Everyone is aware of the nineteenth-century Irish potato famine, but fungal diseases of many other crops have had similarly apocalyptic consequences. Today, coffee, cacao, and rubber are threatened by fungi throughout the tropics. Indeed, fungi have carved their way through the ages, attacking every plant that we cultivate, constantly exploiting new hosts. In The Triumph of the Fungi, Nicholas Money offers an intimate picture of these pernicious microbes, the scientists who have sought to control them, and the people directly impacted by the loss of forest trees and cash crops. Even with the development of fungicides and other scientific breakthroughs, fungi continue to be unstoppable - this is the story of their triumph.
Mycologist Money (botany, Miami U., Ohio) concentrates on what he considers the most devastating fungal diseases in history, those that plague trees and crops with invisible spores and have reshaped entire landscapes and decimated human populations, the Irish potato famine being only the best known. He discusses their biology, the scientists who studied them, and the people directly affected by the loss of forest trees and cash crops. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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