Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 8
The Forgotten Kingdom
Labyrinths underfoot
Until now our explorations of our animate earth have taken us into the interconnected do-
mains of bacteria, algae, plants, animals, air, rocks and oceans. But we have overlooked
a whole kingdom of life that exists hidden from our gaze in the soil, in rotting trunks of
fallen trees and sometimes even under our own skins. Here in England, we see many spe-
cies of this forgotten kingdom in autumn, when their fruiting bodies emerge from soil and
wood in a variety of colours, from duns and browns to startling caps of red and white.
Their tiny spores can make us sneeze, but we cook their parents nonetheless, for the ed-
ible ones delight our palates and add a touch of gastronomic panache to our dinner tables.
Some give us medicines, others poisons, some expand our consciousness, and yet we
know precious little about how the members of this enigmatic kingdom lead their secret-
ive lives. They are the fungi, and we must pay them due honour, for without their secret
labours there would be no forests, no grasslands, no heathlands, no savannahs, nor any
of the great animals that roam in those wild realms. Without fungi, the earth's land sur-
faces would be nothing more than exposed rocks that, only when moist enough, become
covered with bacterial communities.
