Whether you’re a mushroom hunter, resource manager, teacher, or community mycologist, there’s something for everyone in this new resource.
Using 13 importance categories, the booklet showcases the multiple ways fungi help shape our world and our state.
Essentially the booklet is a foray into fungal ecological interactions, culinary use, health and environmental applications, and why, just like plants and animals, fungi deserve conservation attention too.
The booklet includes these sections: 1) Fungi Benefiting Plants; 2) Fungi Benefiting Animals; 3) Decomposers and Recyclers, 4) Lichens; 5) Food and Drink; 6) Medicine and Health Products; 7) Mycoproducts; 8) Sequestering Carbon; 9) Species of Conservation Concern; 10) Mycorestoration; 11) Mycocontrol; 12) Regulators of Populations; and 13) Nonnative, Introduced, and Invasive Fungi.
As one example of the benefits of a fungi is the hemlock varnish shelf, a reishi class mushroom growing on our state tree.
This single mushroom species checks off the boxes of the following primary importance categories: 1) Fungi Benefitting Animals, 2) Decomposers and Recyclers, 3) Food and Drink, 4) Medicine and Health Products, and 5) Species of Conservation Concern. This is but a single example of thousands of wild mushrooms, each and every one of which will check off the boxes of multiple importance categories.
Pennsylvania’s wildlands and backyards support thousands of fungal species, many of which have yet to be discovered. Likely the vast majority of these species are important for healthy, and fully functional ecosystems.
Visit the PA Biological Survey The Importance of Fungi webpage to read or download this resource.
Visit the Pennsylvania Biological Survey website to learn more about Pennsylvania’s biological resources.
[Posted: February 2, 2026] PA Environment Digest
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