What do you think?
Rate this book
Fungi: Discover the Science and Secrets Behind the World of Mushrooms
Discover the fascinating stories behind 300 species of fungi and understand the world of mushrooms like never before!
Did you know that fungi put the fizz in champagne and the flavor in chocolate? Fungi is everywhere we in a forest, under the sea, and in the kitchen.
In this beautiful book, leading fungal biologists Lynne Boddy and Ali Ashby bring you closer to 300 species of mushrooms and lichens through fascinating facts, mushroom datasets, and detailed illustrations. Discover some of the fastest speeds in nature, specimens that glow in the dark, and fungi that clean up oil spills.
Dive deep into this fun funghi book to further
- The latest scientific research on this cutting-edge topic.
- A global spotters guide compiled by experts.
- Detailed illustrations that bring mushrooms, their habitats, and their habits to life.
- A beautiful, high-specification, lifestyle design package to a core reference topic that is currently trending.
Humans have had a close relationship with mushrooms for thousands of years – from using the shiitake for healing, to telling stories of enchanted fairy rings, and cooking gourmet dishes with rare specimens. Bringing together technology, medicine, food, culture, and nature, this fascinating book will open your eyes to the wonders of the hidden kingdom all around us.
With tips for mushroom spotting in any habitat, species identification notes, a grow-your-own guide and more, this book is the ultimate fungi-lover's companion.
Did you know that fungi put the fizz in champagne and the flavor in chocolate? Fungi is everywhere we in a forest, under the sea, and in the kitchen.
In this beautiful book, leading fungal biologists Lynne Boddy and Ali Ashby bring you closer to 300 species of mushrooms and lichens through fascinating facts, mushroom datasets, and detailed illustrations. Discover some of the fastest speeds in nature, specimens that glow in the dark, and fungi that clean up oil spills.
Dive deep into this fun funghi book to further
- The latest scientific research on this cutting-edge topic.
- A global spotters guide compiled by experts.
- Detailed illustrations that bring mushrooms, their habitats, and their habits to life.
- A beautiful, high-specification, lifestyle design package to a core reference topic that is currently trending.
Humans have had a close relationship with mushrooms for thousands of years – from using the shiitake for healing, to telling stories of enchanted fairy rings, and cooking gourmet dishes with rare specimens. Bringing together technology, medicine, food, culture, and nature, this fascinating book will open your eyes to the wonders of the hidden kingdom all around us.
With tips for mushroom spotting in any habitat, species identification notes, a grow-your-own guide and more, this book is the ultimate fungi-lover's companion.
557 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 2, 2024
71 people are currently reading
237 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 29, 2025
FASCINATING
June 14, 2024
Je suis tombée sur ce livre complètement par hasard en allant faire un tour à la librairie et je savais que j'allais l'acheter et l'ajouter dans ma collection avant même de l'avoir emprunté et lu en bibliothèque.
La plupart des livres sur les champignons sont des guides d'identification d'espèces et des guides sur les champignons comestibles, ce qui est correct car la plupart des gens veulent apprendre à les différencier lorsqu'ils prennent des marches en forêt. Par contre, j'ai rarement vu un documentaire complet qui place le champignon en vedette sous toutes ses formes (et pas juste pour l'identification). C'est le cas pour ce livre-ci. Les images sont absolument stupéfiantes. La peinture de type à l'eau / aquarelle rend très bien justice aux magnifiques champignons, lichens et autres qui peuplent ces pages. Le début du documentaire est un peu plus scientifique, mais la vulgarisation est suffisament bien fait pour permettre à une personne qui n'y connaît rien d'en apprendre plus. Les chapitres sont bien divisées, les sujets abordés se suivent et sont fluides. J'ai vraiment l'impression d'en avoir appris plus sur l'univers des champignons. Bien sûr, ils parlent un peu d'identification et de comestibilité, mais ce n'est pas le sujet du livre. On célèbre ici vraiment toutes les branches de la mycologie en passant de la science, à la biologie, à la nourriture, aux mythes... Pleins de sujets sont touchés par le mycélium de ce merveilleux royaume! Je vous invite fortement à le lire si le monde de la mycologie vous intéresse.
La plupart des livres sur les champignons sont des guides d'identification d'espèces et des guides sur les champignons comestibles, ce qui est correct car la plupart des gens veulent apprendre à les différencier lorsqu'ils prennent des marches en forêt. Par contre, j'ai rarement vu un documentaire complet qui place le champignon en vedette sous toutes ses formes (et pas juste pour l'identification). C'est le cas pour ce livre-ci. Les images sont absolument stupéfiantes. La peinture de type à l'eau / aquarelle rend très bien justice aux magnifiques champignons, lichens et autres qui peuplent ces pages. Le début du documentaire est un peu plus scientifique, mais la vulgarisation est suffisament bien fait pour permettre à une personne qui n'y connaît rien d'en apprendre plus. Les chapitres sont bien divisées, les sujets abordés se suivent et sont fluides. J'ai vraiment l'impression d'en avoir appris plus sur l'univers des champignons. Bien sûr, ils parlent un peu d'identification et de comestibilité, mais ce n'est pas le sujet du livre. On célèbre ici vraiment toutes les branches de la mycologie en passant de la science, à la biologie, à la nourriture, aux mythes... Pleins de sujets sont touchés par le mycélium de ce merveilleux royaume! Je vous invite fortement à le lire si le monde de la mycologie vous intéresse.
August 16, 2024
Fantastic and easily digestible information and beautiful illustrations.
January 6, 2025
Absolutely Beautiful illustrations. I loved this book
January 7, 2025
It's a very beautiful, informative and concise book.
However, the wide range in font sizes and page layouts make it quite difficult to read mechanically.
However, the wide range in font sizes and page layouts make it quite difficult to read mechanically.
August 7, 2024
I really really struggled with this book from the beginning to the middle. To be clear, this reads much more like a textbook and reference material to fungi than anything else. It is written by scientists and that is clearly apparent in the language, style, and set-up of this book.
I wish this book took much more risks, was much less structured than it was, and was generally just more exciting. I felt like I was in class reading non-important facts rather than an intriguing book about fungi to spike my curiosity. Unless you’re inherently into fungi (which I thought I was), this book will be a struggle to read cover to cover like I did and is better off as reference material or a coffee table book.
Once I did accept this book for what it was (either that or the later chapters are just much more interesting which I think is true too), I started to enjoy it more - I certainly learned some things. The Illustrations are great but again, I wish the authors took more risk throughout - this textbook is very much just a cumulative body of information about what we know about fungi to date and little else. For such an emerging and exciting field, I found this wildly disappointing and expected more forward thinking like what’s there in the later chapters.
Just a side note, if you’re expecting much on psilocybin research, there’s probably about 2 total pages, themed to what’s mentioned above - the research is probably too premature to be stamped with scientific approval in a book such as this. Perhaps I’m being too cynical but I expected more from the scientists and think it’s their responsibility to do better - public interest in science is dependent on it.
Buttt again, as a textbook, introductory reference, this books pretty good. I could see it pairing well in an introductory college/high school section about fungi. Ironically though, there were hardly any specific deep dives longer than 2-3 paragraphs, a piece I mention as frustrating to the “set-up” of this book. Inch deep and a mile wide has its pros and cons, I think it missed the mark here.
I wish this book took much more risks, was much less structured than it was, and was generally just more exciting. I felt like I was in class reading non-important facts rather than an intriguing book about fungi to spike my curiosity. Unless you’re inherently into fungi (which I thought I was), this book will be a struggle to read cover to cover like I did and is better off as reference material or a coffee table book.
Once I did accept this book for what it was (either that or the later chapters are just much more interesting which I think is true too), I started to enjoy it more - I certainly learned some things. The Illustrations are great but again, I wish the authors took more risk throughout - this textbook is very much just a cumulative body of information about what we know about fungi to date and little else. For such an emerging and exciting field, I found this wildly disappointing and expected more forward thinking like what’s there in the later chapters.
Just a side note, if you’re expecting much on psilocybin research, there’s probably about 2 total pages, themed to what’s mentioned above - the research is probably too premature to be stamped with scientific approval in a book such as this. Perhaps I’m being too cynical but I expected more from the scientists and think it’s their responsibility to do better - public interest in science is dependent on it.
Buttt again, as a textbook, introductory reference, this books pretty good. I could see it pairing well in an introductory college/high school section about fungi. Ironically though, there were hardly any specific deep dives longer than 2-3 paragraphs, a piece I mention as frustrating to the “set-up” of this book. Inch deep and a mile wide has its pros and cons, I think it missed the mark here.
August 15, 2024
Not only beautifully illustrated and made but also very informative. We all know about the penicillin, however I did not know the details of how serendipitously it came to be discovered as a bacteria killing drug as the result of the two scientists, a bacteriologist Fleming and a mycologist La Touche having their labs close to each other that allowed for fungal contamination of Fleming's bacterial sample and the rest is history. Neither did I know that statins, cholesterol lowering drugs are derived from fungi. It's a quick and attractively produce read. Recommended.
February 12, 2025
covered a very wide range of fungi - some pages were brief but resources were included for further reading. the authors mentioned details in a simplified manner (etc. the occurrence of luciferin in bioluminescent fungi), which made this a good casual read and allowed me to note down topics i have yet to study in depth. i also appreciated how the book touched on some history, fungi in art and music etc
January 19, 2024
A great quick and simple overview of all things fungus which, contrary to what I previously thought, is not just the standard mushroom that looks like a… well you know. There is a whole world to know about fungus and how it's intertwined with every aspect of our lives whether we realize it or not. It has uses that overlap into every other area of scientific study and can bring health and enlightenment as well as sustainable energy and environment repair. There is a mystical nature about fungi and mushrooms and despite this being somewhat of a textbook, it still manages to maintain that mystical essence while including tons of useful illustrations and providing information not just on how the stuff grows, but also how it has been viewed and approached by various cultures throughout history. A great overview, recommend to the casual reader with an interest in shrooms.
May 8, 2024
Excellent reference.
June 19, 2024
Mushroom rings it's like having a candlelight party in the forest
June 19, 2024
Mushroom rings it's like having a candlelight party in the forest
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 14, 2025
Gorgeous pictures and lots of information presented in a very clear form.
dnf
February 2, 2026temporary dnf, I'm just tired of goodreads trying to recommend me stuff based on what I'm currently reading, and then this is what it bases that off
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews