Meeting the Mushrooms of Los Angeles: Curiosity, Queerness, and How to Love a Fungus

Meeting the Mushrooms of Los Angeles: Curiosity, Queerness, and How to Love a Fungus
Paperback, 6 x 9, 256 pages | Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2026
ISBN: 9781597147293.

By Aaron Tupac

Enter a fungal wonderland to reconnect with nature.

Welcome to the Mycoverse of Los Angeles! In this wondrous guide to common local mushrooms, Aaron Tupac opens Angelenos’ eyes to the mycelial ties that bind us all together. From the San Gabriel Mountains, across the sprawling metropolis, and clear out to the coast, Southern California is teeming with fungal life, whose underground networks support an array of ecosystems. Organized by habitat, and featuring full color photos to aid in identification, this guide will help you spot and marvel at mushrooms burgeoning throughout the cityscapes, sand dunes, oak forests, and deserts that surround us. These fungal friends have lessons to teach us, too: through loving observations and stories, Tupac shares our latest understanding of mushrooms’ radical reciprocity, vibrant gender fluidity, and the incredible imaginative possibilities that fungi bring into our lives.

Categories Forthcoming | Nature

About the Author

Aaron Tupac

Aaron Tupac

Aaron Tupac (they/them) is a conservation mycologist, speaker, organizer, and founder of Exploring the Mycoverse, a values-based fungi-inspired community focused on building better relationship with the more-than-human world. Tupac is also the founder and chair of the North American Mycological Association’s Conservation and Stewardship Committee and works for the Fungal Diversity Survey, the only nonprofit focused on North America’s fungal biodiversity and conservation. As part of this work, they collect fungi for the California Fungal Diversity Survey Project, the first government-funded statewide project of its kind. Tupac teaches throughout the greater Los Angeles area at institutions such as the Los Angeles Public Library, California Native Plant Society, Theodore Payne Foundation, and local universities, including the University of Southern California, Occidental College, and Pomona College. They live in Los Angeles, California.

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