Colombia's national survey of its biodiversity is ambitious

"BLOODY plants! Always in the way." That is not the sort of expostulation expected of a researcher from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. But Lee Davies is not a botanist, he is a mycologist--an expert in fungi--who, at home in London, helps curate Kew's fungarium. And, although history and convenience mean the study of fungi is often lumped together with that of plants, Dr Davies is keen to point out that mushrooms and their kin have nothing in common with the vegetable kingdom beyond their seden...