GoKawiilFungi create soil, sequester vast amounts of carbon, and contribute $55 trillion to the global economy, but knowledge about them is scarce. Now, mycologists are pushing to get the international scientific community to recognize fungi on the same level as plants and animals.
Agarikon is one of two endangered species of fungi in the United States. So rare is the species that scientists have placed samples of it in a biobank facility for safekeeping at the San Diego Zoo, in the hopes that it can be propagated and one day reintroduced to the wild should its numbers continue to decline. Agarikon, also known as quinine conk, is a large round or semicircular shelf fungus that grows on the bark of old growth conifers in forests around the world. Two thousand years ago a Greek physician called agarikon “an elixir of long life.” For centuries it has been used to treat tuberculosis, rheumatism, asthma, cancer, and inflammation, among other maladies. Research confirms the fungus has robust healing properties: It contains powerful antimicrobial, antiviral, and anti-cancer compounds. It has also recently been found to potentially reduce side effects of the Covid-19 vaccine and enhance immunity. Yet the species’ future is in doubt. “In the past hundred years it declined 70 percent, and we don’t have evidence that decline is stopping,” said Jessica Allen, lead mycologist with NatureServe, a Virginia-based nonprofit concerned with biodiversity protection. “The Pacific Northwest is the last stronghold.”
There are as many as 12 million species of fungi, yet there are just 155,000 or so known species, leaving vast numbers undescribed.
The reason that only two fungi species in the U.S. are classified as endangered is not because other fungi populations are healthy, but because knowledge of the world’s mushrooms, mildews, lichens, mycorrhiza, and other fungi is extremely scant. Still, researchers know enough about their ecological functions to understand they are indispensable to most plant life. As many as 90 percent of plants use their roots to form symbiotic relationships with vast webs of mycorrhizal fungi to, among other things, increase their nutrient and water absorption by orders of magnitude beyond what soil alone can provide.
“Without this fungal web my tree would not exist,” wrote mycologist Merlin Sheldrake in his best-selling 2020 book Entangled Life. “Without similar fungal webs no plant would exist anywhere. All life on land, including my own, depended on these networks.” It’s estimated that there are, on the low end, 2.2 million species and on the high end up to 12 million species of fungi in the world. Yet there are just 155,000 or so known species, leaving vast numbers undiscovered and undescribed. The lack of knowledge about the world’s fungal kingdom, in spite of its essential role in maintaining life, has led to a campaign to elevate the importance of fungi to the same level as flora and fauna. Increased recognition, advocates say, would lead to greater inclusion of fungi in research, policy, and preservation considerations. Just 10 percent of the world’s mycorrhizal hotspots, for example, occur in protected areas.
The protection “is needed. It’s important,” said Allen. “Fungi play an important role in the ecosystem. We know a lot about fungi, but mycologists haven’t been invited to the table to share their knowledge.” Fungi are getting a good deal more attention in some quarters these days as scientists learn more about — and publicize — their role. In Entangled Life, Sheldrake explained the many facets of fungi, from their role in ecosystems to how they have shaped human culture and their unusual intelligence. Earlier this year the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, known as the “green Nobel Prize,” was awarded to Toby Kiers, an evolutionary biologist at Vrije University Amsterdam, for her work studying how plants, soil, and microbes are connected by mycorrhizal networks and how they draw carbon from plant roots in exchange for nutrients. She also shared a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 2025 with Giuliana Furci, a mycologist in Chile who also heads the New York-based Fungi Foundation. “The awards feel like an award for the invisible,” Kiers told The New York Times, “and a celebration of decentralized ways of thinking and operating that fungi have mastered.” Still, much of what fungi do remains a mystery. “The whole concept of understanding functional roles in fungi is complicated because of their hidden nature,” said Andrew Wilson, associate curator of mycology at the Denver Botanic Gardens, who works to document fungal diversity and is part of the effort to raise its profile. “They are very cryptic. A plant is aboveground, and you can see the differences between them. Mushrooms are underground or live within the tissues of other organisms, and what they are doing is hard to study.”
“Every organism has a fungal component that is sustaining them,” says a mycologist. “They are the firmament of life on Earth.”
Those who study and promote awareness of the world’s fungi are often evangelical in their approach. Appreciating and studying fungi, says Furci, will change how you see the world. “Every organism has a fungal component that is sustaining them,” she said in an interview. “They are the firmament of life on Earth.” Endophytic fungi, for example, live between and also within the cells of virtually all vascular plants. They are critical for plant growth, resilience, and survival. They emit molecules — natural antibiotics — that protect the plants against disease. They help repel herbivores and insects. They also enhance the uptake of phosphorus, nitrogen, and other nutrients; improve water retention; and help plants tolerate stress. Scientists are studying these fungi to accelerate the discovery of other compounds, from medicines to diesel fuel. Fungi are vital to an incredibly wide number of products and services, including drugs like penicillin, ampicillin, statins, and antifungals, nutraceuticals, fermented foods, cheese, beer, wine, spirits, colorants, cosmetics, and fertilizers. A recent paper pegged the value of all types of fungi at nearly $55 trillion, a figure that includes the value of sequestered carbon traded on global markets.
Mycologist Toby Kiers. John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
Mycologists refer to fungi as ecosystem engineers because they perform essential roles. Approximately 80 percent of terrestrial plant species partner with fungi, according to a number of studies. Ectomycorrizal fungi, for example, form a dense, protective sheath around the root tips of trees, including oaks, beeches, and pines. It’s a symbiotic relationship: The fungus provides the tree with nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen, from the soil, in exchange for carbohydrates produced by the trees through photosynthesis. Fungi increase the surface area of trees’ root systems, allowing them to live in nutrient-poor or even toxic conditions.
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