North spore mushrooms6/10/2023 ![]() True to its name, this shiny, black, speckled mushroom looks exactly like the snoot on a dog. We picked out some of the most absolutely bonkers-looking mushrooms - the kind that make you go, "Wait, that's a mushroom?" - that graced the book's pages for your viewing pleasure. Vandegrift was one of many contributors to " National Audubon Society Mushrooms of North America," a new 720-page, full-color guidebook showcasing hundreds of magnificent fungal fruits that make this continent special. "The North American Mycological Association has affiliated clubs all over the country. "You can participate in group activities, have ready access to expert identifiers, learn good spots and techniques and make friends!" Vandegrift said. Vandegrift recommends joining a local mycology club to go on hikes and poke around for, as mycologist David Arora put it, " All That the Rain Promises and More." ![]() One of the best ways to indulge such an attitude is to go mushroom hunting. "The ecology of symbiosis, so inextricable from the study of fungi, gives a view of the world that includes cooperation and collaboration as fundamental aspects of reality, part of the bedrock from which our world is built." "I think there has been a cultural need for symbols of connection, for means of connection, and mycology has become a way to meet that need," Vandegrift said. It's not a bad trip: Mushrooms may be "talking" to each other, new study finds He said the lessons from fungi can challenge the dominant narrative that we must compete to survive, something people desperately need right now as the relentless maw of capitalism squeezes the life from this planet. "I think the central thing driving the burgeoning fascination with fungi is that they really are super cool!" Roo Vandegrift, a mycologist at the University of Oregon's Institute of Ecology and Evolution, told Salon in an email. Even if many folks only know a handful of species at the grocery store or the iconic red and white Amanita muscaria, for good reason, mushrooms are really popular right now, and not just the psychedelic kind that are driving a paradigm shift in how we treat mental health. Sure, that may seem obvious: everyone knows what a mushroom is. When the mycelium wants to reproduce, it sprouts mushrooms, which are typically in the form of stalks with spore-dribbling gills beneath domed caps. The majority of the mushroom fungus is actually underground, forming a dense web of stringy connective tissue called mycelium. ![]() Yet, many people are really only familiar with one type of fungi: the kind that produce mushrooms, which are a type of growth we can think of like a fruit, though fungi are very different from plants. Without these lifeforms, most plants could not absorb nutrients in the soil and the carbon cycle in forests would be all but impossible. Estimated to number upwards of 5 million species, their stunning level of diversity offers a lot of jobs to do, from decomposing dead organic matter to symbiotic or even parasitic relationships with other organisms. It's no exaggeration that fungi are the glue that holds all of life on Earth together. ![]()
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