Much More Than I Want to Know About Fungi

 

When we were kids we thought it was funny to say “There’s a fungus among us.”

Robigus (from web search)

Merlin Sheldrake has definitely shown that we live in a vast web of mushrooms and spores and other creepy things. It’s worse than a Halloween nightmare. The author provides a huge number of weird examples like this: “Romans prayed to the god of mildew, Robigus.” (p.7)

The author offers a bewildering variety of theories about truffles and similar fungi, for example that “manna—the providential food that sustained the Israelites during their passage through the desert—was in fact the desert truffle,” (p. 43)

After the psychedelic chapter on the truffle (which seems almost like an acid trip) the author continues with the more prosaic lichen, which grows on a rock. His description of words for lichens is perfect for Wordy Wednesday — a celebration that I used to do but recently haven’t found such a perfect example:

“The names used to describe lichens sound like afflictions, words that get stuck in your teeth: crustose (crusty), foliose (leafy), squamulose (scaly), leprose (dusty), fruticose (branched).” (p. 74)

I haven’t decided whether to keep reading this book, as it’s actually pretty heavy with technical details.

blog post © mae sander 2026