Why 'funga' is just as important
as flora and fauna
They’re in us, on us, and all around us. A growing movement to
study and protect our fungal neighbors may define our
intertwined futures.
Ushering in the next generation and growth cycle, spores of a
deer mushroom (Pluteus cervinus) on Mount Olympus shake
free and dance in the air beneath its gills.
Ushering in the next generation and growth cycle, spores of a
deer mushroom (Pluteus cervinus) on Mount Olympus shake
free and dance in the air beneath its gills.
PHOTOGRAPH BY AGORASTOS PAPATSANIS
ByNick Martin
Illustrations byKaty Wiedemann
March 12, 2024
Page | 1
Flora. Fauna. Funga. The case for fungi to be considered their
own kingdom within the natural world was simple: Without
them, much of life as we know it on this planet—starting with
the ability of plants to live outside of water—would not exist.
It’s been at least 400 million years since mycorrhizal fungi
helped plants colonize the Earth’s land, thanks to a pretty basic
trade-off: Fungi tend to form a symbiotic relationship with
different plants and animals, and they move by eating and
expanding outward. For most plants today, that means fungi
live within their root systems, metabolizing sugar from
photosynthesis while helping them access water and critical
nutrients.
An extinct
giant
Prototaxites, an extinct fungus,
formed large trunklike
structures up to three feet wide
and 26 feet long, making it by
far the largest land-dwelling
organism of its time, some 400
million years ago.
But that’s only the beginning of what these tiny marvels can do.
Page | 2
From yeast to mold to mushroom, the variety among fungi isn’t
just remarkable but also far wider than the diversity that exists
among plants and vertebrates. There are around five million
species of fungi, yet roughly 90 percent remain undocumented.
Fungi are in our air, in our water, and even on our skin and
within our bodies.
Still, researchers have only scratched the surface of why they’re
so critical to keeping ecosystems in balance.
Fermenting
fungi
Saccharomyces cerevisiae, or
common yeast, is used for
fermentation, from leavening bread to
making beer and wine.
“Fungi can show you that life begins even when another one
ends,” says mycologist Giuliana Furci, a Harvard University
associate and National Geographic Explorer, about their crucial
role in our planetary life cycle. As founder of the Fungi
Foundation, she has spent the past 14 years leading the
campaign for their inclusion in conservation policy.
Page | 3
A lethal
mushroom
Amanita phalloides,
one of the deadliest
known mushrooms, is
often fatal if ingested.
This has earned it a
nickname: the death cap.
For Furci, the aha moment arrived when, during a research trip
as a university student in Chile, she came across an arresting
orange mushroom and, upon further research, realized that not
only were there no mushroom field guides for the country but
there were no mycology programs at all. She vowed to change
that and has since been documenting Chile’s native fungi.
Now dozens of mycologists are amplifying the call for “funga”—
a new term for the regional fungi population—to be provided the
same level of research funding and biodiversity conservation as
flora and fauna. Simultaneously, fungi figureheads like Paul
Stamets, who appeared in the 2019 documentary Fantastic
Fungi, and Merlin Sheldrake, author of the best-selling 2020
book Entangled Life, have found their own ways to share the
benefits and wonder of this hidden world.
Page | 4
An
invaluable
fungus
Penicillium is a genus of
mold that decomposes
organic matter, can be used
to fight bacterial infections,
and even gives flavor to soft
cheeses.
Not surprisingly, more international policy gatekeepers—such as
Mexico’s Secretariat of Environment and Natural Resources, the
National Biobank of Thailand, and Italy’s Institute for
Environmental Protection and Research—and the International
Union for Conservation of Nature are publicly pushing for
funga’s inclusion in their own environmental conservation work.
So too is the National Geographic Society, which recently added
funga to its definition of “wildlife” to invite grant applications in
this area and open up more opportunities for future Explorers.
Page | 5
Dead
man’s
fingers
Xylaria polymorpha, or
dead man’s fingers, is a
soft rot fungus that
digests dead wood and
gets its name from its
black, finger-like fruiting bodies.
The world is a bigger petri dish than almost anyone ever
imagined—from invasive species that can signal how we’ll
navigate a warming and changing world, to the complex
“mycobiome” of bodily based fungi that offer new insight into
how deadly diseases like cancer may spread (and some hints
about treatment), to harnessing mycelium as a more eco-
friendly fashion material.
The future is funga. Now is the time to understand what it holds.
(Learn more about funga in a new National Geographic Society
documentary.)
A version of this story appears in the April 2024 issue of National
Geographic magazine.
Page | 6
