(footsteps squelching) - I'm Stephen Axford. 12 years ago, I retired
from the computer industry and I started taking photos of mushrooms. (shutter clicking) Then I started putting my
photographs on the internet, and people really started to like them. Then the BBC contacted me and
wanted to use my time-lapse on "Planet Earth II." (inspiring music continues) So what started as a hobby has actually become a real obsession, and it gets me and my
filmmaker partner, Catherine, invited to document fungi in all sorts of places around the world. (vehicle horn beeps) This time, we're going to northeast India. (inspiring music continues) (engine sputtering) We're embarking on a fungi safari into some of the most remote
jungles on the planet. (river roaring) We want to know what mushrooms we can eat. So are these edible? - These are very tasty, and in the market they
have a very high price. - And we want to know what
mushrooms will poison us. We're on the hunt for the beautiful fungi, and we're on the hunt for the unusual, and even bizarre, fungi. Wow, what have we got here? This looks very like a Cordyceps species. And we want to find out why
scientists all over the world now think that fungi
are absolutely essential to life on this planet. (inspiring music continues) Today is the first day of
our Indian fungi safari, and we begin in the remote state of Assam. (bells clanging) It's a region known for its excellent tea. - [Children] Hi!
- Hi. We've come here at the invitation of the Balipara Foundation. One of their projects is documenting the biodiversity of the forests
in the eastern Himalayas, and they've just added fungi to the list. (inspiring music fades) - We, as Balipara Foundation, have always been really interested in auditing the biodiversity that we have in the eastern Himalayas. We feel that a documentation
of biodiversity is really important for its conservation, because if you don't know what grows, then you can't really save it. - What have we got here? That's a beautiful, big coral fungus. - And we've always been
focused on documenting the kind of trees, flora, and shrubs that are found in the preexisting forest. We've never really thought about fungi. Till the point in time when
we actually came across news that quite a few people
in the area around Assam and also in Meghalaya had been poisoned. - [Stephen] This one,
I believe, they do eat. - [Guide] Yeah, that one for eatable one. - [Stephen] Yeah, and how do you cook it? - Cooking like soup also. - Is there a lot of it here? - Eh, maybe. - I grew up in Assam. People in Assam do not
normally consume fungi at all, and I don't think that there
is a lot of local knowledge about the fungi that could be consumed. - This is an enormous fungus. I'm sure we know what this one is, but instead of being this
big, it's this big. (chuckles) - By the end of this
first kind of survey trip of the biodiversity, we hope
to have a basic knowledge of the kind of mushrooms that grow, of the kind of mushrooms that
are being consumed by people, and maybe also the kind of mushrooms that have been consumed by people and have resulted in poisoning. (engine sputtering)
(dreamy music) - [Stephen] First stop is Majuli Island, which is in the middle of the Brahmaputra. Majuli is the biggest river island in the world,
(birds singing) stretching from Sivasagar in the north to Kaziranga Wildlife Park in the south.
(elephant trumpets) The local people are the Mising tribe whose lives depend on the ebb and flow of the dry and wet seasons. Majuli is also a place of
ancient Hindu monasteries with some very unique ways
of keeping young monks fit and healthy.
(dreamy Indian music) And Majuli is the home of a living legend. Jadav Payeng is known as
the Forest Man of India. The big web of nature.
- [Gautam] Yeah. - [Stephen] 39 years ago, this
inspiring subsistence farmer set himself a massive mission: to plant life back into
this part of Majuli Island. (dreamy music ends) - This is a red cotton tree,
and this is 30 years old. It's amazing. So huge. (dreamy music) - I find Jadav Payeng's
forest a powerful reminder of how just one person can
make a huge difference. And I'm not the only one he inspires. In 2010, his story went
viral on the internet. And today, Jadav Payeng is celebrated as one of the world's
great conservationists. Oh, what are these ones here? Do you know if these ones are poisonous? How do you know that they're toxic? - With the photographs that
Steve is taking of the fungi, we wanted to created an
encyclopedia of fungi description. At the same time, his
photographs are just amazing, so it creates a love for the fungi through the photographs, and we'll use these
photographs as awareness tool when we start our next
phase of the project. (shutter clicks) - What we're finding in this young forest is saprophytic fungi like this one. Now, saprophytic fungi is a type of fungus that decomposes dead organic material, in this case, fallen bits of wood, trees that die, leaves.
(inspiring music) If it wasn't for saprophytic fungi, this whole forest would
be piled deep in wood that never rots away. (inspiring music continues) Fungi are not plants
and they're not animals. They have their own vast kingdom of life. Scientists predict that
there are somewhere between four and five million species of fungi on this planet. But, so far, we've only
documented 200,000. So there's a lot to learn. (inspiring music continues) These ones look like they're Termitomyces. Many species of Termitomyces are edible, but we can't be sure with these ones. They've got a very hard pointy
cap, which is indicative. The termites farm, they get bits of leaf and twigs and things and take it down into the nest and then put the fungus on
it and the fungus grows, and the termites eat some of the fungus and they allow the rest to grow. Finding mushrooms that the
locals can harvest and eat is one of the big missions
of this fungi field trip. - The major source of protein in this part of the world are legumes. But legumes, unfortunately, do not provide for as much protein as is required during a normal course of development. We've also gone through reports which talk about how this
sort of malnourishment during the early years of growth affects mental growth in adults, which is a very, very important part of a fully formed human being.
(villagers chattering) So mushrooms can be promoted as a high-protein source
for a normal diet. Also could form one very integral part of this new land restoration plan where people are involved in
the restoration of habitat but also are growing mushrooms which give them a form of
self-sufficiency in their diet but also a source of revenue. So mushrooms would be
one of the many things which we would be trying to promote in the hope for a community-based conservation of our forests.
(dreamy music) - We're on our way to the
Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary, which is about as close
to an untouched forest as we're likely to find
in this part of India. (dreamy music continues)
(horn honking) - [Gautam] This is poisonous.
- [Biju] Poisonous. - But he doesn't know the name. They came to know that
this one is poisonous because they have heard
stories about people dying after eating this particular mushroom. Also, it's a kind of
ethnobotanical knowledge that they used to get
it from their ancestors. - Ah, now we've got one that's very appropriate
for this national park. It's growing on elephant dung. There's a mature one, and then one, two, three more. (dreamy music ends) (shutter clicks)
(birds singing) Do you know if these fungi
are poisonous or edible? - Medicine. This is of cancer. - Cancer medicine.
- Cancer. - [Stephen] So they're
purple on the inside. This is a mature one, and
these ones are just starting. To start with, they're just little cups. - [Both] Herbal practitioner.
(inspiring music) - In this forest, I photographed 32
different species of fungi, and the ranger told us that
most of them are not edible. Yet scientists think that every
single one of these species could have an important
role to play in the forest. What we're documenting is
the fruit of the fungus. But if we could see
inside the rotting wood, the dead leaves, and the
soil, we would find mycelium, which is like the body of the fungus. These tiny threads break
down and recycle wood. And they seek out water and nutrients and feed those to the
roots of the living trees. The more we learn, the more we realize that fungi are vital to living plants. (inspiring music continues) (vehicle horn honking)
(water sloshing) We've stumbled upon a very
rare species of scientist, a mycologist, and this one specializes in growing edible fungi. (inspiring music fades) - So what happens here
is that Dr. A.K. Bordoloi gives the mushroom spawn to the villages, and then they mix it up to
make the mushroom compost and grow mushrooms with it. - [Dr. Bordoloi] We can
harvest four to five days. - So how much total do
you get out of one bag? - 1 to 1 1/2 Kg. - Up to 1 1/2 kilograms. - Yes. - That's, six by 48, 300 kilograms in here.
- Yeah, yeah. - That's a lot of mushrooms. (laughs) How has it been for you in
terms of money, doing this? - For how many hours' work? - 2 1/2 hours daily.
- Daily. - 2 1/2 hours daily. - Yeah, it's a lot of money for growing in a little shed like this. (dreamy music) Are they nice to eat? - Good. (chuckles) (vehicle engine sputtering)
(dreamy music continues) The next stop on our fungi
adventure is Arunachal Pradesh in the far northeast corner of India. (boat engine sputtering)
(dreamy music continues) (vehicle horns honking) (man shouting) Arunachal is one of the most
culturally diverse regions in Asia, with 25 major tribes. (drums beating)
(cymbals clinking) They include the Buddhists
in the high-mountain areas near the Tibetan border. (dancers chanting) And many tribes who live
on the forest fringe and traditionally worship nature. (dancers singing in foreign language) (bell ringing) We've been told they know a
lot more about forest fungi. There's something over here? Ooh! It's a beauty, isn't it? Are these edible? You eat these? - Yes, edible. Yeah.
- Yes? Okay.
- Okay, finally, we got something to eat. - They look like they're
good specimens, too. (dreamy music) This fungus is often called
the parasol mushroom. It is an edible species, very popular and sough after in Europe. Its name is Macrolepiota procera. There's some more here. Wow. I've gotta take a photo of those two. They're so beautifully highlighted against the dark background. These mushrooms are in the same family as a fungus most of us are familiar with: the common field mushroom. But it also looks similar
to a poisonous mushroom: the shaggy parasol. I hope our guides have
identified this one correctly, because these specimens are destined for our dinner plate tonight. This is a Xylaria or a species of Xylaria? - [Man] This the part of mushroom? - Yes, these are mushrooms. Probably not edible. (man groans) Most people think of mushrooms as a conventional thing with a stem like the mushrooms over
here growing on the tree. But these are also
fruiting bodies of fungi. (inspiring music) Over 100 species of Xylaria have been identified in the world and they come in a huge
variety of shapes and sizes. Some of the largest species are
known as dead man's fingers. (chuckling) For obvious reasons. It's the amazing diversity of fungi, the colors and the forms and the way it interacts with
other life of the forest, that I find endlessly fascinating. (bird calling) (shutter clicks) - He said this particular mushroom, it flowers for a very small time. When it rains, it starts flowering. And when the sun comes up, then it dies very soon. So he said this is very hard to find here. He also added that this is mostly eaten by the rats, not by humans. (utensil clanging) - It's the moment of truth. Just how edible are the
mushrooms we collected today? Our chef lets us in on
his secret soup recipe. The soup is simple, but the
taste, really excellent. (upbeat music) Today, we're leaving the
plains of Assam behind and heading up into
the hills of Meghalaya. (raindrops pattering)
(upbeat music continues) Meghalaya is one of the
wettest places on Earth, which is just perfect for mushrooms. But before we head into the forest, we're going to visit the town of Jowai, because we've heard today is
a very special celebration. (people chanting in foreign language) It's Behdeinkhlam, a
festival all about cleansing. (man speaking in foreign language) (people chanting in foreign language) The first ritual of the day is to beat everyone's
house with bamboo poles to drive away evil spirits and disease. The beaters get a gift of home brew, paan, and chewing tobacco for their efforts. Then it's time to put the final touches on tall decorated towers called raths. (drums beating) (men shouting in foreign language) (festive music) The raths are destined for a
pond in the middle of town. But getting them there turns out to be part of the theater of the festival. This is a totally crazy festival. I haven't been to one where people have so clearly enjoyed themselves. There's all these little crazy groups. The stage is now set for
act three of Behdienkhlam. The men, lined up on the
edge of the stadium's pond, are in family teams. The role of the pond was a big mystery until the blue team did the unthinkable. (people shouting) Of course, being India, there is a spiritual
side to all this mayhem. These Jaintia tribes are animists, and this festival is to make sure the crops they've recently planted grow into a bumper harvest. (Jaintia people chanting) All this splashing of water
washes away any bad spirits. And the sapling they're carrying represents rebirth and new growth. With the ritual for the blue
and yellow teams now complete, everyone gets to have a go. (people and children shouting) There's another rath coming down here now. They're all gonna drown in it. With no regard for life or limb, the raths are taken into
the pond to join in the fun. (drums continue beating)
(people shouting) I'm pinching myself. Who would've thought that
fungi would open the door to this unforgettable experience? (dreamy music) We're heading up to about 2,500 meters into the East Khasi Hills. (cow moos) Our first forest is a
biologist's paradise: the Sacred Grove of Mawphlang. Yeah, okay. - Mawphlang Sacred Grove is
about more than 500 years old and it was being conserved and preserved by the local community
to rites and rituals. We know that true sacred
groves, it acts as a gene pool. We know that we have some
endemic species of trees, flowers or orchids we will see, and also the medicinal plants. A host of more than 450 tree species, including herbs. We also see that, I
think, we're having here around 50 to 60 type of mushrooms. But, most of all, we would like also to know little bit more about mushrooms. (shutter clicks) - This is a beefsteak fungus, it's called. I've seen these in Tasmania and in China, so they're quite widespread. The local people say that they're edible, which fits with the name of beefsteak. (shutter clicking) These are quite an interesting fungus. They do eat these ones here in Meghalaya, and they certainly eat
them in China as well. This one's a rather pretty shell fungus. It's got a dark, chocolatey brown on top with a golden yellow rim and then going to a
beautiful cream underneath. I suspect that it's a parasitic
fungi, though I'm not sure. But often, these parasitic fungi will live on the tree
for quite a long time. When the tree eventually dies, then they'll consume the
rest of the deadwood. This is subtropical rainforest,
and it's much more pristine than any forest we've been in so far that it's really quite a beautiful forest. There's a lot of biodiversity here. (dreamy music) There are 105 sacred groves in Meghalaya. They vary a great deal in size, from this one here at
Mawphlang, which is 75 hectares, to tiny reserves. Because they're spiritual
places, the local people believe that deities who live
here will be offended if trees are cut and
twigs, flowers, fruits, and yes, even fungi, are plucked. We were told many stories of
bad luck, tragedy, and disaster for those who broke the rules. The upside of this is that sacred groves
protect biodiversity, and they became our go-to place
for fungi across Meghalaya, with some fabulous finds.
(dreamy music ends) These look really exciting
'cause they're very similar to ones that we find in Australia. If you look underneath them,
they're almost identical. It's Mycena leaiana. Very pretty. And this is a species that I
quite frequently time-lapse. (contemplative music) (contemplative music fades) (water sloshing) The other forest type in Meghalaya that we are told is
just brilliant for fungi is their pine forests. The locals promise they
will be especially good for edible fungi. This is a mushroom that was found for us. It's slightly pink. And a little bit green in places as well. But I don't know terribly much about it. What do you call this mushroom? - Blood mushroom. - Blood mushroom.
- This is the blood mushroom. - Yeah. - [Stephen] So you eat this mushroom? - [Translator] (speaks in
foreign language) Yeah. - [Man] Inside red. - Aha. So if you break it around,
- Yeah. It become red, red. - around the edge there, it bleeds red. They found another one there? - [Gautam] Yeah, got a little one. - [Stephen] Oh, yeah. You eat these. Very pretty.
- [Gautam] Yeah. - What do you call them? - Charcoal mushroom.
- Yeah. - How do they prepare them
for eating? Do they fry them? (shutter clicks) - [Stephen] They're beautiful. Oh, now, what have we got here? Do you know this sort of mushroom? - Yes, we call it (speaks
in foreign language). (speaks in foreign language)
is the breast, yes. And because-
- So, the boob fungi. - The boob fungus. (chuckling) Yes. Because when we break this,
we get the white oozes, which is similar to the
milk from the breast. That's how it got its name. - [Stephen] What is this little insect? - [Nangsan] Do mushrooms have pests? - A lot of insects will eat mushrooms. It's good for the mushrooms because the insects help
to spread the spores. - The spores, mm-hmm.
- Yeah. So the spores come from these gills and they fall down from the mushroom. So the mushroom is up like
that, the spores fall down, and there's billions
of them that come out. And they'll be spread by the wind- - Microscopic little spores. - Absolutely microscopic. (shutter clicks) The general name for this
type of fungus is Lactaria. So when I break it, you'll
see some milk come out of it. - [Nangsan] Wow, that's a lot. - Milk just oozes out. So are these edible? - Yes, these are. In fact, these are very tasty, and in the market they
have a very high price. For a kilo, it costs about 400 rupees. - Okay. So that's about $6 US. (dreamy music) Which is quite expensive. All the edible fungi we're
seeing in this forest are ectomycorrhizal. These are the fungi that live
mutualistically with plants. What that means is that, underground, the mycelium of the fungus attaches to the roots of the trees and its tiny threads draw up minerals and water into the tree. In return, the tree provides
the fungi with carbohydrates. (dreamy music continues) Without fungi, there would be no forest. (shutter clicking)
(dreamy music continues) We're privileged to work with many brilliant guides in Meghalaya, but, by far, the most knowledgeable and the most entertaining is a Khasi woman introduced to us as
Kong, which means sister. So what is this one? - (speaking in foreign
language) Yellow mushroom. - Yellow mushroom. And this one is edible, no? - This is not edible. - This one's not edible. (Kong gasps) - I don't think we need
a translation of that. - (laughing) Yeah, I know.
- That was terrific. - (laughing) I know.
- You get fever and you... This one is the poisonous one. That's a good view. (shutter clicking) It's lucky that Kong
lived to tell this tale. But her experiment with
fungi, we discovered, came from the necessity to feed herself and her
children when her husband died. She was left penniless and
a single mum with five kids. This is probably a
puffball. It's quite hard. I'll need to cut it open to
have a look on the inside. Ask her if it's okay if I cut it open. - [Kong] Oh, don't. (Stephen laughing) - She said this one is
also a tasty mushroom and they do love it. - How do they cook it? - So, chips.
- [Gautam] Yup. (chuckles) (playful music) - This is an interesting one. I've seen something like it before but I'm not quite sure what you call it. It's like a mushroom that's
completely folded up on itself. - [Stephen] Chillum. So it looks like a chillum pipe. Long with a hole in the end. - Chillum.
(both laughing) Chillum. Chillum. - I'm not quite sure why it's so funny but maybe I'm saying something
completely different. (Stephen and Gautam laugh) And he's not gonna tell
me what I'm saying. Do you eat this one? (Gautam and Kong speaking
in foreign language) - It is edible.
- It's edible. (Kong speaking in foreign language) (chuckles) We have another
mushroom over here, I think. We have these ones. (Kong speaking in foreign language) - Not eat.
- [Stephen] Not eat. - No eat, no? - Yeah, you eat the chillum. Chillum.
- Bam bam. - Bam bam. Bam bam? - [Kong] No bam.
- No bam. (Kong laughs)
- [Gautam] Bam means eating. So that is not edible.
- Ah. No bam. Bam bam.
- Bam bam. (all laughing) (dreamy music) - Wow. What have we got here? This look very like a Cordyceps species. I think Cordyceps are some of the coolest
fungi on the planet. I've photographed a huge variety of them in China and Thailand, and
they never cease to amaze me. They are parasitic fungi that
generally infect live insects and gradually kill them. Those colored things that you can see growing out of the insects are actually the fruiting
bodies of the fungus. They're mushrooms. (dreamy music fades) You see, this is the
insect here? It's a beetle. And the fungus has killed the beetle. And the fruiting bodies of the mushroom coming out of the beetle. - But this is the first
time she has seen this, the Cordycep, and she's
very excited to know it. - I'm glad we can teach
something in return. (engine sputtering)
(brakes squeal) Today, we're heading to
our final destination on this fungi adventure, the
remote town of Mawlynnong, where India meets Bangladesh. (vehicle horns honking) But, along our route, we
pass through Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, and
decide to pay a quick visit to see what mushrooms the
locals might be selling. (woman singing in foreign language) (people chattering in foreign language) We can only find one stall,
but it is doing a roaring trade in dried shiitakes and
fabulous-looking fresh Termitomyces. Does she collect these herself? - [Translator] Yeah, she
collected by herself. - [Stephen] So they grow on wood up in the trees?
- [Translator] Yeah. - Mm. They growing in the
roots and only the dead trees. - [Stephen] Okay. So just
in one spot in the forest? - [Translator] Yeah.
- [Stephen] Do you know what sort of trees they grow on? - They call it Baram. - Baram.
- Yeah. - [Stephen] And these mushrooms? - [Translator] They call it
(speaking in foreign language). - So she-
- She collect it by herself. - You collected them? Yes. So how much do you charge for these ones? - [Translator and Vendor] 400. - 400 per kilo?
- 400 per kilo, yeah. - And these ones? - 1,400. - [Translator] 1,400 in one kilo. - [Stephen] 1,400 for one kilo. - [Translator] Yeah. - 1,400 is about, about 20 US dollars per kilo. And 400 is, so 6 US dollars per kilo. So these ones are really quite expensive. Did you dry these yourself? - Yeah, she dried it herself. - So collected them
herself, dried them herself, and then comes to the
market and sells them. (upbeat music)
- Yeah. - In the 10 minutes we steal
from this busy mushroom dealer, her shiitakes are proving
to be very popular, and she's completely
sold out of Termitomyces, earning more than 50 US dollars. Not bad for a morning's takings
in this part of the world. (upbeat music continues) (raindrops pattering) Our last stop is in this
beautiful rainforest, right in the border of
Bangladesh and Meghalaya. Out there are the plains, flooded plains as well, of Bangladesh, and all around to the other side are these beautiful
waterfalls and plateaus, the water just dropping
down to Bangladesh. (rooster crows) Mawlynnong prides itself on a claim that it's the tidiest town in Asia. And it is very pretty. But, for me, its most
spectacular attraction is its living bridge.
(water sloshing) (upbeat music continues) Over decades, this bridge has been crafted by training the roots of banyan trees over a very hairy river gorge. The way the bridge merges into the forest, it's like something out of a fairy tale. (upbeat music fades) I recognize these. It's
Coprinus disseminatus. And I do particularly
like time-lapsing these because they grow very quickly and are very, very pretty to look at. (contemplative music) (raindrops pattering) Unfortunately, the forests of Mawlynnong are a bit disappointing for fungi. There are only a few
pockets of old trees left as much of the land around the village is continuously being
cleared for agriculture. But, as night falls, we do have one incredibly exciting find. (contemplative music continues) A fungus species I time-lapse
that never ceases to wow is Mycena chlorophos. It's a very bright, luminous fungus that I find in my local forests. (contemplative music continues) Wherever we go, we always ask
if there is a local variety. Usually, the answer is no. So do you have any mushrooms
here that glow in the dark? - Yes. - You do?
- Yeah. - So do you find many of them? - Yes, of course. - What do you call these mushrooms. - This is called bright mushroom because they give out the
light in the nighttime. - Can we go down and find some? - Sure. I'll come and take you. - [Stephen] That's brilliant.
(water sloshing) So how big do these mushrooms get? - [Tyndleness] It is very small, and they have a lot in one bamboo. - [Stephen] So they're very
small, they grow on bamboo, and they're usually down by the stream. - [Tyndleness] Yeah.
(inspiring music) - [Stephen] Wow, look at these. They're nothing like the
fungus we get at home. The stems glow, but the caps don't glow, whereas at home, the caps glow and the stems only glow a little bit. - Ah, so it's same same
but different species. - (laughing) Yeah. Same
same but different, yes. Now, you really can't see
these with the light on them, but we'll get them up in the dark and I can photograph
them with long exposure, and then you'll really see
them in their full glory. - [Gautam] Great. - [Stephen] There are
currently around 80 species of luminous fungus recorded on the planet, (shutter clicks) but only a handful of them
glow as brightly as this one. (shutter clicks) This is the first time
Mawlynnong's luminous fungus has ever been documented.
(shutter clicks) And, when its DNA was
analyzed, we discovered (shutter clicks) In northeast India, we
photographed 232 species of fungus in just four weeks. 58 of the species are edible. 64 species are used in
traditional medicines. And our mycologists tell us that 34 of the species we recorded are possibly new to science,
which is very exciting. - I've been through many walks
through forests in my life but I have to say that I've
never noticed the fungi. But, today, I've realized
that they're everywhere. And also, I'm beginning to realize that fungi really form the basis of life and that, without fungi,
we wouldn't be here. So I think, apart from
all of the other things that I've said about poisoning
and employment and revenues, I think it's just a very
beautiful thing to study, and we should definitely
look into exploring the fungi biodiversity
of this part of the world and get to know more about it. (inspiring music continues) - Fungi is so important to the planet. There's more species of fungi in the world than there are species of plant. And yet we think plants dominate forests. No, it's plants, it's fungi,
it's all the other elements that go to make up life. And we've been given the
opportunity to help explain how fungus interacts with
other lifeforms on this planet, and it's a wonderful opportunity. And what's more, I get to
understand more and more about fungi in the process. Oh, what's that? (inspiring music continues) (inspiring music ends)
