Scientists have developed a vegan alternative for leather made from fungi that looks and feels just like the thing.
Created by San Francisco-based biomaterials company MycoWorks, the fake leather is made from mycelium – the tubular filaments found on fungi.
The new material is more ethical and has a lower environmental impact than real leather, which is made from animal skins.
MycoWorks works closely with traditional leather craftspeople 'with expertise in creating finished leathers' to make it indistinguishable from real leather.
Created by San Francisco-based biomaterials company MycoWorks, the vegan leather (pictured) is made from mycelium - the tubular filaments found on fungi
Mycelium (pictured) is the tubular filaments found on fungi. Mycelium grows abundantly nearly everywhere on Earth
Garments that use mycelium would also be biodegradable, potentially putting a stop to the damaging environmental effects of 'fast fashion'.
'It can give the same emotional response as an animal leather,' Dr Matt Scullin, CEO of MycoWorks, told the Guardian. 'It has that hand-feel of rarity.'
Mycelium is the infinitely renewable root structure of fungi, while mushrooms are the 'fruit' of the fungi.
Leather substitutes can be produced from fungi by upcycling low-cost agricultural and forestry by-products such as sawdust.
These serve as a feed for the growth of mycelium – a matted mass of elongated fungal threads – which grow into a sheet and within a couple of weeks the fungal biomass can be harvested.
MycoWorks' patented technology, called Fine Mycelium, can be grown from fungi in trays in a matter of weeks.
Fine Mycelium 'replicates the appearance and feel of leather while outperforming it in strength and durability', according to the firm.
The technology enhances mycelium during its growth to
