Here are a couple of clues – Aspergillus fumigatus is a common fungus that thrives at temperatures between 30 and 50 degrees centigrade. It has very fast growth rates and is extremely adaptable. In 1969 Concorde’s engines had a serious malfunctional over the Atlantic almost leading to disaster. The friction on the wings at supersonic speeds heated the aviation fuel in the huge wing tanks. Aspergillus fumigatus, loving both the fuel as a food source and the high temperatures, started to grow. Eventually, the fungus blocked the fuel filters.

The same thing caused war ships with new gas-turbine engines to grind to a halt. Once the cause was identified a biocide was added to the fuel. Interestingly, this fungus can, in unusual circumstances also grow inside human lungs, in tired immunocompromised farmers in particular. It grows on low-temperature kiln dried wood causing illness in sawmill workers and it grows on building materials used in the tropics. I once spent several days identifying this fungus in the tropics during a major high rise build that had been held up by growths of this remarkable fungus. Remarkable adaptability is common amongst the fungal kingdom which probably contains somewhere between 500,000 – 10 million species. In comparison there are less than 400,000 plant species and just over 2 million animal species. Being microscopic fungi are hidden most of the time, but their myriad effects surround us, and we could not survive without them.