Fungi are one of the three major groups of multicellular organisms on Earth (besides plants and animals) yet they are far less well known.  Fungi evolved before plants, live inside all plants, provide nutrition to many plants (you may have heard about the Wood Wide Web), and are the primary decay organisms that cycle dead plants back into nutrients needed by all new plants. This course will start with an overview of fungal ecology and diversity. Students will then collect samples of fungi in the field and, in the final part of the class, examine the findings in relation to an evolutionary “tree” of fungal diversity.