Enchanting photos of ‘bizarre’ mushrooms showcase fungi diversity

“I’ve been hanging around fungi for more than 30 years now, working more at the scientific end. But this time I wanted to really explore the aesthetics of fungi,” says photographer, writer and ecologist Alison Pouliot. “Many of them are aesthetically beautiful. But they are also bizarre, unusual and crazy. I guess I was trying to challenge people’s notions of what a fungus is.”

Images from Pouliot’s new book Funga Obscura: Photo journeys among fungi showcase some of the most striking members of this often-overlooked kingdom of life. One of her favourites is the cage fungus (main picture), native to Australasia, which somehow moulds its fruiting body into something resembling a wonky buckyball. “It’s not within our concept of how fungus should look,” she says.

The giant bolete (second from top) has a familiar mushroom shape, though this specimen has seen better days. “For me, this was about persistence, resilience,” says Pouliot. She also loves the violet webcap (pictured above), and not just because of its vivid colour. It also has an amazing, velour-like texture. “It’s exquisitely soft,” she says.

Last but not least are the ephemeral and overlooked fungi, such as the short-lived Mycena bonnet mushroom (shown above) and an unnamed, button-sized fungus she found amid moss in a crack in a dead branch (pictured below).

Funga Obscura: Photo journeys among fungi is out in Australia (UNSW Press) and will be published in the UK and US by Chicago University Press on 18 August.