Slayers, Saviors, Servants, and Sex : An Expose of Kingdom Fungi by David
Moore, Springer-Verlag, $29.95/£20.00, ISBN 0387950982
THE fungi among us, laments David Moore, do not get much respect. They
provide us with much of our food, drink and antibiotics, but almost everyone
thinks fungi are plants—which they are not. The University of Manchester
mycologist has spent his career in a botany department; Slayers, Saviors,
Servants and Sex is his opportunity to set the record straight.
So if fungi are not plants, and they do not make food from sunlight, what do
they do? They just digest organic matter. And unlike animals, they perform this
externally, by releasing enzymes and absorbing nutrients.
Advertisement
This pleasant, non-technical survey covers everything that Kingdom Fungi
does: from blighting crops, destroying elms and infecting people to recycling
dead leaves and making penicillin. That’s before we get into the kitchen. We
might think that mushrooms—and Moore covers the deadly and the
savoury— might be the most important fungal crop, from our love of
omelettes, soups and stir fries. But because all alcohol production begins with
fungus digesting starch, this is their biggest contribution to our diets.
The most original parts of Slayers, never mentioned in mushroom
books, deal with enlisting fungi in our battles with pest insects and weeds. As
chemical controls become too toxic or expensive, we are bound to see more
interest in turning the Third Kingdom against the other realms.