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Bamboo mushrooms. /CFP

Two to four million types of fungi are thought to exist on Earth, yet less than 150,000 types have been discovered. The room to explore is beyond imagination.

China's southern island province of Hainan boasts enormous biodiversity in its tropical rainforest, offering ideal habitat to countless animals, birds, plants and silent fungi.

Mushrooms in the rainforest in Hainan. /Screenshot from CGTN's "Journeys in Nature"

A mushroom in the rainforest in Hainan. /Screenshot from CGTN's "Journeys in Nature"

Mushrooms are the fleshy fruiting bodies of fungi, a kingdom classification similar to those of animals and plants. The fungi grow silently in the dim corners of the dense rainforests, like masters of hide-and-seek, avoiding all attention. But the vast realm of fungi eventually grabs humans' attention by demonstrating its close relationship with other beings on the planet.

L-R: S. pachycystidiatus, S. hainanensis, S. conicus and S. baozhengii. /CMG

Chinese researchers discovered four new species of fungus during a field survey last year in Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park. The findings were published on November 22, 2024 in the Journal of Fungi. The four species of Strobilomyces, one of the most noticeable genera of Boletaceae, are named S. pachycystidiatus, S. hainanensis, S. conicus and S. baozhengii.

Strobilomyces, distributed in temperate, subtropical and tropical regions of the world, plays an important role in maintaining the biodiversity of forest ecosystems.

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Mother Nature has bestowed small but significant lives to them. And they, in return, with their subtle efforts, make the forests even more lush and lively.

The exploration never ends. By studying the relationship between fungi and other living beings, this planet can be better understood from an unanticipated perspective.

(Cover: bamboo mushrooms. /CFP)