The Year In Fungi

Their lifestyles are poorly understood, and their taxonomy is a mess. And yet, without them, biology would not work at all.
if there is a rule in biology, I can think about how it does not apply to fungi,” Anne Pringle, a mycologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, said earlier this year. “They challenge our preconceptions of how biology works.” Neither plant nor animal (though closer to the latter in evolutionary terms), fungi are everywhere. They are, for the most part, invisible, single-celled microbes and cobwebs of wispy mycelial thread, lurking beneath the surface of things. Even those species that fruit, into the fleshy scallops, caps, and puffballs that we call mushrooms, tend to be frustratingly well-camouflaged. Scientists often describe fungi as cryptic. Their lifestyles are poorly understood, and their taxonomy is a mess. And yet, without them, biology would not work at all. Fungi are a forest’s sanitation department; in ecosystems across the globe, they break down and recycle organic matter, along the way supplying plants with nutrients, water, and chemical defenses