Coprinus comatus

The Arboreal-fungaloid affair

The Fungaloids and the Trees are unlikely lovers; as partners in the creation of soil, neither can flourish without the other. Their association is close, symbiotic; the Fungaloids help make the soil from which the trees grow, using dead material supplied in turn by the trees.

This association may be even more intimate; in mycorrhizal root relationships the fungal root systems sheathe the tree rootlets and infuse them with scarce nutritional necessities (nitrogen and phosphorus) in return for moisture, sugar from photosynthesis, and protection.

These unions may be exclusive, the fungus refusing to live with any but its chosen tree, the tree languishing without its fave Fungaloid.

In some instances the relationship may turn sour, be parasitical, the fungus slowly strangling its partner; or seemingly suicidal, the fungus trashing its host wholesale, temporarily losing its own living; on the whole, however, the tree-fungal partnership is not only mutually beneficial but essential to forest survival; moreover, as part of the soil-producing machine of the biosphere (in connection with worms and microorganisms) it is crucial to all earth-life. Unfortunately, these invisible activities are generally poorly understood and unappreciated; no longer an agricultural society, we have forgotten symbiosis, that process of giving equally and simultaneously as one takes; this process, however untrendy at the moment, is nonetheless the means whereby death becomes life again, garbage becomes soil, soil becomes greenery, then food, finally us, all through the activities of Earth's soil-making agents, the worms, microfauna, and fungi.

This book hopes to open up a new view of the Fungaloids, as inspiration for all sorts of things from umbrellas to religions, not to mention, as prime soil-makers, a source of the food we eat; far from being occasional appetizers, fungi are the sine qua non of the very meal itself!"

In publication, Page 4: "Reflections on the Fungaloids" by B.L. Williamson, Ottawa, 1992. ISBN 1-894572-65-3