Fungi Appreciation Thread!

Post Reply New Topic

So many things in the fungal world are stranger than science fiction. Half animal, half plant, totally its own thing. So many things in biology are stranger than real life, it's just that so few people pay attention. I am glad you do.

Interesting archecture. Kind of a modified geodesic dome. And bright red. Awesome. Buckminster Fuller would be proud.

Off-topic: All cubensis are going to have the same strength genetically, because they're all the same species (cubensis), the Gold Coast, Ecuadorian, Amazonian, etc, are all at their core Cubensis. There are only three unique species of psilocybin: Cubensis (medium strength, meaty, grows in poo or coco coir and is thus easy to cultivate), Azurescens (medium-high strength, less meaty than Cubensis, and requires a cold-snap to initiate fruiting, making them difficult to grow in most locations), and Cyanescens (high strength, thin stems and a 'wavy' cap, they are a wood loving species and moderately difficult to cultivate). There are other strains as well, but not what one would call edible due to the low potency, and psilocybin tasting like Gordie Howe's 70 year old jock strap, one probably couldn't consume more than 4 grams dried even if they really wanted to. I only info dump all this so that you can be an informed consumer: next time 'guy' tells you he's got this 'super potent' Amazonian Cubensis on a 'one-time fire sale', you'll know it's no different than the Cubensis from last week, and thus you won't pay the extra five bucks for his sales pitch.

Also, a word of safety, if anyone ever hands you a mushroom that looks like it's out of Super Mario Bros, and tells you it's 'psychedelic', turn the other way and warn your friends. That's Amanita Muscaria, which is not a psilocybin, it's actually from a completely different order of fungus. You will trip off of it, but not in a good way, because it produces ibotenic acid, a chemical that not only blocks synapses in the brain it's been shown to actually sever them in mice-- meaning there's a high likely hood that it could cause brain damage. There have also been reports of death, main culprit being respiratory collapse, so tread cautiously (or not at all preferably).

In case you don't know why a puffball is called a puffball.

I appreciated some fungi at the beach around a fire yesterday evening for NYE.. it was a pretty wild & magical time. 5-stars, would trip again.

Thread needs more posts

The lovely Dasyscyphus bicolor.

Cylocybe cyanescens

I had some pictures I'd taken of mushrooms I'd found in the wild (not those ones), but had to delete them from my phone because I was running out of space. I'd stored them on my computer, but then the computer stopped accepting a charge. Oh well, they weren't very good pictures anyway. I'll be keeping a close eye out for any interesting fungi especially when the weather's damp, and will share any pictures I take here

Yes, please.

I love looking for cool natural things (fungi, insects, plants, etc.), I just have to remember to take a picture when I see them. My family hates going on nature walks with me because I'm always stopping to look at things (but isn't that the whole point of a nature walk?).

These little things are popping up this week on various local lawns. It's the "lawn mower's mushroom" (Panaeolina foenisecii).

https://www.first-nature.com/fungi/pana ... isecii.php

The season of yellow slime molds has begun.

From Brain Pickings by Maria Popova: This short article about Beatrix Potter who also drew extremely good drawings of mushrooms. Nine mycological standard drawings in this article.

https://www.brainpickings.org/2015/07/2 ... ogy-fungi/

That's fine art.

I wonder if toads ever really use toadstools as toad stools?