Agarikon is one of the two fungi species in the United States listed as endangered. Due to its rarity, scientists have preserved samples in a biobank at the San Diego Zoo, hoping to propagate and potentially reintroduce it to the wild if its population continues to dwindle.
Known as quinine conk, agarikon is a large, rounded or semicircular shelf fungus found on the bark of ancient conifer trees in global forests. Around 2,000 years ago, a Greek physician described agarikon as “an elixir of long life.” Historically, it has been used to treat various ailments including tuberculosis, rheumatism, asthma, cancer, and inflammation.
Scientific research supports its healing properties, revealing that it contains strong antimicrobial, antiviral, and anti-cancer compounds. Moreover, it has been discovered to potentially mitigate side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine and boost immunity.
Despite these benefits, the future of the species remains uncertain.
“In the past hundred years, it declined 70 percent, and we don’t have evidence that decline is stopping,” said Jessica Allen, lead mycologist with NatureServe, a Virginia-based nonprofit concerned with biodiversity protection. “The Pacific Northwest is the last stronghold.”
The classification of only two fungi as endangered in the U.S. doesn’t imply that other fungi are thriving; rather, it highlights the limited knowledge about the vast world of fungi like mushrooms, mildews, and lichens. Nonetheless, researchers understand their crucial ecological roles, noting that up to 90 percent of plants rely on symbiotic relationships with mycorrhizal fungi to enhance nutrient and water absorption far beyond what soil alone can offer.
“Without this fungal web, my tree would not exist,” wrote mycologist Merlin Sheldrake in his best-selling 2020 book Entangled Life. “Without similar fungal webs, no plant would exist anywhere. All life on land, including my own, depended on these networks.”
Estimates suggest the existence of between 2.2 million to 12 million fungi species globally, but only about 155,000 have been identified, leaving many undiscovered.
The scarcity of information about fungi, despite their vital role in sustaining life, has spurred a movement to give fungi equal standing with plants and animals. Advocates argue that increased recognition would enhance fungi’s inclusion in research, policy, and conservation efforts. Currently, only 10 percent of mycorrhizal hotspots are within protected areas.
The protection “is needed. It’s important,” said Allen. “Fungi play an important role in the ecosystem. We know a lot about fungi, but mycologists haven’t been invited to the table to share their knowledge.”
Fungi are gaining more attention as scientists uncover and share their roles. In Entangled Life, Sheldrake highlighted fungi’s complexities, from ecosystem roles to cultural influences and their unique intelligence. This year, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, dubbed the “green Nobel Prize,” went to Toby Kiers, an evolutionary biologist at Vrije University Amsterdam, for her research on plant-soil-microbial connections through mycorrhizal networks, which draw carbon from plant roots for nutrients. She also received a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” in 2025 alongside Giuliana Furci, a Chilean mycologist and head of the New York-based Fungi Foundation. “The awards feel like an award for the invisible,” Kiers told The New York Times, “and a celebration of decentralized ways of thinking and operating that fungi have mastered.”
Despite advances, much about fungi remains elusive. “The whole concept of understanding functional roles in fungi is complicated because of their hidden nature,” said Andrew Wilson, associate curator of mycology at the Denver Botanic Gardens, who works to document fungal diversity and is part of the effort to raise its profile. “They are very cryptic. A plant is aboveground, and you can see the differences between them. Mushrooms are underground or live within the tissues of other organisms, and what they are doing is hard to study.”
Fungi researchers often take an evangelical approach to raising awareness. Furci believes understanding fungi will change perspectives: “Every organism has a fungal component that is sustaining them,” she said in an interview. “They are the firmament of life on Earth.”
Endophytic fungi, for instance, inhabit the cells of nearly all vascular plants and are vital for growth, resilience, and survival. They produce natural antibiotics to safeguard plants from diseases, deter herbivores and insects, and enhance nutrient uptake, water retention, and stress tolerance. Scientists are exploring these fungi to uncover new compounds for uses ranging from medicines to diesel fuels.
Fungi play a crucial role in various products and services, including drugs like penicillin and statins, nutraceuticals, fermented foods, and more. A recent paper estimated fungi’s value at nearly $55 trillion, factoring in sequestered carbon’s market value.
Mycologists dub fungi as ecosystem engineers due to their essential functions. Around 80 percent of terrestrial plant species partner with fungi. Ectomycorrizal fungi, for example, form a protective sheath around tree roots, facilitating nutrient exchange. This partnership allows trees to thrive in poor or toxic soils by increasing root surface area.
Research increasingly shows that restoring ecosystems with native plants and creating conditions conducive to native fungi growth enhances plant vigor and survival.
One well-studied mycorrhiza in the genus Suillus grows on pine tree roots. “They can differentiate in their tissues between the toxic metals”— whether naturally occurring in soil or deposited through human activity — “and the nutrients that the trees need,” said Wilson, “and preferentially feed the tree nutrients while preventing these toxic metals from harming the trees.”
Wilson noted that each fungal species may perform unique roles. “Biologically, they are not all doing the same thing. If they were, there would not be a need of all this [fungal] diversity.” This suggests that mycorrhizae may have numerous other roles in symbiosis with plants.
Fungi have been recycling nutrients and breaking down rocks for over 900 million years, forming the first soils. Allen noted, “They were a key innovation that allowed plants to move from the ocean onto the land.” Today, they continue this process by decomposing dead vegetation, releasing nutrients for new plant growth, and building healthy soil ecosystems.
Fungi also play a significant role in carbon sequestration. Soils hold 75 percent of terrestrial carbon and about 59 percent of Earth’s biodiversity. Kiers and her team estimate mycorrhizae sequester 13 billion tons of carbon dioxide in soil annually, equating to a third of global fossil fuel emissions.
Despite their importance, fungi often lack protection. Threats include climate change, which reduces diversity, and land development. A recent study by the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) found that only 10 percent of diverse mycorrhizal ecosystems are in protected areas.
SPUN, founded by Kiers and others in 2021, uses DNA sequencing and machine learning to map mycorrhizal networks. The group identifies key fungal biodiversity areas, typically moist, undisturbed, and rich in plant diversity, and advocates for their protection.
Kiers and her team also launched the Underground Explorers Program, a global network of scientists mapping regional fungal diversity before species disappear. They further initiated Underground Advocates to equip mycologists with legal and policy skills to promote the Kingdom of Funga.
Other initiatives are in progress. The Fungi Diversity Survey, or FUNDIS, began in 2017 and has gained momentum. Its citizen scientists contribute to a global fungal database while experts sequence fungi genomes and identify species of concern.
California leads in fungi collection, cataloging, and census efforts. Since 2022, the California Fungal Diversity Survey has collected over 10,000 fungi species in the state, sequencing their DNA, with more than 2,000 being new to science.
Existing fungi collections, like the Fungarium at Kew Gardens in London, housing over 1.25 million specimens, are also undergoing examination with advanced technologies.
In 2024, at the COP16 Biodiversity Conference, Chile and the U.K. governments proposed the Fungal Conservation Pledge, urging countries to recognize fungi at the same level as flora and fauna. Thirteen countries informally agreed, with plans to present it at COP17 in fall 2026 for formal adoption.
The goal, said Maisa Rojas Corradi, Chile’s minister for the environment, is “to integrate fungi into global conservation strategies and frameworks, highlighting the key role they play in the fight against climate change, biodiversity loss, and the promotion of sustainable economic development.”
Fungi advocates are encouraged by all that has happened in the last few years and confident that fungi are starting to get their due. “The shroom boom is definitely happening,” said Gabriela D’Elia, former director of the Fungal Diversity Survey. “It’s a fungal awakening.”
