Exploring the Hidden World of Fungi on Dartmoor
This piece introduces ecologist Dr Christian Taylor, leader of our fungi walks, and invites you to journey into the living networks that shape Dartmoor’s wild beauty.
When we walk within Dartmoor’s woodlands we’re treading over a world we rarely see, a world that quietly shapes the health, beauty and balance of everything above it. Inside trunks, branches, twigs and leaves, and beneath the moss, soil and roots lies the mycelium: a vast moving, fluid-filled network of fungal cell-tubes (hyphae) that connects trees, plants, rock, animals and bacteria in a delicate, dynamic wood-wide-web.
The beauty of the fungal kingdom becomes visible to the naked eye in the form of collective mycelial structures such as mycelial chords, rhizomorphs, fans and fruiting bodies. These co-create nature’s accommodative architecture, by causing cavitation of wood, and drive the mineral and nutrient cycles on which ecosystems depend. Mycelial networks are a visible expression of the far greater, hidden intelligence that surrounds us in nature.
Dr Christian Taylor, an ecologist and educator with the British Mycological Society’s Education and Outreach Committee, has spent years exploring this hidden realm. Through his research and teaching he invites others to see fungi not only as organisms but as teachers that reveal connection, resilience, transformation and offer avenues for us to explore how to restore and re-wild our neighbourhoods.
“Fungi can teach us about ourselves by seeing our trajectories through space and time, allowing us to see ourselves in a new light, less as atomised, isolated individuals and more as interrelational beings, linking us to each other and to other species in natural environments.”
Christian often connects his ecological work to the philosophy of Natural Inclusion developed by Dr Alan Rayner whose writings and paintings explore how living systems flourish through dynamic relationship rather than separation. In this spirit Mycosophy – a philosophy that arises from the study and appreciation of fungi – encourages us to re-attune to the rhythms and interconnections of nature and to rediscover ourselves within it.
The growth of fungal hyphae, those microscopic fluid-filled filaments that extend and branch through soil, becomes a metaphor for life itself.
“An aspect of how hyphal tip extensions allow the trajectory of a hyphal tube to extend itself into new territory,” Christian writes, “can be mirrored in the behaviour of most animals if we allow time-lapse to visualise their historic trajectories through space and time.”
Like the mycelium we each leave trails through the world, pathways of relationship, work and creativity that intertwine with others.
“Our intertwined entangled trajectories during our lifespans represent uniquely personal ways in which we all interact with our surroundings, our localities, our communities and the interrelations we have with other species.”
Through this lens even a simple woodland walk becomes something deeper, a journey through a living community, a dance of countless invisible relationships unfolding beneath our feet and hidden within the branches and leaves overhead.
In ecology succession describes how pioneer species transform an environment so that new life can follow.
“The effects of waves of proliferation by populations of pioneer species improve conditions for the next wave of migrants and so on until eventually a forest emerges.”
Fungi are among those early pioneers that transform rock into soil and decay into renewal, the quiet architects of life’s continuity.
Beyond ecology fungi also inspire artistry and imagination. Christian often draws connections between mycelial networks and human culture, particularly the weaving of textiles.
“The significance of indigenous cultures spinning natural fibres into threads that can be woven into fabric and textiles can act as a metaphor for the way some fungal species aggregate their microscopic hyphae into macroscopic chord networks that make the Wood Wide Web visible.”
This “fungal fabric” mirrors both ecological and cultural interconnection.
“Just as clothes woven from local natural fibres represent humanity's ability to adapt and survive in local ecosystems so too the fungal wood wide web, woven from mycorrhizal fungal community networks, represents fungal abilities to create a fabric integrating plants, animals, bacteria, rocks and minerals within the dynamic tapestry of an ecosystem.”
Perhaps what we wear and what we walk upon are more deeply connected than we realise. Fungal textiles and mycelial fabrics offer a vision of sustainability, garments that symbolise the Wood Wide Web itself and weave together the biodiversity of our local landscapes into something both useful and meaningful.
An Invitation to Go Deeper
If these ideas intrigue you, you are warmly invited to join Fungi - Voyage Into the Mycelium, an intermediate-level walk and workshop led by Dr Christian Taylor and hosted by Dartmoor’s Daughter.
Designed for those who already have a basic understanding of fungi, this full-day experience on Sunday 9 November 2025 will explore the fungal kingdom in greater depth. Together we will walk the wooded hills of Dartmoor, use microscopes to observe mycelial structures, discuss fungal ecology and succession and share moments of quiet reflection and connection.
It is a day for curiosity, discovery and deepened awareness, a journey into both the science and the soul of the fungal world.
