Mycology

Mycology is the scientific study of fungi, covering their classification, genetics, biochemistry, and human uses. Fungi provide tinder, food, traditional medicines, and entheogens, but can also be poisonous or cause infections. Yeasts are among the most widely used fungi, especially in food production. The field is closely linked to phytopathology, the study of plant diseases, since most plant pathogens are fungi. A scientist who specializes in mycology is known as a mycologist.

The word "mycology" comes from the Greek *mukēs* (fungus) and *-logia* (study). Early mycologists include Elias Magnus Fries, Christiaan Hendrik Persoon, Heinrich Anton de Bary, Elizabeth Eaton Morse, and Lewis David de Schweinitz. Beatrix Potter, famous for *The Tale of Peter Rabbit*, also made important contributions. Pier Andrea Saccardo created a system for classifying imperfect fungi based on spore color and shape, which was the main method before DNA analysis. He is best known for his *Sylloge Fungorum*, a comprehensive list of all mushroom names used at the time, still the only work of its kind that was both thorough and relatively modern.

Many fungi produce toxins, antibiotics, and other secondary metabolites. For instance, the widespread genus *Fusarium* and its toxins, linked to deadly outbreaks of alimentary toxic aleukia in humans, were extensively studied by Abraham Z. Joffe. Fungi are essential to life on Earth as symbionts, forming mycorrhizae, living with insects, and creating lichens. Many can break down tough organic materials like lignin, as well as pollutants such as xenobiotics, petroleum, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, playing a key role in the global carbon cycle.

Fungi and traditionally grouped organisms like oomycetes and myxomycetes (slime molds) are economically and socially important, causing diseases in animals (including humans) and plants. Beyond pathogens, many fungi help control plant diseases. For example, species of the filamentous genus *Trichoderma* are key biological control agents, offering an alternative to chemical products for managing crop diseases. Field trips to find interesting fungi are called "forays," a term that started with the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club in 1868, which organized the first such event titled "A foray among the funguses." The study of fungi that cause disease in animals is called medical mycology.

Humans likely began collecting mushrooms for food in prehistoric times. Mushrooms first appeared in writing in the works of Euripides (480–406 BC). The Greek philosopher Theophrastos (371–288 BC) attempted to classify plants, grouping mushrooms with plants but noting they lacked certain organs. Later, Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) wrote about truffles in his *Natural History*. The Middle Ages saw little progress in fungal knowledge, but the printing press helped dispel superstitions from classical authors. In 1245, Chinese scholar Chen Renyu wrote the *Junpu*, one of the oldest known mushroom books.

The modern age of mycology began with Pier Antonio Micheli's 1737 work *Nova plantarum genera*, which laid the groundwork for classifying grasses, mosses, and fungi. He introduced the still-used genus names *Polyporus* and *Tuber* (both from 1729, though later amended under modern rules). Carl Linnaeus included fungi in his binomial naming system in 1753, giving each organism a two-word genus and species name. He named many well-known mushrooms, such as *Boletus* and *Agaricus*, still in use today. At the time, fungi were considered plants, so they appeared in his *Species Plantarum*. However, Linnaeus’s fungal classification was less detailed than his plant one, lumping all gilled mushrooms with stems into the genus *Agaricus*. Thousands of gilled species exist, later split into many genera; today, *Agaricus* refers only to mushrooms like the common shop mushroom, *Agaricus bisporus*. For example, Linnaeus called the saffron milk-cap *Agaricus deliciosus*, but it is now *Lactarius deliciosus*, while the field mushroom *Agaricus campestris* has kept its original name. The English word "agaric" still means any gilled mushroom, matching Linnaeus’s usage. Although mycology was once a branch of botany, the 1969 discovery that fungi are evolutionarily closer to animals led to its reclassification as a separate field. The terms "mycology" and "mycologist" are traditionally credited to M.J. Berkeley in 1836, though "mycologist" appeared earlier, in 1823, in writings by English botanist Robert Kaye Greville referring to Schweinitz.