Showing 1–12 of 30 results
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Life in the Soil: A Guide for Naturalists and Gardeners
Artist/Author: Nardi, James B$57.00 Add to cartLeonardo da Vinci once mused that “we know more about the movement of celestial bodies than about the soil underfoot,” an observation that is as apt today as it was five hundred years ago. The biological world under our toes is often unexplored and unappreciated, yet it teems with life. In one square meter of earth, there lives trillions of bacteria, millions of nematodes, hundreds of thousands of mites, thousands of insects and worms, and hundreds of snails and slugs. But because of their location and size, many of these creatures are as unfamiliar and bizarre to us as anything found at the bottom of the ocean.
Lavishly illustrated with nearly three hundred colour illustrations and masterfully-rendered black and white drawings throughout, Life in the Soil invites naturalists and gardeners alike to dig in and discover the diverse community of creatures living in the dirt below us. Biologist and acclaimed natural history artist James B. Nardi begins with an introduction to soil ecosystems, revealing the unseen labors of underground organisms maintaining the rich fertility of the earth as they recycle nutrients between the living and mineral worlds. He then introduces readers to a dazzling array of creatures: wolf spiders with glowing red eyes, snails with 120 rows of teeth, and 10,000-year-old fungi, among others. Organized by taxon, Life in the Soil covers everything from slime moulds and roundworms to woodlice and dung beetles, as well as vertebrates from salamanders to shrews. The book ultimately explores the crucial role of soil ecosystems in conserving the worlds above and below ground.
A unique and illustrative introduction to the many unheralded creatures that inhabit our soils and shape our environment above ground, Life in the Soil will inform and enrich the naturalist in all of us.
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Fantastic Fungi: How Mushrooms Can Heal, Shift Consciousness & Save the Planet
Artist/Author: Stamets, Paul (Editor), Louie Schwartzberg (Afterword by), Eugenia Bone, Suzanne Simard, Roland Griffiths, Jay Harman, William Richards, Andrew Weil, Michael Pollan (Contributors)$50.00 Add to cartContributions from Michael Pollan, Andrew Weil, Eugenia Bone, and many more expterts make Fantastic Fungi an awe-inspiring visual journey through the exotic, little-known realm of fungi and its amazing potential to positively influence our lives.
An all-star team of professional and amateur mycologists, artists, foodies, ecologists, doctors, and explorers joined forces with time-lapse master Louie Schwartzberg to create Fantastic Fungi, the life-affirming, mind-bending film about mushrooms and their mysterious interwoven rootlike filaments called mycelium. What this team reveals will blow your mind and possibly save the planet. This visually compelling companion book of the same name, edited by preeminent mycologist Paul Stamets, will expand upon the film in every way through extended transcripts, new essays and interviews, and additional facts about the fantastic realm of fungi.
Fantastic Fungi is at the forefront of a mycological revolution that is quickly going mainstream. In this book, learn about the incredible communication network of mycelium under our feet, which has the proven ability to restore the planet’s ecosystems, repair our health, and resurrect our symbiotic relationship with nature. Fantastic Fungi aspires to educate and inspire the reader in three critical areas: First, the text showcases research that reveals mushrooms as a viable alternative to Western pharmacology. Second, it explores studies pointing to mycelium as a solution to our gravest environmental challenges. And, finally, it details fungi’s marvelous proven ability to shift consciousness.
Motivating both the visually stunning film and this follow-up book is an urgent mission to change human consciousness and restore our planet.
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Astounding Mushrooms
Artist/Author: Bellocq, Alain (Author), Jaroslav Malý (Illustrator)$32.00 Add to cartAstounding Mushrooms features full-colour photographs of more than 200 mushroom species in their wild habitat. The close-up images reveal every size of growth, every shade of color, every shadow of silhouette, and every detail of texture. Chapter text sheds light on this unique living species, neither animal nor plant. Concise captions identify the mushrooms and provide further description of their biology. As Astounding Mushrooms reveals, mushrooms are astonishingly diverse! Shapes include buttons, nests, fans, feet, clubs, hooves, trumpets, mesh, tentacles, stars, tubes, and spines. Textures are smooth, shiny or pimpled. They can be dry or wet, edible or deadly. Nuanced colors and blushes include yellows, reds, blues, and greens. They may be speckled, stinky, slimy, hairy, or fuzzy. Some wear a hat, a “skirt”, or can even move. Astounding Mushrooms invites readers into the extraordinary fungi universe.
The author Alain Bellocq is a mycologist specializing in the study of the Inocybe genre, who trained with Marcel Bon, a mycologist of worldwide reputation. He is president of the Association Mycologique de l’Ouest de la France and secretary of the L’Observatoire Mycologique.
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Teaming with Fungi: The Organic Grower’s Guide to Mycorrhizae
Artist/Author: Lowenfels, Jeff$35.00 Add to cartTeaming with Fungi is the first book to accessibly explain the essential symbiotic relationship between soil-dwelling mycorrhizal fungi and plants. Almost every plant in a garden forms a relationship with fungi, and many plants would not exist without their fungal partners. By better understanding the relationship, gardeners can take advantage of the benefits of fungi, which include an increased uptake in nutrients, resistance to drought, earlier fruiting, and more. Learn how the fungi interact with plants, how to grow their own, and how best to employ them in the home garden.
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Lichens of Rainforest in Tasmania and South-Eastern Australia
Artist/Author: Kantvilas, G. & S.J. Jarman$45.00 Add to cartThe cool temperate rainforests of the Southern Hemisphere are noteworthy for the remarkable diversity and luxuriance of their lichen floras, and Tasmania is endowed with a rich and complex array of lichen species.
This book provides an insight into this realm of beautiful & unusual plants, frequently loverlooked but so rich in colour and form. Only the most conspicuous species, termed macrolichens, are dealt with here. More than 200 species have been recorded in Tasmania’s rainforest, and 127 are illustrated in this volume. Many also occur in the cool temperate rainforests of south-eastern Australia or New Zealand.
The book, beautifully illustrated in colour, provides introductory chapters on the nature of lichens, the composition of the lichen flora in Tasmania and the distribution and ecology of lichens in rainforests. With some experience and familiarity, many of the macrolichen species can be identified with the naked eye or with the aid of a hand lens. The photographic section should thus provide a ready introduction for the amateur naturalist, botanist or bushwalker. For the more determined user, or specialist, an identification key, accompanied by a glossary of technical terms, is also provided.
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Tasmanian Lichens: Identification, Distribution and Conservation Status: I. Parmeliaceae
Artist/Author: Kantvilas, G., S.J. Jarman & J.A. Elix$45.00 Add to cartThis volume is the first in a series that collates the available floristic, distributional and ecological data on the Tasmanian lichen flora. It deals with the family Parmeliaceae, the most diverse family of Tasmanian lichens, which accounts for more than 15% of the total lichen flora and a very significant proportion of the macrolichens. It is proposed to deal with other families and genera as resources become available.
The work presented provides background information on the Parmeliaceae; an authoritative, strictly specimen-based census of the family in Tasmania; identification keys to genera and species; diagnostic descriptive notes on the recognition of each species, its habitat and chemical composition; summaries of global distribution; maps of the known Tasmanian distribution of each species; assigned or provisional conservation status categories; and a list of names of Parmeliaceae previously recorded but not currently accepted for Tasmania. It is noteworthy that of the 148 taxa recorded here for Tasmania, 37 are new species or new records not included in the previous comprehensive treatment of the family presented in 1994
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Taming the Truffle: The History, Lore, and Science of the Ultimate Mushroom
Artist/Author: Hall, Ian R, Gordon Brown and Alessandra Zambonelli$50.00 Add to cartWhether the world’s best truffles are found in Piedmont or Perigord inspires impassioned debate, but the effects of dwindling supply and insatiable demand for the elusive, ultimate mushroom are unquestionable: prices through the roof, intrigue and deception, and ever more intensive efforts to cultivate. The secrets of when, how, and where to collect truffles have been passed from generation to generation since ancient times, but artificial cultivation remains the holy grail. Here in the most comprehensive practical treatment of the gastronomic treasure to date, the art and science of the high-stakes pursuit come together. Their enthusiasm and expertise leavened with wry humor, the authors explore the newest techniques; they describe the commercial species in detail along with their host plants, natural habitats, cultivation and maintenance, pests and diseases, and harvesting with pigs, dogs, truffle flies, and even the electronic nose. Pursuit of the fungus that costs more than gold is not for the faint of heart nor for those in a hurry, as under ideal conditions, truffle production in artificial truffieres can begin after three years but results may not be seen until a decade after planting, and maximum yields not for another decade still. So there is time to read and prepare, and no better source than this one.
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The Allure of Fungi
Artist/Author: Pouliot, Alison$50.00 Add to cartAn interdisciplinary exploration of fungi, showcasing stunning photographs.
Although relatively little known, fungi provide the links between the terrestrial organisms and ecosystems that underpin our functioning planet. -
Fungi of Australia: Inocybaceae
Artist/Author: Matheny, P Brandon, Neale L Bougher$240.00 Add to cartAn illustrated account of 137 species of this family of gilled fungi, including 101 new to science.
The family Inocybaceae are a diverse cosmopolitan group of gilled fungi. Until now, only a small number of species had been described from Australia, but with this major revision a total of 137 species are recognised, of which 101 are new to science. Ninety per cent of these species (121 of the 137) are found only in Australia. -
A Field Guide to Tasmanian Fungi (Second Edition)
Artist/Author: Gates, Genevieve, David Ratkowsky$47.00 Read moreOUT OF PRINT. A comprehensive guide relevant to the whole of southern Australia, with over 600 species of fungi superbly illustrated and described. -
Australian Subtropical Fungi
Artist/Author: McMullan-Fisher, Sapphire, Patrick Leonard, Frances Guard$39.00 Add to cartA field guide to some of the interesting and unusual fungi of the Australian subtropics.
The guide covers 115 species, with illustrations and descriptions of each. Many of the species covered appear for the first time in a field guide.This book is aimed at field naturalists wanting to develop an interest in the fungi of the Australian subtropics. It contains a simple morphological key to the main groups of fungi. The fungi of the Australian subtropics are a very diverse and little studied group of organisms, many of which appear to be unique to the region.
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Admiring the Fungi of Lower Eyre Peninsula: A Preliminary Guide to the Larger Fungi of the Region
Artist/Author: Saunders, Brian.$32.00 Add to cartThis guide both helps to identify the fungi of the Lower Eyre Peninsula in South Australia and to demonstrate aspects of their diversity. The excellent introduction includes information on fungi biology, habitats, distribution and more.
Although not comprehensive a field guide there are many images and brief descriptions of these arid country macrofungi (Agarics, Boletes, Polypores, and other groups including a great selection of ascomycetes: Morels, Cups, Discs, Black Crusts, Clubs and Parasites). Those more technically minded will appreciate the inclusion of some microscopic character images, including some spores.
