Top Ten Fun Fungus Amongus Facts:
1. Gliocladium roseum (which grows inside ulmo trees in the South American Patagonia Forest) eats cellulose, saw dust, wood chips, or any plant material, and produces straight diesel fuel. This discovery challenges current scientific theory about where oil comes from.
http://www.livescience.com/5178-oil-creation-theory-challenged-fuel-making-fungus.htmlAs a defense mechanism, when its attacked, the fungus Aspergillus carbonarius makes jet fuel.
http://www.livescience.com/5178-oil-creation-theory-challenged-fuel-making-fungus.html 2. A particularly relevant fungal disease called 'Wheat rust' is currently threatening the world's wheat supply, furthering the need for humans to switch from a monoculture grain based diet to a perennial- based permaculture diet.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...s-to-destroy-the-world-crop-9271485.html 3. 350 million years ago when insects ruled the land and mammals hadnt crawled out of the ocean yet, there were forests of giant 20 feet tall and 3 feet wide mushrooms.
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141114-the-biggest-organism-in-the-worldBut thats nothing compared to the largest organism alive in Oregon; Armillaria solidipes coveres 4 square miles and is estimated to be between 1900 and 8600 years old.
http://www.livescience.com/1461-prehistoric-mystery-organism-humongous-fungus.html 4. Contrary to popular belief, cloud seeding actually comes from fungi.
http://www.livescience.com/22838-amazon-fungi-atmosphere.htmlFungi produce trillions of spores that create clouds that make it rain.
http://discovermagazine.com/not-found?aspxerrorpath=/2012/sep/04-mushroom-cloud 5. World's most expensive food is the difficult to grow wild White Truffle;
The largest one ever grown was 4 pounds and sold for a million dollars
http://www.businessinsider.com/1-million-worlds-largest-truffle-2014-12 6. Cordyceps sinensis - Yartsa gunbu- The Mummified Catepillar Fungus-
The Viagra of The Himalayas - sells for 2000.oz- twice that of gold.
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...yas-brings-in-big-bucks-and-big-problems 7. Industrial Strength Fungus: Stronger Than Concrete
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1957474,00.html
8. Environmentally Friendly Styrofoam Replacement Fungus
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/20/form-and-fungus 9. Fungi kill more people than malaria and tuberculosis worldwide. Fungal diseases also destroy about a third of all crops.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/20/form-and-fungusCoccidiomycosis (valley fever) is a fungus that grows in the soil of the American Southwest and if inhaled can turn into a flesh eating infection that eats away at your lung tissue
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/20/form-and-fungusAnother fungal disease called Cryptococcus gattii, is in the Pacific Northwest; There are no known preventive measures nor any vaccine available.
10. Some fungi become carnivores when they get hungry enough
http://www.pnas.org/content/104/20/8379.fullChemicals from nematodes are detected by fungi if they are hungry, and they become worm- hunting predators
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic...avesdrop-on-the-chemicals-of-their-prey/They actually set a tiny little noose to snare the worm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22528749 http://listverse.com/2009/08/17/top-10-incredible-funguses/http://listverse.com/2015/11/21/10-facts-about-fungi-that-will-astound-you/