Embracing the third F word: Fauna, Flora, and Funga
How language can help protect our (almost) overlooked third kingdom
Reading time: 8 mins (grab a cuppa)
Yesterday I brought home a Blushing Bolete (Leccinum melaneum) from a morning walk in the woods. While prepping it for breakfast my mom asked, “Do mushrooms taste different depending on where in the world they grow? You know, like wine from grapes grown in South Africa taste different from wine grapes grown in England, because of the soil and what the grapes are eating”. It’s a great question because it highlights a common misunderstanding: that fungi are plants.
As a mycophile I am guilty of sometimes taking for granted how little the public knows about fungi, forgetting the gaping hole that exists in our school curriculums. Lots about animals, plants, amoebas; yet nearly nothing about mushrooms. After attempting my best (non-scientific) explanation that mushrooms belong in their own kingdom, don’t behave like plants, and probably taste the same no matter where they grow (although, this is one for the experts…!), I had a renewed awareness of the power of language and the importance of fundamental education.
“It’s time to include the 3rd F!”, says Marios Levi of Fungi Foundation, a global nonprofit dedicated to fungi conservation. We’re sitting in a shady spot in the West Sussex countryside, on a sunny morning at the UK’s inaugural All Things Fungi Festival. Marios is instantly likeable – a mop of buoyant curls frames the face of a cheerful, open, and good-natured human. The kind of personality that is needed when there’s a mammoth task to complete and one that may occasionally be met with resistance. You see, Marios is the Initiative Lead for Fungi Foundation’s 3Fs Initiative: Fauna Flora Funga.
Fantastic, fascinating yet almost forgotten fungi
As interconnectors of nature, fungi play a crucial yet often overlooked role in the health of our planet. Apart from being fun and fascinating, fungi support and enrich life in so many ways, and can help address a lot of urgent environmental issues. They are essential to ecosystems as they cycle nutrients, breaking down dead plant and animal matter and making those nutrients available again. They have the potential for myco-remediation (using mushrooms to clean up pollutants) and can be used to make biofuels and sustainable packaging or building materials. They have a range of medicinal properties, great nutritional value and can provide food security where it's much needed. They connect us with nature and teach us about the interconnectedness of all things. And so much more!
Fungi are beautiful and weird and cool under a microscope, treasure in a forest, fun to cook with and (some are) delicious. Without fungi and fermentation, there’d be no beer, wine, cheese, chocolate or bread. Sign me up for advocacy, please!
Accounts of the living world that do not include fungi are accounts of a world that doesn’t exist. Fungi have long sustained and enriched life on Earth. We are unthinkable without them, and yet, we are only just beginning to understand the intricacies of fungal lives. It’s time we give them the attention they deserve.
-Giuliana Furci, Field Mycologist and Founding Director of Fungi Foundation; and Merlin Sheldrake, biologist and author of ‘Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds, and Shape Our Futures’, in a joint article for The Times
But what are fungi, anyway?
Despite all this, they are not (yet) widely recognised for their value. A big part of advocating for fungi is about explaining what they are; not easy when fungi are everywhere! They are my breakfast, but are also yeasts, moulds and a bunch of other microscopic organisms. Out of sight, out of mind perhaps?
Historically, they’ve been grouped with plants—not only by my mom but also by science and policy. The traditional classification of Fauna and Flora (sans Funga) means that animals and plants have been the primary focus of conservation efforts, with fungi sadly neglected. Currently, fungi only represent a teeny tiny 0.2 % of our global conservation priorities. When I first read this stat I needed a moment for it to sink in.
It’s a chicken-and-egg challenge. Disregarding the fungal kingdom by conservation policymakers means less funding for mycologists and fewer opportunities for them to help policymakers generate knowledge and awareness of fungi and their essential role in the health of our planet and its people.
The lack of fungal literacy and representation translates to a lack of space for their advocacy; plants and animals are well accounted for, at the governmental and institutional level as well as in the public mind, with avenues of funding and assessment already established.
- Doug Bierand in his book ‘In Search of Mycotopia: Citizen Science, Fungi Fanatics, and the Untapped Potential of Mushrooms’
For us and our ecosystems to thrive, fungi must thrive
You may be thinking, “But how could this have happened?!” It’s a major oversight that can’t really be pinned on any particular person, entity, time or place. It’s exactly that: an oversight. It was only in the late 1960s that scientists discovered that fungi are, in fact, their own distinct kingdom. Some now take the fungal classification further in a bid to break the binary, de-patriarchalise (or re-matriarchalise) mycology and science, by preferring terms like queendom, queerdom or kindom1.
This new language is important because fungi are crucial to biodiversity and the health of organisms and systems that we depend on. When fungi suffer, so do we. They simply have to be protected.
The Fauna Flora Funga (FFF) initiative addresses this holistically, with a top-down and bottom-up approach. Advocating at organisational and government levels, they are working to get the right people on board, as well as generating public awareness and interest.
Language creates reality.
The idea is that simply adding a 3rd ‘F’ into conservation policies and frameworks at government, NGO and corporation level, will add Funga (fungi) into focus as equally deserving of protection as Fauna (animals) and Flora (plants). At first glance it may seem like ‘just adding a word’, but writing this neglected king/queen/queer/kin-dom into policy frameworks essentially cements it into law. This has the potential to raise awareness, unlock funding for mycological research and education, and provide a layer of credibility for the general public.
I asked Marios, so what’s the difference between fungi and funga?
His response: “Funga refers to the fungi of a particular region, habitat or period. It doesn’t replace fungi. Any time you see ‘animals’ and ‘plants’, you say ‘fungi’, but any time you see Fauna and Flora, you say Funga.”
Easy enough!
Weaving a 3rd F into the global lexicon
This mycologically inclusive language is easy to adopt. It rolls off the tongue and feels intuitive—more than traditional nomenclature like mycoflora, mycobiota, and mycota. Unlike Fauna and Flora, it’s not actually Latin, but it is morphologically similar and sounds great.
‘Funga’ feels so ‘right’ that when first heard it I was like, “Hang on, why hasn’t this always been a thing?”
It is relatively new and a topic of debate in mycological circles. ‘Funga’ was proposed by Suzanne Gravesen (2000)2, used by Knudsen & Vesterholt in the title of their 2008 book Funga Nordica3, and enthusiastically adopted by more authors. Professor David Hawksworth, well-known for his work in inventorying global fungal species diversity and improving nomenclatural systems, initiated4 and continues5 discussion in IMA Fungus around the appropriateness of adopting the term.
It was only in 2018, however, when Funga was first delimited and the ‘urgent need’ for such a term put forth in a paper6 by one of my personal heroes Giuliana Furci and her colleagues Francisco Kuhar, Elisandro Ricardo Drechsler-Santos and Donald Pfister.
Adding a 3rd F into the global lexicon is no small feat! FFF aims to see funga integrated into everyday language, school and undergraduate curricula, scientific research, museums, government and corporate policy and more.
With such a scope there’s bound to be resistance at some levels—which isn’t necessarily a direct opposition to the idea, but likely a number of factors at play. Scientific nomenclature has a long-standing history and to introduce a new term means challenging the status quo.
Lack of education and awareness extends to the scientific world, where many scientists outside of mycology might still be unaware of the unique status of fungi. For some, it may be a case of ‘other priorities’, where, in the grand scheme of scientific challenges and debates, introducing Funga might be viewed as a lower-priority issue.
If including Funga, then why stop at Funga?
Critics might argue that, if the goal of introducing Funga is to acknowledge the diversity and importance of life forms, then what about bacteria? (and, I’m no scientist but what about other microscopic life forms… archaea, viruses, protozoa?) Some might believe that adding Funga without addressing others is inconsistent or exclusive.
In fact, why stop at fungi? If every significant life domain were to be given a term like Fauna or Flora, the list could become fun, but also unwieldy. It could make communication more challenging rather than simplifying it.
As a mere amateur mycologist I have no intelligent argument to contribute to “Why not bacteria?”, but I enjoyed Marios’s response:
“I’ll quote what Giuliana always says. I really look up to her… she just says ‘By all means, do bacteria too! Bacteria Foundation, we’ll support you, but we’re doing Fungi Foundation’.”
This debate will likely continue for some time, and it'll be interesting to observe the response to evolving terminology of micro-organisms that can’t be seen with the naked eye (bacteria, viruses etc), compared to macro Funga, which we can actually see. The fact that many mushrooms can be felt, touched, tasted, seen and smelt, yet are still incorrectly named and ignored in policy, remains concerning.
For some more pros and cons of adopting Funga, check out this issue of IMA Fungus
Embracing the F word
Excitingly, Funga is already being adopted by policy and pop culture. Chile famously leads the charge in recognising fungi in environmental impact assessments7, meaning that the impact on Funga is assessed alongside Fauna and Flora when any new ecologically disruptive road, dam or development (destruction) is proposed. More countries are adopting the word, like Iceland, Australia and Brazil.
The FFF initiative has sporulated across a variety of cultural groups, and claims that “More than 1300 scientists, researchers, activists and citizens from 77 countries have joined #FaunaFloraFunga”. There are big wins as international NGOs and organisations continue to ‘embrace the F word’, like the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) and Rewild.
Marios lets us into one element of his work: tracking the adoption, use and sharing of ‘Funga’ on social media over time. Anecdotally he notes how, since releasing the initiative in 2021, mentions are increasingly organic and less directly associated with the FFF # or petition push– exactly what you’d hope for when evaluating impact!
Mushrooms are having a moment
This adoption is likely due to a number of factors. Mainly, the time is right! Mushrooms are having a global moment, perhaps in part fueled by campaigns like these. Almost certainly, interest is fueled by the people behind the work: Giuliana Furci is to me (as I’m sure she is to many) an inspiration - a strong, brilliant, gorgeous and powerful female educator and advocate. The Colombian lawyer, sociologist and scholar César Rodríguez-Garavito, another key FFF player, lends expertise and credibility based on his advocacy work in environmental justice and human and indigenous rights. Merlin Sheldrake, the man even my non-mycophile friends have heard about via his famed book Entangled Life, adds a cool splash of myco-celebrity and fantastic perspectives. Personally, I find an initiative or campaign easier to join when I can empathise with the individuals behind it, and Marios fulfils that role for me.
At the end of the day, it’s not about people, it’s about the fungi. But people help to sell stories, and when those people are famous, credible, relatable or all of the above, you’ve got a winning backbone to a winning campaign.
For the 3Fs, it starts with you as an individual. Use it as much as you can. If you personally have connections, then don’t reach out to me, just go directly and tell them to add more mycologically inclusive language. And, If you’re a decision-maker, then… decide!
- Marios Levi, 3F Initiative Lead at Fungi Foundation
Blame it on the mycelium
In the spirit of embracing the power of an individual (or a small group of individuals) to affect change, let's hope we see more people, organisations and policies using mycologically inclusive language by saying ‘fauna-flora-FUNGA’ and ‘animals-plants-FUNGI’, whenever and wherever.
Lastly, maybe this works because the mycelium is at work, silently, subtly but profoundly working unseen underground. Just like mycelium lays the foundations for our fungal friends to sporulate, mycologically inclusive language lays the foundations for us to manifest positive change: for the F word to make its way into public consciousness, and for the conservation of fungi into policy.
Let’s hope it does because, as Fungi Foundation memorably states, “We are unthinkable without fungi.”
Mush love 🍄❤️
Support Fungi Foundation and join the 3Fs movement!
Sign the statement | Fauna Flora Funga website | Fungi Foundation
Thank you to Marios Levi for the interview, and Fungi Foundation for the opportunity to discuss your incredible work!
Listen to my podcast chat with Marios, where we go behind the scenes and intricacies of how the 3Fs initiative is run, and what it's like to be Marios!
Coming up on Running with Mushrooms…
Keep an eye out for my chat with Marios’s colleague Cristian Moreno Tormo, Fungi Foundation’s Programme and Expedition Developer who currently heads up the amazing Elder’s Program, focusing on ancestral human-fungal relationships.
There is a lot of great reading on this if you search ‘fungi queerdom’; I loved this article by Chacruna titled Five Things Mushrooms & Non-Binary People Have in Common
Gravesen S (2000) Microbiology on Indoor Air ’99 — what’s new and exciting? An overview of selected papers presented in Edinburgh, August, 1999. Indoor Air 10: 74–80.
Funga Nordica is a book and research paper comprising descriptions and keys to 3000+ fungi species of northern Europe. Ref: Funga Nordica : Agaricoid, boletoid and cyphelloid genera. / Knudsen, Henning (Editor); Vesterholt, Jan (Editor).
Hawksworth, D.L. Funga and fungarium. IMA Fungus 1, 9 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03449321
Hawksworth IMA Fungus (2020) 11:28
Francisco Kuhar, Giuliana Furci, Elisandro Ricardo Drechsler-Santos and Donald H. Pfister (2018) Delimitation of Funga as a valid term for the diversity of fungal communities: the Fauna, Flora & Funga proposal (FF&F)
Giuliana Furci and Fungi Foundation, allied with other environmental nonprofits, put forward a proposal to the Chilean government to recognise and protect fungi. The motion passed in 2012, making Chile the first country in the world to recognise fungi in environmental impact assessments. Read more about it here.
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