Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms: Forays with Fungi across Hemispheres

by Alison Pouliot

A whirlwind journey through fungus frontiers that underscores how appreciating fungi is key to understanding our planet’s power and fragility. What can we learn from the lives of fungi? Splitting time between the northern and southern hemispheres, ecologist Alison Pouliot ensures that she experiences two autumns per year in the pursuit of fungi—from Australia’s deserts to Iceland’s glaciers to America’s Cascade Mountains. In Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms, we journey alongside Pouliot, magnifiers in hand, as she travels the world. With Pouliot as our guide, we smell fire-loving truffles that transform their scent after burning to lure mammals who eat them and, ultimately, spread their spores. We spot the eerie glow of the ghost fungus, a deceptive entity that looks like an edible oyster mushroom but will soon heave back out—along with everything else in your stomach—if you take a bite. And we crawl alongside vegetable caterpillars, which are neither vegetable nor caterpillar but a fungus that devours insects from the inside out. Featuring stunning color photographs of these mycological miracles, Meetings with Remarkable Mushrooms shows that understanding fungi is fundamental for harmonizing with the natural world.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Nature

320 pages, Hardcover

Published September 5, 2023

Reviews

[Katina Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous photos, great foundational science. I absolutely love the firsthand sensory descriptions—all the crouching, pausing, lying on the ground, getting wet, touching moss, smelling earth.

[gnat]

narrative and introductory - this is a good read for someone looking to sink into the world of fungi with descriptive paragraphs and the use of common names. i appreciated the bits on fungi in Australia and New Zealand (particularly the Aboriginal perspectives)! skimmed after i was about halfway through the book - the interesting bits were too brief for me, and i'm looking for something more in depth.

[Bill Leach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pouliot tours around the world seeing different mushrooms and writing about various aspects of fungi. Much as the text centers her travels, various people she communicates with, and what she learns about fungi.

While she touches on many subjects, none get more than half a dozen paragraphs, making the book mildly informative. It would be good for a reader with little knowledge of fungi.

The author has a strange reticence to use binomial names (although they always appear in photo captions), preferring common names local to the area she is visiting.

She pursues indigenous knowledge in New Zealand, which appears to be mostly the native names for fungi. Of course the native names have the same issues as common names in English - names differ geographically and only better known species have names.

[Rosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun dip into the world of fungi. It was really interesting to see the recognition of traditional knowledge in the book, and to read a book with examples of Australian and New Zealand flora as well as the more commonly covered northern hemisphere species. The book was more technical than I was expecting, and I think a lot of the names and terms have already left my head, but I'm glad to have read it and would recommend it to anyone looking to learn more about fungi. I'm glad there were some pictures!

[Plexiform Identity · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books on Mycology

Have read Stamets, Sheldrake and others but this book certainly adds valuable points to the conversation. Being an ecologist maybe helps in giving her a global outlook as she explores evolutionary biology, anthropology, art/aesthetics, taxonomy, mushroom foraging experiences and politics. Had to highlight many passages.

[Kerry Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the bits about Robin Wall Kimmerer and Beatrix Potter. I just wish the author didn’t refer to, at times, colonizers as explorers or settlers. It’s a slight change in language but I think it matters. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention? I don’t know. Over all, I’d recommend you read this if you love ecology, molecular science, and 🍄🍄‍🟫

[Gail]

Can’t do it. I made it 22 pages but can’t stop thinking of what kind of privilege this author has. This person travels between hemispheres 2x a year to live in a perpetual autumn and examine mushrooms. Who pays for that?! Color me jealous, I guess, but it colored the book for me.

[Reggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wide-reaching series of encounters with fungi and the people who study them. Similar to Entangled Life but larger in scope and I loved the pictures included!