Fungi
Mycology and ethnomycology are growing disciplines exploring the mysterious, and increasing less mysterious, world of fungi and our relationship with them and our environs. This attention and popularity can be seen in the increase of literature reflected in my reading list below—many are recent.
For those curious beginners finding themselves on this page. I encourage you to link up with your local mycological association. From my own experience these groups attract people (and mushrooms!) of a range of characters. They often hold lectures and forays (mushroom walks) throughout the growing season, and the community is a great source of local mycological knowledge. This is especially important if anyone wants to forage for edible fungi.
…and remember, everything is edible at least once.
Recommended Reading:
Altered States of Consciousness, Charles T. Tart (Editor)
Christopher Hobbs’s Medicinal Mushrooms: The Essential Guide, Christopher Hobbs
Extracts of Polypore Mushroom Mycelia Reduce Viruses in Honey Bees, Stamets et. al. 2018, Nature.
Fungi Magazine, U.S. based, it is a must have for fungi lovers
How to Change your Mind: What the New Science of psychedelics Teach Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, Michael Pollan
Hungry Planet: Stories of Plant Diseases, Gail L. Schumann & Cleora J. D Arcy
Medicinal Mushrooms The Essential Guide, Christopher Hobbs (Highly recommended)
Mushroom Reference | A Curated List of References Relevant to Physicians, Scientists and the Intellectually Curious
Mushrooms: A Natural and Cultural History, Nicholas Money
Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, Paul Staments
Mycorrhizal Planet: How Symbiotic Fungi Work with Roots to Support Plant Health and Build Soil Fertility, Michael Phillips
Numerous fungi focused field guides and cookbooks
Paul Staments, find him on the bookshelf, online and at his shop Fungi Perfecti | Host Defense Mushrooms, retail line with traceable mushrooms
Peer-reviewed articles can be found using “ethnomycology” as a search term in a variety of ethnobiology, botany, and mycology journals.
Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing, and Hallucinogenic Powers, Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann & Christian Rätsch
Radical Mycology: A Treatise on Seeing & Working with Fungi, Peter McCoy
San Francisco Psychedelic Society | Devoted to the Exploration of the Expansion of Consciousness
State of the World’s Fungi 2018, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (PDF)
The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from around the World, Sandor Ellix Katz (Author), Michael Pollan (Foreword)
The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
What a Mushroom Lives For: Matsutake and the Worlds They Make, Michael J. Hathaway
Yasmin-Pasternak, Sveta, (2011). Ethnomycology: Fungi and Mushrooms in Cultural Entanglements. In: E. N. Anderson, Deborah Pearsall, Eugene Hunn & Nancy Turner eds., Ethnobotany. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 133-147.