SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE - When people think of fungi, most tend to picture mushrooms, the spore-bearing bodies of some fungi that are typically found growing in soil or on trees. However, the whole fungal kingdom is so much more than that: Our planet hosts an estimated 2.2 million to 3.8 million species of fungi, which are essential to life on Earth, acting as primary decomposers and nutrient recyclers.
Yeasts, for instance, act as rising agents for bread, and molds add flavors to certain smelly cheeses. Lichens—unique organisms created from a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and algae or cyanobacteria—are important indicators of environmental health. In vast networks beneath forest floors, mycorrhizal fungi interlace throughout the soil, forming symbiotic relationships with plants and even, some research has suggested, helping trees communicate.
And in the charred aftermath of a forest fire, some strange fungi pop up on soil and wood as bright patches of color—like pink or white crusts or little orange cups—for only a few ephemeral weeks.
Sydney Glassman, a microbial ecologist at the University of California, Riverside, who has been studying mycorrhizal fungi for more than a decade, stumbled upon this post-fire occurrence by accident. “Not once, but twice during my PhD, my plots burned down in catastrophic mega fires,” she says. “So I ended up having the situation where I had sampling pre- and post- a mega fire. … And what we found was that certain fungi are really increased in abundance after a fire.”