The Hidden Kingdom/The Fungal Family Tree by National Geographic Magazine

Much more than just mushrooms, fungi are organisms more closely related to humans than to plants. Despite being recognized as their own kingdom on the tree of life, only a small fraction of them are known to scientists. Sometimes beneficial, other times deadly, fungi have shaped life on Earth for over a billion years. They’re in the food we eat and the air we breathe, and more than 90 percent of plants need them for water and nutrients. Our understanding of these organisms is infinitesimal: Of at least five million species, only about 150,000 have been identified and classified in a family tree shown here.