Mo Ganji: Yellow-gilled Lepiota | Gelbkiemer-Schirmling | Lepiota luteophylla | No. 248/250 from work group 8/99

Mo Ganji turns toward the yellow-gilled lepiota — a small saprotrophic fungus emerging briefly from forest soils — by letting the single line move toward essence rather than appearance or rarity. The line condenses the being into a reduced coherence, setting aside cap, gills and ephemerality so that presence can surface without depiction. In Ganji’s understanding, the line does not belong to the fungus alone; it remains open, reminding us that every form is also a human concept provisionally placed upon a living process.

Lepiota luteophylla is Not Evaluated (NE) on the IUCN Red List. Like many fungi, the species remains poorly documented in terms of distribution, population trends and ecological specificity. Its apparent scarcity may reflect under-recording rather than true rarity, as fungal life cycles are often short-lived and easily overlooked.

Potential threats include habitat alteration, soil disturbance, pollution and the loss of mature forest systems that sustain complex fungal networks. Because fungi depend on stable substrates and long-term ecological continuity, changes in land use can disrupt unseen processes long before visible effects appear. The lack of assessment underscores how much of fungal biodiversity remains outside formal conservation frameworks.

Ganji’s single line opens a space in which the fungus can be encountered beyond visibility or neglect. It allows the being to be perceived as part of an underground continuum, suggesting how life that structures ecosystems from below often remains conceptually absent — even as the systems it supports quietly begin to unravel.