Fungi: Delight of Curiosity

by Harold Johnston Brodie

Brodie, Harold Johnston

Genres: Nature, Nonfiction

131 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

Reviews

[Katrina McCollough · Rating 4 out of 5]

For being so out of date (fungi are still considered plants in this book) I think it does well introducing people to mycology and goes in depth on a lot of the micro features.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harold Brodie is a very charmingly old-timey mycologist (the book has a preamble) who does his best to poetically explore the beauties of the fungal world. The book is comprised of short vignettes about particularly interesting fungi, some of which were familiar to me and some relatively new. Brodie makes some very good points, but he unfortunately has some bad, antiquated attitudes. He constantly emphasizes that the story and function of an individual fungus or a species deserves attention, and that naturalists who merely note the Latin name of everything they find and move on are quite missing the point. However, he's extremely deprecating about the worth of fungi to humans. Having just finished Paul Stamets' Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World and now considering a possible career in mycorestoration and myco-ecology in general, I find this view quite unfortunate and anachronistic. But that's apparently what you get when you're into mycology: most of the works were written back before people really knew what they were getting into. In fact, Stamets seems to be the guiding light of a new period in mycology.

[Bill Leach]

Brodie looks at fungi with an aesthetic eye.

- Pilobolus - a tiny fungi with amazing little bulbs that explode and spread the spore masses
- a discussion of the mycelium
- a discussion of the mushroom
- the beauty of coral fungi
- the process whereby raindrops hitting cup fungi spreads the spores
- soil fungi, including Arthrobotrys anchonia thats captures eel-worms
- Sphaerobolus, a fungi that throws tiny spheres to disperse spores
- Laboulbeniales, specialized fungi evolved to grow on insects
- Polyporus tuberaster, or Canadian Tuckahoe, a subterranean fungi
- fungi gardening by attine ants
- mushroom monstrosities: malformed mushrooms and the causes

In each chapter, Brodie brings out the interest and the beauty on the fungi.