Matsutake is the most valuable mushroom in the world—and a weed that grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. Through its ability to nurture trees, matsutake helps forests to grow in daunting places. It is also an edible delicacy in Japan, where it sometimes commands astronomical prices. In all its contradictions, matsutake offers insights into areas far beyond just mushrooms and addresses a crucial question: what manages to live in the ruins we have made? […] By investigating one of the world’s most sought-after fungi, The Mushroom at the End of the World presents an original examination into the relation between capitalist destruction and collaborative survival within multispecies landscapes, the prerequisite for continuing life on earth.(source)

The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins (Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, 2015)

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February 2026

Source

PDF, hopefully borrowing Barbara's copy soon

Chapter 3 — Some Problems with Scale

Synopsis

Importance

Further Reading

Book review by Ruby Beyley

On Nonscalability: The Living World Is Not Amenable to Precision-Nested Scales (Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, 2012)