"Living at the border between life and non-life, fungi use diverse cocktails of potent enzymes and acids to disassemble some of the most stubborn substances on the planet, turning rock into soil and wood into compost, allowing plants to grow. Fungi not only help create soil, they send out networks of tubes that enmesh roots and link plants together in the "Wood Wide Web." Fungi also drive many long-standing human fascinations: from yeasts that cause...

When her first two attempts to help a monster with his embarassing problem go awry, Zoey and Sassafras will have to find a solution quick if Gorp is to make it to the annual monster ball.

Jill Ciment’s books have been hailed as “stunning,” “powerful,” and “provocative.” Alice Sebold has called her works “beautifully written.” Now the author of Heroic Measures (“Smart and funny and completely surprising . . . I loved every page.” —Ann Patchett; “Brave, generous, nearly perfect.” —Los Angeles Times) has given us a contemporary noir...

“A beautifully written portrait of the people who collect and distribute wild mushrooms . . . food and nature writing at its finest.”—Eugenia Bone, author of Mycophilia
 
“A rollicking narrative . . . Cook [delivers] vivid and cinematic scenes on every page.”—The Wall Street Journal
 
In the dark corners of America’s forests grow culinary treasures. Chefs pay...

"Fungi can appear anywhere, from desert dunes to frozen tundra. They can invade our bodies and live between our toes or our floorboards. They are unwelcome intruders or vastly expensive treats, and symbols of both death and eternal life. But despite their familiar presence, there's still much to learn about the eruption, growth, and decay of their secret, interconnected, world."--

Colorful, mysterious, and often fantastically shaped, fungi have been a source of wonder and fascination since the earliest hunter-gatherers first foraged for them. Today there are few, if any, places on Earth where fungi have not found themselves a home. And these highly specialized organisms are an indispensable part of the great chain of life. They not only partner in symbiotic relationships with over ninety percent of the world’s trees and flowering...

Provides an introduction to the many varieties of fungi that exist and describes the good uses for the oganisms as well as the problems that fungi can cause.

Introduces fungi, discussing their varieties, physical structure, reproduction, role in the ecosystem, and uses.

This book introduces you to the fungi kingdom, from familiar mushrooms to unicellular yeasts. It examines the types of fungi, their reproductive methods, and how they feed. It also looks at modern uses of fungi, as well as how fungi recycle dead organic matter into useful nutrients.

There are hundreds of thousands of different known fungi with many still to be discovered and developed. This interesting book features an examination of the four major groups: yeasts, toadstools, chytrids, and bread molds. Key characteristics of fungi are highlighted, such as spore production, fungi's need to feed, and their use of long, branching cells known as hyphae to absorb nutrients from the environment. Special sections explore such varieties...