Can mushrooms and other fungi repair ecosystems, rescue the bees and eat toxic waste? They’ve done great on our planet during successive disasters; they have no fear, even of radiation.

Poland’s national season of mushroom picking is in full swing. Mushroom hunters, mycologists and other fungus fans are combing the nooks and crannies of field and forest, in search of porcini, red cherry and honey mushrooms. We fry them, marinate them, make stuffing from them and add them to sauces. But do mushrooms hold more secrets from us, other than these culinary mysteries?

Almost 250 million years ago, at the junction of the Permian – the last period of the Palaeozoic Era (when the great extinction began) – and the Triassic, the oldest period of the Mesozoic (near the end of the Triassic, the first mammals appeared on Earth), a global catastrophe swept 90% of all living species from the face of the planet. The cause of this great extinction is given as a strike by a meteorite. Shockwaves, streams of lava, violent explosions of hot gases and destructive winds (reaching speeds of thousands of kilometres per hour) rolled across the surface of the globe. The planet was completely enveloped in dust and plunged into darkness, which caused the annihilation of most plants and animals. It was then that the fungi took