He had long loved fungi, which seemed to him possessed of superpowers.
Fungi, which Linnaeus and many botanists since rammed in among plants, now prove to be more closely related to animals.
Cadbury has taken a special interest in hericium, or tooth fungi, which hangs down spectacularly from trees.
But this theory doesn't work for fungi, which reproduce more, not less, as they grow older.
Atta species collect leaves and use them to grow fungi, which they eat.
It was later found that they had eaten reindeer, which had eaten fungi, which had absorbed heavy metals from nuclear tests.
At low concentrations, copper II) ions inhibit the growth of some microbes and fungi, which makes it one of the central ingredients in wood preservatives and in fungicides.
Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
Timber industry and administration officials said they expected the changes to ease requirements for detailed surveys of forest life, including snails and fungi, which can take years to complete.
Epping Forest has 55,000 ancient trees, each centuries old, and like many plants they have a symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi, which sheath the roots and provide minerals in return for starches.
He does believe that breaking the capillary structure of topsoil is damaging, and gives the example of mycorrhizal fungi, which when left undisturbed can enable plants to find and absorb water.
