Exhibition puts fungi under the microscope

They come in a mind-boggling array of varieties - not least the ones infamous for their Class A hallucinogenic properties.

Yet often the closest most of us bother to get to them is when they're fried with some butter, served in an omelette or propped up beside a sizzling steak.

But as these striking and fascinating images from one of the surprise hit exhibitions of the year show, there's considerably more to fungi than the rather dull button cap white supermarket mushroom variety.

Dazzling images captured by Edinburgh University microscopes reveal fungi magnified hundreds of times, to reveal explosive riots of firework colours, curious bumps and wild patterns and delicate bubble-like spheres nestling under broad umbrella caps.

The microscopic images - on show at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh this weekend - are the latest element of the UK's first major multimedia exhibition to focus on the fascinating and diverse world of fungi.

Since the exhibition opened at the garden's John Hope Gateway centre in late summer, an unprecedented 50,000 visitors have poured through its doors to find out how fungi impact on virtually every area of their lives, from our food to the air we breathe and the medicines we use.

Visitor numbers are expected to rise - mushroom even - as the perfect climate combination means Scotland's fungi season is now enjoying its most impressive crop for years, and the trend for wild food picked from the countryside and woodlands soars.

"By marvellous coincidence, this year has been the best year I can remember for fungi," says Dr Ian Edwards, head of exhibitions and events at the Botanics, where From Another Kingdom: The Amazing World of Fungi has been stunning visitors with rarely-seen images and fascinating detail about one of nature's most prolific and vital components.

"It's been mild but wonderfully damp which means conditions since July have been perfect. Every cloud has a silver lining, and this one's made from mushrooms."

Which is fine if you know your Shaggy Parasol from your Devil's Bolette. Or, indeed, your tasty chanterelle from the deadliest British variety, the Death Webcap.

That's what Whisperer author Nicholas Evans, his wife and two family members ate after a woodland stroll through Altyre Estate near Forres two years ago.

The rusty brown-coloured fungi, often found in pine woodland and deceptively similar to the non-toxic chanterelle, can damage the liver, kidneys and spinal cord. At its worst, it can kill.

For author Evans, 60, and his family, the woodland forage became a health nightmare: he, his wife Charlotte and her brother are now waiting for kidney transplants.

Ironically, as the Botanics' primary scientific officer Alan Bennell points out, at a time when people are now following Evans' example and heading to the woods in search of foraged treats, the number of mycologists - the experts able to identify Britain's 2500 known fungi species - is in rapid decline.

"Each autumn we have the occasional miscreant who will eat the wrong thing while in search of either a cheap thrill or a cheap meal," he explains. "There is an increasing fascination with wild food, but unless people have a smattering of knowledge about what they are doing, they can make a serious error. The bottom line is you want to know what you have before you eat it. When I became a mycologist 25 years ago, there were probably 20 or 30 of us around the UK. But now the number has dwindled by around half," he adds.

"There are around a couple of hundred plant taxonomists for around 300,000 species, yet there are less than ten mycologists dealing with 1.5 million species."

An international conference held in Edinburgh alongside the exhibition launch, however, has sparked new moves to create a global lobby organisation aimed at encouraging investment into fungi knowledge.

It could be vital. It's thought we have only scraped the surface of the world's fungi species, with as much as 90 per cent of the world's fungi waiting to be discovered.

Their potential role in areas ranging from medicine to food production and industry could be immense. For as visitors to the Edinburgh exhibition have already discovered, there's far more to fungi than a side order to your steak.

"The exhibition looks at everything to do with fungi," explains Ian. "It's not just about collecting mushrooms to eat. For example, it's amazing how many common medical complaints are linked to fungus - ringworm, thrush, athlete's foot.

"In the Far East, fungi is very much regarded as medicinal - oyster mushrooms and shiitake are valued for their ability to lower cholesterol. Most mushrooms contain natural statins and statins grown in petri dishes are the most common drug used by men over the age of 40 for heart conditions."

Some cultures regard certain fungi as a natural aphrodisiac, and nature plays its own mating game with luminescent fungi providing an eerie glow to encourage insects to what Ian describes as a "big bug disco" in order to disperse spores.

"Apart from all that, if it wasn't for fungi breaking down organic matter after it's died, we would be smothered in mountains of dead leaves. Eighty per cent of plants depend on fungi. They are of huge importance."

There is no escaping fungi. Even our homes harbour fungus in moulds, dry and wet rot, while our own bodies provide a breeding ground: every time we breath, we draw in fungal spores. One group of researchers, explains Ian, found 32 different types of fungi growing in people's mouths.

While for most of us, fungi is associated with beer and red wine, cheese, bread, even chocolate - the cocoa bean has to be left to grow fungus before it is processed - it's the world of medicine which may be most grateful. Without fungi growing on Sir Alexander Fleming's petri dishes, penicillin might still be waiting to be discovered. Modern science is now looking at using mushroom properties to help prevent the recurrence of certain cancers.

"Most people don't realise the enormous impact fungi has on the world," adds Ian. "It's pretty amazing stuff."

n Fungi Under the Microscope at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on Saturday and Sunday, 1pm to 5pm. Part of the From Another Kingdom: The Amazing World of Fungi exhibition until November 21.