Fungarium: Welcome to the Museum

Product Information

The second book, Fungarium, in association with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, is written by the Kew mycology team and illustrated by Katie Scott – the artist behind Animalium and Botanicum in the same series. The book is the second title that Big Picture Press has created in partnership with Kew, the first, Botanicum, published in 2o16 and was written by Kew’s Director of Science, Kathy Willis. The Fungarium was founded in 1879 with the donation of Rev Miles J Berkeley’s personal collection of around 30,000 specimens (including 6,000 type specimens). Wendy Burford, Science Museum Group Publishing Manager, said: “We are thrilled that Planetarium will be joining the Welcome to the Museum series. Exploring Space is one of our most iconic galleries, filled with fascinating Space Age objects and stories. Next year will mark the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and Planetarium will give readers a beautifully illustrated insight into our exploration of the universe so far.” Digitisation is important for any collection, museum or archive, as it creates a permanent digital record of physical material collections.

The specimens in our Fungarium can help us to describe unknown species; understand the distribution of fungi and plant-fungus interactions; identify pathogens that could threaten crops; distinguish the spread and effect of invasive species; and analyse the impact of climate change. We can also extract DNA from specimens to find useful traits or to discover new medicines. BBC Radio 4 presenter Sheila Dillon recently revealed she has taken mushroom supplements after her cancer treatment. Photograph: BBC Katie Scott graduated from University of Brighton in 2011. Her work draws influences from traditional medical and botanical illustration, both in aesthetic and subject matter. It also plays with the ideas of scientific uncertainty and speculation, fabricating the inner and outer workings of the world. Her illustrations depict a familiar yet fantasy vision of plants, humans, and minerals.Fungarium, much like the other compendiums from the Welcome To The Museum series, is stunningly illustrated and full of well researched, scintallating facts that will prove fascinating and useful in turn. Learn here about how fungus works, how mushroom is technically not a true scientific term, and about how fungus is one of those kingdoms we know so little on that we have discovered roughly only around 5% of what scientists believe to be the true number of fungus species on planet earth. So far, Emily and James have been well-introduced to the intricacies of the Fungarium’s archive and reference system. They are trained on the camera station within the Fungarium Fungi underpin all life on earth and yet it’s estimated that over 95% of fungal species remain unknown.

Tour the galleries and learn why fungi are more related to animals than plants. Discover how they evolved. Find out about their amazing variety of shapes and colors, some of them alien-like, almost monstrous, and disgustingly smelly, others incredibly beautiful.”

A digitised collection can be accessed online for free by researchers from anywhere in the world. It helps make research more efficient by sharing our knowledge with as many people as possible.