Underground Lovers: Encounters with fungi

Alison Pouliot

‘In the gloom of the forest floor, fallen branches are sheathed with fungal stripes of yellow and purple. But beneath the colourful surface, the fallen litter is alive with the clandestine workings of fungi.’

What can we learn from the lives of fungi? Underground Lovers brings us to our knees, magnifier in hand, to find out.

Fungi offer a way to imagine life differently. In Underground Lovers Alison Pouliot reaches down to earth, and deeper, to dwell with fungal allies and aliens, discover how fungi hold forests together, and why humans are deeply entwined with these unruly renegades of the subterrain. Told through first-hand stories — from the Australian desert to Iceland’s glaciers to America’s Cascade Mountains — Alison Pouliot shares encounters with glowing ghost fungi and unearths the enigma of the lobster mushroom. Melding science and personal reflection, she explores the fungi that appear after fire, how fungi and climate change interact, the role of fungi in our ecosystems, and much more.

‘Underground Lovers is a joy to read.’

- — Sophie Cunningham, author of City of Trees

‘Sensual and scientific. Dazzling and boundary breaking. Underground Lovers will make you see the world anew.’

- — Long Litt Woon, The Way Through the Woods

‘The world of fungi is our world even if we don’t know it and can’t see most of it — strange, dazzling, spooky, unpredictable, friendly, deadly, sly. And Alison is the perfect guide.’

- — Paul Kelly, songwriter

Release
Mar-2023
ISBN
9781742237664
RRP (AUD)
$29.99
Pages
288
Format
Paperback & ebook
Category
ENVIRONMENT, NATURE WRITING

Alison Pouliot

Alison Pouliot is an ecologist with a passion for fungi. She is the author of The Allure of Fungi and co-author of Wild Mushrooming.

NewSouth Publishing

NewSouth Publishing is the publishing division of UNSW Press Ltd, a leading Australian university press.