sake and mirin for other microbes. 6 minJapanMinistry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of JapanRead 
fermentacjaIDTempeh: how Rhizopus hyphae build a foodWhite mycelium binds cooked soybeans into a block, but tempeh's flavour, safety and identity come from the whole process and its Indonesian context. 6 minIDComprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food SafetyRead 
archeologiaItalyÖtzi's fungi: medicine kit, tinder or toolkit?The Iceman carried at least two kinds of bracket fungi, but archaeology separates well-documented use of fire from the hypothesis of medicine. 6 minItalyMycological ResearchRead 
design-i-technologiaMycelium materials: between culture and productHyphae can bind plant waste into light composites, but the result depends on the recipe, drying energy, moisture and product standards. 6 minScientific ReportsRead 
kuchnia-i-sezonJapanMatsutake: the scent of Japanese autumnThe value of matsutake comes from aroma, a short season, its relationship with pine and a cultural economy of gifts — not from rarity alone. 6 minJapanMinistry of Foreign Affairs of JapanRead 
rzemiosloDyeing with fungi: colour begins before the potColour from a fruiting body depends on species, age, fibre, pH and mordant; the craft is an experiment, not a simple list of recipes. 6 minMDPI CoatingsRead 
sztuka-i-naukaUnited KingdomBeatrix Potter: when a watercolour becomes dataMore than 350 fungal illustrations show Potter as an observer whose art, experiment and institutional barriers form a single story. 6 minUnited KingdomThe Linnean Society of LondonRead 
The fly agaric and Santa — a myth that sticksA popular story traces Santa's red-and-white outfit to the fly agaric and Siberian shamans. It sounds wonderful and has no support in the sources. 6 minNational GeographicRead 
Mycophilia and mycophobia: what mushroom cultures really differ onMycophilia and mycophobia describe practices, but a national split between “foragers” and “non-foragers” hides regional, generational and institutional variation. 6 minJournal of Ethnobiology and EthnomedicineRead 
ItalyThe auction where a truffle costs as much as a carAt the annual white truffle auction in Alba, a single 700-gram specimen reached 184,000 euros. The proceeds go to charity. 6 minItalyFalstaffRead