![]() If fungi and other microbes didn’t decompose the bodies of animals and plants they would pile up kilometres deep, which means that we live and breathe in the space that decomposition leaves behind. I became very curious about these organisms. My father told me about decomposition, explaining that there are organisms that compose and organisms that decompose, and although most organisms do both, some are particularly talented decomposers. How does a solid lump of wood become soil, for example? I used to lie in leaf piles in my garden and as they decomposed over weeks I had the puzzling feeling that they were sinking into the ground. Merlin Sheldrake: I became very curious as a child about how things change, and especially how things disappear. Serpentine Galleries curator BEN VICKERS had the chance to pick the brain of shroom expert MERLIN SHELDRAKE, whose new book Entangled Life is set to blow our little caps off.īen Vickers: What are some of the formative experiences that brought you to fungi? How did they come to shape your world? It’s high time we give these marvel- lous architects of the underground their due. ![]() Most of the time, fungi are decomposing the dead life all around them, creating habitats for plant life wherever they grow. The production of the mushrooms we like to eat is just a small frac- tion of what the fungi that produce them do. ![]()
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