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ISSUE #44

DESIGN & NATURE REIMAGINED

MARISA MORBY​

Last week I gave my first nature education class, where I taught people about native plants, their role in ecology, and human uses for these plants. It was a lovely walk through the park and we even got to see some plants beginning their fruit production!
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This week's newsletter is about relationships. Mainly relationships with fungi. You can learn more about what fungi is in Parts 1 and 2 of The Universe Beneath Our Feet.

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design

As of 2018, the EPA estimated that we had 82 million tonnes of packaging generation, and therefore waste. A lot of this packaging is also plastic, which doesn't really break down and can be difficult to recycle. It's imperative that we move away from oil and oil byproducts, like plastic.
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And this is where mushrooms come in, surprisingly. Mushroom Packaging by Ecovative makes—well, you get it. They're mushroom packaging is grown over the course of a week and is fully biodegradable in 45 days. It can be custom moulded to fit the item that's being shipped, so it cuts down on any extra packaging besides the box. Once the packaging has reached the right shape and size, it's heat-treated to stop growth and remove spores.
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In fact, if you've bought Dell or IKEA in the last few years, their products are shipped with mushroom packaging. Another company, Magical Mushroom Company in the UK also got funding through Ecovative in 2020 to expand this packaging out into other retailers like Lush and Selfridges. It's great to see real alternatives to plastic gaining traction and being used at scale.
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nature

This week I wanted to share this rare and endangered phantom orchid Cephalanthera austiniae I found. These are native to the Pacific Northwest and found in rich forest soils. They don't have any chlorophyll (aclorophyllous), which is why they're white. The lack of chlorophyll also means they don't photosynthesize. Instead, they have a "relationship with a single family of fungus that in turn forms association with several species of trees." So far we know the fungus is in the Thelephoraceae family, and in that relationship the orchid takes carbon from the fungus as its energy source. This is called mycoheterotrophy. These orchids can remain dormant in the soil for several years in between flowerings, making them even more elusive.

reimagine

Humans have had a relationship with fungi for centuries. We realized how delicious the truffle was, and pay high prices to put it on our pasta. We've seen that psilocybin "desynchronizes the human brain" allowing for "rapid and sustained symptom relief for depression, addiction, and end-of-life anxiety."

And now we're seeing that it can even be used to clean up our messes. Fungi help decompose waste, and are also good at toxin capture. Much like mussels are filters for water, fungi act as filters for soil.
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So it's pretty phenomenal that research is underway to determine if fungi can help clean up oil spills. The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, put fungi on oil soaked soil, which smelled of oil if you disturbed it. Surprisingly, fungi grew in certain areas of the soil, and in the areas where it did grow, scientists said the smell of the soil was almost like baby powder. They believe that the fungi is helping clean the soil, and are gathering data to see if this is true.

This new potential field is called mycoremediation and future studies could focus on how we make mushrooms grow more quickly, or remediate more efficiently.