Fermented foods
Koji moulds, baker's yeast and Penicillium in cheeses are domesticated fungi. They are crafts, not infections.
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
Familiarity80
Medical weight60
Benefit70
Risk48
Research72
Live debate28
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Quick answers
Where should I start with Fungi?
Read Identity → How they live → Body & health, then use compare rails.
Is this page advice for Fungi?
Public-health education — not a care plan, prescription, or outbreak briefing.
What does the local lens add?
It names everyday desks for Tree of microbes before English norms look universal.
Are the scores a ranking of Fungi?
No — editorial 0–100 browsing aids inside this atlas only.
How do I compare Fungi to neighbours?
Use related cards and best-of / quiz rails after the first three chapters.
Which chapter is densest?
How they live and Body & health carry mechanisms; skim Identity first.
Healthy skin and guts already host yeasts such as Malassezia and Candida at low levels. Disease is often a shift in immunity, moisture or antibiotics — not a new arrival from space.
Invasive aspergillosis and cryptococcal meningitis matter in hospitals and in people with damaged immunity. They are not the median mushroom walk.
Body interfaces
Mycorrhizal farms
Most crops quietly depend on fungal partners for phosphorus. Tillage and fungicides can tax that alliance.
Allergic spores
Alternaria and Aspergillus spores ride late-summer air. Asthma risk is exposure plus host, not a moral story.
Skin and mucosal yeasts
Malassezia lives on sebum. Candida can bloom after broad antibiotics. Occupancy is normal; overgrowth is the complaint.
Invasive mycosis
Neutropenia, transplants and some HIV stages raise risk. Treatment is specialist medicine, not home remedies.
Drug discovery history
Penicillin (noted 1928) and statins from fungi rewired clinics. Soil and moulds remain chemical libraries.
Foraging is culture and risk management: identity first, never 'if animals eat it'. This page does not identify wild mushrooms for the table.
Keep exploring
More in Tree of microbes
Bacteria
Single-celled prokaryotes with cell walls — the oldest widespread life form, and both partners and pathogens.
Familiarity 95Viruses
Packets of DNA or RNA that are not cells — they replicate only inside living hosts.
Familiarity 96Archaea
A prokaryotic domain that is not bacteria — methanogens, extremophiles and no known human pathogens.
Familiarity 35Bacteriophages
Viruses that infect bacteria — Earth's most abundant biological entities, and a concept-level idea in medicine.
Familiarity 42Protozoa
Motile unicellular eukaryotes — a teaching grade that includes pond ciliates and a minority of serious parasites.
Familiarity 58