The mycelium of Simbiosis

César Kevin joins science and art in original screen prints that celebrate the fungal kingdom and the cosmovision of the peoples of Oaxaca. His work documents species, rituals, and the deep relationship between fungi and the Indigenous cultures of Mexico. Twenty-nine limited-edition works are available at Simbiosis, alongside shirts, mugs and fungal objects.

Francisca has been an artisan and mushroom forager in the Sierra Hidalguense for as long as she can remember — knowledge inherited across generations. In 2025 she took part as guide and speaker at the First International Mushroom Festival, in Mineral del Chico and Omitlán de Juárez.

Her work spans embroidery and weaving with mushroom motifs, wood carving, dried mushrooms and medicinal plants, traditional seasonal fruit sweets, and artisanal wines made from fungi, fruit and wild herbs. Every piece honours community knowledge and the deep connection between culture, nature and the fungal kingdom.

Robert Kelly is a naturalist devoted to the study and public understanding of entomopathogenic fungi — the astonishing group of Cordyceps and allied species that parasitise insects and arachnids in the forests of Mexico. His field work in Tepoztlán has directly supported scientific research: he is acknowledged in academic publications for his enthusiastic work and for guiding the sampling sites of Cordyceps s.l. in San Juan Tlacotenco and Santo Domingo Ocotitlán, Morelos.

At Simbiosis, Robert collaborates by producing photography and video of wild mushrooms and little-known species — bringing the eye of a field naturalist to the visual record of the brand.

• Acta Botánica Mexicana (2024) — acknowledged for his field work in the study of Cordyceps s.l. of Morelos
• “Hongos de Tepoztlán” — outreach material on the species of the region
• “Introducción a los Hongos Zombi-Cordyceps” — public talk on Instagram

Alonso Cortés-Pérez is a mycologist specialising in the genus Mycena, with an emphasis on the bioluminescent species — the fungi that glow in the darkness of Mexico’s humid forests. He is the author of most of the bioluminescent Mycena species described for the country, and has published new records and species in collaboration with researchers such as Dennis Desjardin, Florencia Ramírez-Guillén, Gastón Guzmán and Alan Rockefeller. He is a doctoral student of the distinguished mycologist Laura Guzmán-Dávalos (CUCBA, Universidad de Guadalajara).

His work has already crossed paths with that of our collaborator César Kevin Pérez Pacheco, with whom he co-authored the first record of Scleroderma texense as an edible species in the Sierra Sur of Oaxaca. Alonso joins Simbiosis as a scientific collaborator.

• ResearchGate profile
• “New species and records of bioluminescent Mycena from Mexico” — Mycologia, 2019, with Alan Rockefeller
• Academic profile on Semantic Scholar
• Field photography on Flickr — a visual record of species from Veracruz and Oaxaca
• UNAM Global — feature on the bioluminescent Mycena he described