Slow Mushrooming: A Foray Through Fungal Realms
A Report on the Recent Workshop
26.11.2024
It is sunny autumn morning and 20 RCC students and fellows are fossicking in the undergrowth of the English Garden. What brings them there? They are on the hunt for fungi!
Fungi are filtering into our consciousness, not just as vital organisms in terrestrial ecosystems, but as useful metaphors to think about human societies as well. Indeed, mushrooms are finally having their moment as interest in fungi spreads beyond the sciences and infiltrates the environmental humanities.
The foray participants were first challenged to find a mushroom within three minutes, then return to the ‘fairy ring.’ They then learnt to ‘find their way around a mushroom,’ examining its parts, noting its texture, and trying to describe its aroma.
Armed with this new knowledge the group then headed off to examine fungi in the context of their different associations with trees and substrate types. As various types of mushrooms revealed themselves, the questions came thick and fast about their ecological, sociological, philosophical significances and more.
Foray participants were guided by Volkswagen Foundation Visiting Professor Alison Pouliot, an Australian ecologist and photographer who has been working with fungi and their followers for three decades.
As the autumn draws to a close and the trees shed their leaves and the soil cools down, the mushrooms are turning up their heels for the autumn. But do not worry—they will certainly be back!
Report by Alison Pouliot
Images by Anna-Maria Walter