Fungi matter. They connect all life on Earth. They play a part in fighting cancer, infections, and heart disease. They provide plants with nutrients to survive. They can even break down plastics and generate biofuels. But these incredible organisms need our help. Rising temperatures threaten their future as invasive species damage their ecosystems. There could be 3,800,000 species of fungi. We only know 7% of them.
Kew is a world leader in fungal research, discovering, conserving, sequencing their DNA, studying the impacts of climate change. By learning how fungi fit into our ecosystem and how to protect their habitats, we can unlock their potential and truly understand their incredible kingdom.
Fungi Matter was created by Layla Atkinson of Trunk Animation for The State Of The World’s Fungi Symposium at Kew in London, England. “With over 8.5 million items, Kew houses the largest and most diverse botanical and mycological collections in the world. They represent approximately 95% of vascular plant genera and 60% of fungal genera.”
Learn more about Kew’s Fungarium and Millennium Seed Bank Partnership.
Plus, learn more about fungi with these videos: Fungus: The Plastic of the Future, The Wood Wide Web: How trees secretly talk to and share with each other, and Fly Agaric, a time lapse.
This Webby award-winning video collection exists to help teachers, librarians, and families spark kid wonder and curiosity. TKSST features smarter, more meaningful content than what's usually served up by YouTube's algorithms, and amplifies the creators who make that content.
Curated, kid-friendly, independently-published. Support this mission by becoming a sustaining member today.