what is good about mushrooms rival thread

nomos

Administrator
http://botit.botany.wisc.edu:16080/images/332/

<img src="http://www.rhizomatic.org/blog/imgs/mushrooms/C._gigantea_D.Derouen_TJV.jpg" alt="C._gigantea_D.Derouen_TJV.jpg" width="482" height="660"><br><br>crepe-y<br>
<img src="http://www.rhizomatic.org/blog/imgs/mushrooms/D._duplicata_2_tjv.jpg" alt="D._duplicata_2_tjv.jpg" width="425" height="800"><br><br>easily identified bolete variety..<br><br>
<img src="http://www.rhizomatic.org/blog/imgs/mushrooms/B._coniferigera_tjv.jpg" alt="B._coniferigera_tjv.jpg" width="602" height="467"><br><br>legs<br>
<img src="http://www.rhizomatic.org/blog/imgs/mushrooms/G._saccatum_tjv.jpg" alt="G._saccatum_tjv.jpg" width="640" height="538"><br><br>
<img src="http://www.rhizomatic.org/blog/imgs/mushrooms/Gymnosporangium_horns_TJV.jpg" alt="Gymnosporangium_horns_TJV.jpg" width="651" height="523"><br><br>
<img src="http://www.rhizomatic.org/blog/imgs/mushrooms/L.viscosa_I_tjv.jpg" alt="L.viscosa_I_tjv.jpg" width="560" height="655"><br><br>legs<br>
<img src="http://www.rhizomatic.org/blog/imgs/mushrooms/Geaster_tjv.jpg" alt="Geaster_tjv.jpg" width="422" height="361" /><br><br>
 

egg

Dumpy's Rusty Nut
apparently the only mushroom that doesn't promote the spread of fungus on/in yr body is the shiitake
 

mms

sometimes
fungus is the worlds largest organisim as well, there is one 3.5 miles wide and up to 10 ft deep in the blue mountains of east oregon.

as for the shitake and the spread of fungus through the body, i recall an amazing batman comic where victims of airborn spores were ordered by some mechanisim in the spores to climb higher and higher, whereupon their bodies would explode into millions of airborn spores, giving the optimum conditions for spreading the fungus.

on another truthful but rare note there is a rare parasite called cystercosis that effects the brain causing inhibition, which sounds like cronemburgs film shivers eh?

one day fungus will inherit the earth.
 
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nomos

Administrator
Herbalgram in 2003 had an excellent feature on medicinal mushrooms from Asia. The spectrum of uses attributed to each was amazing - anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, anti-tumour, anti-viral, etc. It led me to pick up a book on Chinese herbal medicine called Radiant Health (a little too cheerlead-y, but the info seems to stand up to scrutiny).

My favourite bit in the book is a description of how Cordyceps take form - beginning on the forehead of a particular type of caterpillar, the mushroom eventually envelopes and consumes its host, leaving a pure white, worm-like fungus in its place. I always imagine a scene of social awkwardness arising from a caterpillar noticing that first hint of white on a friend's forehead and not having the heart to tell him.
 

nomos

Administrator
oh and mushrooms are genetically closer to humans than humans are to plants. i believe this has implications for their use as anti-viral agents.
 

mms

sometimes
autonomicforthepeople said:
My favourite bit in the book is a description of how Cordyceps take form - beginning on the forehead of a particular type of caterpillar, the mushroom eventually envelopes and consumes its host, leaving a pure white, worm-like fungus in its place.

phwoar that is such an exciting fact.
Another thing about mushrooms are alot of them are edible or useful but the knowledge is difficult to attain and the drawbacks are getting it wrong, even though a person can walk through any medium sized woodland area and if they know where to look find all sorts of tasty fungi.
They're very interesting things aren't they, very different from plants, and its no suprise we're more like then than plants.

this bloke does walks on hampstead heath and other parts of london
http://www.fungitobewith.org/
 
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Helen

Tumbling Dice
That bit about the people infected with spores which compel them to climb higher and then have their heads explode etc. is based on an actual fungus which has that effect on a particular sort of ant.
 

nomos

Administrator
or maybe it was that mushrooms and humans are closer than mushrooms and plants. that would be more impressive sounding.

Helen said:
That bit about the people infected with spores which compel them to climb higher and then have their heads explode etc. is based on an actual fungus which has that effect on a particular sort of ant.
:eek: lockergnome.com/s/b/Exploding_head_syndrome
 
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Helen

Tumbling Dice
Wow. That's intense.
Maybe it's a leakage in some sort of ancient portal, whhich throughout the millennia has been patched over with genetic code.
 
O

Omaar

Guest
Helen said:
That bit about the people infected with spores which compel them to climb higher and then have their heads explode etc. is based on an actual fungus which has that effect on a particular sort of ant.

for real? no way. please elaborate.
 
O

Omaar

Guest
"INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS Boston Mycological Club Bulletin, Sept. 1997
Excerpted from Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder
Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology by Lawrence Weschler
Copyright 1995, ISBN 0-679-43998-6, Vintage Books, division of Random House, Inc., NY

Deep in the Cameroonian rain forests of west-central Africa there lives a floor-dwelling ant known as Megaloponera foetens, or more commonly, the stink ant. This large ant—indeed, one of the very few capable of emitting a cry audible to the human ear—survives by foraging for food among the fallen leaves and undergrowth of the extraordinarily rich rain-forest floor.

On occasion, while thus foraging, one of these ants will become infected by inhaling the microscopic spore of a fungus from the genus Tomentella, millions of which rain down upon the forest floor from somewhere in the canopy above. Upon being inhaled, the spore lodges itself inside the ant’s tiny brain and immediately begins to grow, quickly fomenting bizarre behavioral changes in its ant host. The creature appears troubled and confused, and presently, for the first time in its life, it leaves the forest floor and begins an arduous climb up the stalks of vines and ferns.

Driven on and on by the still-growing fungus, the ant finally achieves a seemingly prescribed height whereupon, utterly spent, it impales the plant with its mandibles and, thus affixed, waits to die. Ants that have met their doom in this fashion are quite a common sight in certain sections of the rain forest.

The fungus, for its part, lives on. It continues to consume the brain, moving on through the rest of the nervous system and, eventually, through all the soft tissue that remains of the ant. After approximately two weeks, a spikelike protrusion erupts from out of what had once been the ant’s head. Growing to a length of about an inch and a half, the spike features a bright orange tip, heavy-laden with spores, which now begin to rain down onto the forest floor for other unsuspecting ants to inhale."

reference

crikey.

"emitting a cry audible to the human ear" - I wonder what they sound like ....
 
O

Omaar

Guest
himalayan viagra

This article is pretty exciting, even though its from the daily telegraph.

"The Nepalese army and the country’s rampant Maoist rebels are vying for control of the multi-million-pound trade in an exotic traditional medicine known as the Himalayan Viagra. Prized for its reputed powers as an aphrodisiac and panacea, the medicine is made from a creature known to locals as yarchagumba, a caterpillar with a parasitical mushroom that grows from its head and will ultimately kill it."

-- aka cordyceps
 
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Helen

Tumbling Dice
I've heard from more than one source that the Megaloponera foetens is a fabrication of the Museum of Jurassic Technology, however it is more a combination of truths than a diversion from a truth.
Although I haven't read it, <i>Parasites in Social Insects</i> by Paul Schmid-Hempel is supposed to be informative on this topic. Here's an excerpt describing the liver fluke:
"By some as yet unknown mechanism, the brain worm seems to manipulate the worker ant's behavior so that she climbs grasses and fastens herself there with mandibles. In this way, the ant is more vulnerable to a predator i.e. the next host of the parasite. It is striking how closely this phenomenon resembles the one observed in ants infected by fungi, as illustrated earlier. In both cases, the parasite establishes itself in the vicinity of presumably critical neural tissue of the host. This indicates that seeking the neighborhood for specific host nerve cells is probably a general, active, and adaptive process by which the parasite can attain control over its host's behavior."
It's getting off the subject of mushrooms a bit, but is justifiably fascinating.
Bringing it back home, I once lived the 'life flashing before your eyes' of another person, a woman in her mid thirties, during a few seconds of unconsciousness at the hands of blue meanies.
 

Helen

Tumbling Dice
Leaf cutting ants have a symbiotic relationship with a fungus which they nourisg with leaves, and which in turn nourishes their larvae. Quid pro quo...
 

egg

Dumpy's Rusty Nut
and could two people take a stand and face off Schmid-Hempel parasitismicism against Tomentellian fungism ?
 

LRJP!

(Between Blank & Boring)
Is it true that John Cage went on a game show in Italy - and won - answering questions on Fungi as his specialist subject? I thought so, but now i'm doubting it...
 

sufi

lala
autonomicforthepeople said:

o i get that one occasionally,
but i don't get what you are suggesting this have to do with shrooms??? :eek:

po-50.jpg
 
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