Long overlooked as crucial to life, fungi start to get their due

Agarikon is one of two endangered species of fungi in the United States. So rare is the species that scientists have placed samples of it in a biobank facility for safekeeping at the San Diego Zoo, in the hopes that it can be propagated and one day reintroduced to the wild should its numbers continue to decline. 

Agarikon, also known as quinine conk, is a large round or semicircular shelf fungus that grows on the bark of old growth conifers in forests around the world. Two thousand years...