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What it argues
Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist who has spent his career studying fungi, and Entangled Life is his account of what fungi are, what they do, and why most people who think they know something about the natural world understand almost nothing about this kingdom of life. Fungi are not plants. They are not animals. They predate both, they are more closely related to animals than to plants, and their ways of existing in the world challenge almost every intuition humans bring to thinking about life.
The book is organized around the different things fungi do rather than around taxonomy. Sheldrake covers mycorrhizal fungi, which form symbiotic relationships with the roots of roughly 90 percent of plant species and have shaped the evolution of terrestrial plant life for 450 million years. He covers lichens, which are symbioses between fungi and photosynthetic organisms and represent some of the most extreme survivors on Earth. He covers the wood wide web in more rigorous detail than Wohlleben, grounding the claims in the specific experimental evidence and acknowledging what remains contested. He covers psilocybin-producing fungi, the history of ergot and its role in the Salem witch trials, and the fungi that control ant behavior in ways that look like something from science fiction.
What it gets right
- 1.
Fungi are more closely related to animals than to plants, and constitute a distinct kingdom of life that evolved before most multicellular organisms.
- 2.
Mycorrhizal fungi form symbioses with approximately 90 percent of plant species. Plants provide sugars; fungi provide water, phosphorus, and other minerals — a trade that has shaped terrestrial ecology for 450 million years.
- 3.
Lichens are not single organisms but symbioses between fungi and photosynthetic algae or cyanobacteria, and represent some of the most successful pioneers in extreme environments.
What it covers
Who wrote it
Merlin Sheldrake is a British biologist and writer with a PhD in tropical ecology from Cambridge University, where he studied mycorrhizal networks in the rainforests of Panama. He is a research fellow at the Society for Research in the Life Sciences and has published in peer-reviewed journals on fungal biology and forest ecology. Entangled Life is his first book for general audiences. He lives in London and continues to research the ecological roles of fungi.
