Fungal Forteana / Fortean Fungi

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https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1524865171541442576
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How fast do they extrude?
 
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An Australian teen is awaiting word from Guinness regarding whether his 5.8 pound mushroom is certifiable as the world's largest.
Australian teen's 5.8-pound mushroom might be world's largest

An Australian 14-year-old is waiting to hear back from Guinness World Records about whether the nearly 6-pound mushroom he found is the largest in the world.

Jasper Les said he found the 5.8-pound porcini mushroom while walking home from school in Adelaide Hills, South Australia. ...

"I was just amazed. I've never seen one that big or even close to being that big," Les told 9News. ...

"The Adelaide Hills is quite a special place. It's the only place in the Southern Hemisphere that you can find porcini."

Jasper Les said he is keeping the exact location of the mushroom's origins a secret. ...

The family applied to have Jasper's discovery recognized as a Guinness World Record. The record-keeping agency's website does not have a listing for largest or heaviest porcini mushroom, but the longest edible mushroom was a 1-foot, 11.2-inch Pleurotus eryngii grown by Japan's Hokuto Corp. in 2014. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2022/0...World-Records-porcini-mushroom/6161653595610/
 
Twitter:
Dr. Danny Haelewaters
@dhaelewa
It doesn't get much better than going to the Darién to collect a specific mushroom ... and then actually finding it! Here is a beautiful blue !! mushroom, an undescribed species close to Lactarius indigo. #NSFfunded #fieldwork #Panama

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Amanita Muscaria (fly agaric) is edible! If prepared correctly ... NOTE: I would not try this, but it is fascinating.

We explore a selection of ethnographic and medical texts that report the use of A. muscaria as a food, and we accept parboiling as a safe method of detoxifying it for the dinner table. Mushroom field guides, however, almost universally label the mushroom as poisonous.

Despite being common, easy to identify, and an excellent savory mushroom after parboiling (Arora 2000; Rubel 2000), and despite a long-
standing, albeit scattered, tradition of being eaten as a food in the European, Russian, North American, and Japanese countrysides, A. muscaria is almost universally characterized by modern mushroom field guides as being poisonous (e.g., Smith and Weber 1980; Lincoff 1981; Arora 1986; McKnight 1987; Hall et al. 2003; Miller and Miller 2006), even deadly (e.g., Groves 1962; Phillips 1991).

As we will show, 19th-century investigators from various disciplines established that the mushroom could easily be detoxified by parboil-
ing it. This understanding was widely published in the 19th-century medical and toxicological literature but was ignored and decisively rejected by English-language mushroom field guide authors of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The rejection was so thorough that knowledge of A. muscaria's food use appears to have effectively been lost by the late 20th century.

Contemporary field guide authors continue to emphasize (and often exaggerate) the toxicity of A. muscaria, seldom mention that anyone eats it, and fail to provide precise and accurate instruc- tions on how to detoxify it. As a result, A. muscaria is rarely picked for the dinner table except by those who inherit a local or family tradition of eating it.

Yet in researching this article, we were unable to find a single adult death in North America indisputably caused by A. muscaria.

A Study of Cultural Bias in Field Guide Determinations of Mushroom Edibility Using the Iconic Mushroom, Amanita muscaria, as an Example
Author(s): William Rubel and David Arora Source: Economic Botany, Vol. 62, No. 3, Special Mushroom Issue (Nov., 2008), pp. 223-243

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uair01 said:
Amanita Muscaria (fly agaric) is edible! If prepared correctly ...

We explore a selection of ethnographic and medical texts that report the use of A. muscaria as a food, and we accept parboiling as a safe method of detoxifying it for the dinner table. Mushroom field guides, however, almost universally label the mushroom as poisonous.

Despite being common, easy to identify, and an excellent savory mushroom after parboiling (Arora 2000; Rubel 2000), and despite a long-
standing, albeit scattered, tradition of being eaten as a food in the European, Russian, North American, and Japanese countrysides, A. muscaria is almost universally characterized by modern mushroom field guides as being poisonous (e.g., Smith and Weber 1980; Lincoff 1981; Arora 1986; McKnight 1987; Hall et al. 2003; Miller and Miller 2006), even deadly (e.g., Groves 1962; Phillips 1991).

As we will show, 19th-century investigators from various disciplines established that the mushroom could easily be detoxified by parboil-
ing it. This understanding was widely published in the 19th-century medical and toxicological literature but was ignored and decisively rejected by English-language mushroom field guide authors of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The rejection was so thorough that knowledge of A. muscaria's food use appears to have effectively been lost by the late 20th century.

Contemporary field guide authors continue to emphasize (and often exaggerate) the toxicity of A. muscaria, seldom mention that anyone eats it, and fail to provide precise and accurate instruc- tions on how to detoxify it. As a result, A. muscaria is rarely picked for the dinner table except by those who inherit a local or family tradition of eating it.

Yet in researching this article, we were unable to find a single adult death in North America indisputably caused by A. muscaria.

A Study of Cultural Bias in Field Guide Determinations of Mushroom Edibility Using the Iconic Mushroom, Amanita muscaria, as an Example
Author(s): William Rubel and David Arora Source: Economic Botany, Vol. 62, No. 3, Special Mushroom Issue (Nov., 2008), pp. 223-243

View attachment 59809
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I've done some research into this in the past and there was only one possible death I could find which could be attributed to A muscaria and even then it was tenuous, I still wouldn't eat it though. Also what is universally referred to as A muscaria shows quite a bit of variation and is probably a complex with several geographically distinct species / sub species in it.
 
uair01 said:
Amanita Muscaria (fly agaric) is edible! If prepared correctly ...

We explore a selection of ethnographic and medical texts that report the use of A. muscaria as a food, and we accept parboiling as a safe method of detoxifying it for the dinner table. Mushroom field guides, however, almost universally label the mushroom as poisonous.

Despite being common, easy to identify, and an excellent savory mushroom after parboiling (Arora 2000; Rubel 2000), and despite a long-
standing, albeit scattered, tradition of being eaten as a food in the European, Russian, North American, and Japanese countrysides, A. muscaria is almost universally characterized by modern mushroom field guides as being poisonous (e.g., Smith and Weber 1980; Lincoff 1981; Arora 1986; McKnight 1987; Hall et al. 2003; Miller and Miller 2006), even deadly (e.g., Groves 1962; Phillips 1991).

As we will show, 19th-century investigators from various disciplines established that the mushroom could easily be detoxified by parboil-
ing it. This understanding was widely published in the 19th-century medical and toxicological literature but was ignored and decisively rejected by English-language mushroom field guide authors of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The rejection was so thorough that knowledge of A. muscaria's food use appears to have effectively been lost by the late 20th century.

Contemporary field guide authors continue to emphasize (and often exaggerate) the toxicity of A. muscaria, seldom mention that anyone eats it, and fail to provide precise and accurate instruc- tions on how to detoxify it. As a result, A. muscaria is rarely picked for the dinner table except by those who inherit a local or family tradition of eating it.

Yet in researching this article, we were unable to find a single adult death in North America indisputably caused by A. muscaria.

A Study of Cultural Bias in Field Guide Determinations of Mushroom Edibility Using the Iconic Mushroom, Amanita muscaria, as an Example
Author(s): William Rubel and David Arora Source: Economic Botany, Vol. 62, No. 3, Special Mushroom Issue (Nov., 2008), pp. 223-243

View attachment 59809
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It does look kinda tasty. In the same way that a 'Krispy Kreme donut' does until you bite into it.
 
gordonrutter said:
I've done some research into this in the past and there was only one possible death I could find which could be attributed to A muscaria and even then it was tenuous, I still wouldn't eat it though. Also what is universally referred to as A muscaria shows quite a bit of variation and is probably a complex with several geographically distinct species / sub species in it.
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Indeed, and Amanita Pantherina seems to be more toxic but looks quite similar.

On the other hand ... mushrooms that were once considered edible have proven to be toxic. And very, very nasty:

https://www.ntvg.nl/artikelen/acuut-nierfalen-door-vergiftiging-met-gordijnzwam

Many species of the genus Cortinarius are known to be considered nontoxic until the 1950s. A Polish author described 135 cases of suspected poisoning with Cortinarius orellanus in a small region of Poland between 1953 and 1962.6 Twenty-three patients had a fatal outcome. Thereafter, kidney damage was also attributed elsewhere in Europe to poisoning with several species, including C. orellanoides (syn. C. speciosissimus, C. rubellus), C. splendens and the species of the C. cinnamomeus complex.4

Diagnosis is complicated by a characteristically long latency period of up to 20 days after ingestion. Initial signs are usually gastrointestinal (vomiting, abdominal pain, sometimes diarrhea), followed by headache, muscle pain, lumbar pain, thirst and polyuria, sometimes followed by anuria. Leukocytes and erythrocytes are found in the urine. The substrate for these symptoms is acute interstitial nephritis with necrosis of tubules.

A 58-year-old woman presented with headache, vomiting and decreasing urine output, preceded by several days of painful, burning thirst and malaise. There was acute and irreversible renal failure with no known underlying condition. According to the history, she had eaten ragout with mushrooms picked in the forest 2 days before the first symptoms of illness. A renal biopsy revealed interstitial nephritis with necrosis of proximal tubules. In a remnant of the ragout, 2 fragments of a curtain mushroom were found, probably belonging to the complex Cortinarius cinnamomeus (cinnamon-colored curtain mushroom). The initial symptoms and course fit poisoning by Cortinarius as described in the literature. Despite hemodialysis and administration of acetylcysteine and glucocorticoids, her renal function did not recover.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

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I'm not sure this is Fortean - mainly because I'm not actually sure what it is.

Found clinging to a pallet that had formed a base for something I was dismantling. I thought someone had lost their pet squid at first - I swear to god those 'tentacles' were moving when I first exposed it to the sunlight.

I'm hoping it was some sort of fungus, and not a new lifeform. But it now answers to the name Kevin and knows how to use the microwave:

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gordonrutter said:
Dunning Kruger effect. They think they know what they are eating when in reality they have not got a clue.
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There used to be a nice freindly sort of bloke who'd be seen walking out in the area, you'd see him out very early in the morning gathering up mushrooms from his known patches in the local fields. It must have taken him years to recognise what was good and what wasn't - probably learned it from trial and error!
 
Sid said:
There used to be a nice freindly sort of bloke who'd be seen walking out in the area, you'd see him out very early in the morning gathering up mushrooms from his known patches in the local fields. It must have taken him years to recognise what was good and what wasn't - probably learned it from trial and error!
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Probably not because trial and error can lead to death.
 
The French have an excellent scheme: lf you forage wild mushrooms, a pharmacist will examine them for you to confirm that you don’t have anything death-y in your basket.

Why can’t we do that here, instead of paying people whose sole function seems to be to tell us loftily that we can only buy one packet of headache tablets?

maximus otter
 
Sid said:
I believe he did indeed suffer from mistaken picks a few times, but not the life-threatening stuff.
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I seem to remember that just 1% of fungi are deadly. A mycologist once said (youtube) that if you pick fungi at random your chance of dying is small.

But he also said: some fungi will make you so ill (temporarily) that you will wish you were dead :)
 
uair01 said:
I seem to remember that just 1% of fungi are deadly. A mycologist once said (youtube) that if you pick fungi at random your chance of dying is small.

But he also said: some fungi will make you so ill (temporarily) that you will wish you were dead :)
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The majority are inedible in some cases literally as they are too hard or they are just like chewing cardboard. A small number are edible. A smaller number will make you ill (some violently as you say) and an even smaller number will kill you, in some cases in extreme agony. A large group are in the edibility unknown category. So yes agreed your chances of dying are small but if you stick with what you know or go with someone knowledgeable then you will be fine. I wouldn't play with a gun because I don't know what I'm doing there...
 
gordonrutter said:
The majority are inedible in some cases literally as they are too hard or they are just like chewing cardboard. A small number are edible. A smaller number will make you ill (some violently as you say) and an even smaller number will kill you, in some cases in extreme agony. A large group are in the edibility unknown category. So yes agreed your chances of dying are small but if you stick with what you know or go with someone knowledgeable then you will be fine. I wouldn't play with a gun because I don't know what I'm doing there...
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Agree. I'm reading this book right now, it's very good:
https://www.amazon.de/dp/B005KTT7D2...085-451e-89fa-286ce9cd1052&pd_rd_i=B005KTT7D2

The author says:
Why bother? Why try to determine risky edible mushrooms when there are sufficient risk less mushrooms?
 
gordonrutter said:
The majority are inedible in some cases literally as they are too hard or they are just like chewing cardboard. A small number are edible. A smaller number will make you ill (some violently as you say) and an even smaller number will kill you, in some cases in extreme agony. A large group are in the edibility unknown category. So yes agreed your chances of dying are small but if you stick with what you know or go with someone knowledgeable then you will be fine. I wouldn't play with a gun because I don't know what I'm doing there...
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Interestingly, Toadstools are Mushrooms and vice-versa. Toadstools tend to be flagged-up as the poisonous ones out of the two because of their sometimes-brighter colourations, but the reality is they are one-and-the-same at least in scientific and in visible terms.
 
Remember the story of Nicholas Evans, author of The Horse Whisperer:

“We were visiting family in the north of Scotland. We thought the mushrooms in the woods behind the house were ceps and chanterelles, but we were wrong. The “ceps” turned out to be Cortinarius speciosissimus, a cousin of the more widely known deadly webcap. I have picked mushrooms all my life and never before eaten anything without getting 100% confirmation from my two guide books. Our error with the supposed ceps was the result of two people each trusting the expertise of the other—and the consequences were catastrophic.

Within 48 hours my wife and I were in the local hospital, and by the end of the week we were in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary with tubes in our necks and having our first experience of dialysis. We had black diarrhoea and nausea and retched every few minutes until all that came was blood and bile. I thought we were going to die. And there were times, in the dark, early hours of another sleepless night, when but for the thought of my children, I rather wanted to…”

The rest of his story of three very unpleasant years, until a kidney transplant gave him back his life.

maximus otter
 
Mother and son left with severe liver damage after eating handpicked wild mushrooms

They survived but she needed a liver transplant
Kam Look and her son, Kai Chen made a meal with the mild mushrooms but soon started to feel unwell after suffering from high temperatures and were quickly rushed to hospital

The pair both had life-threatening liver damage which has a death rate between 30 and 50 percent.

A new drug was especially flown in from Philadelphia to try and help save the mum and son

She was placed on the liver transplant list as the damage done to her organs was severe.

The surgery to replace Kam's liver would be “high-stakes” but was performed after the hospital found a liver for her within a few days.

She then spent a number of days intubated in the intensive care unit and was monitored by specialist nurses working around the clock.

The hospital said the number of mushroom poisonings is increasing as a result of foraging.
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A mushroom picker explained to me once that it's not enough to see a safe mushroom - you have to check where it's growing, because sometimes a good mushroom will grow on top of another, totally different, BAD one - & absorb toxins from it.
 

'True form of magic': Glowing fungus makes for surreal neon scene along dark Washington beaches​


FORKS, Wash. -- It might look like something that was just slimed by a Ghostbuster or perhaps somehow become radioactive, but instead, it's just living creatures naturally shedding light along a soaked remnant of what was long ago part of a tree.

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Photographer Mathew Nichols found these eerie glowing logs along a nighttime trek of a coastal Washington beach.

"I have been searching for the glowing logs for a few weeks with no luck," he [said].

But then, finally, there they were.

"I stepped onto the beach, and I could see a couple areas that were glowing," he said. "Excited, I ran closer where I came upon two different logs that were glowing."

The glow comes from fungus expelling natural light and energy as it consumes the decaying wood and also goes by the name of "foxfire."

https://news.yahoo.com/true-form-magic-glowing-fungus-120023254.html

maximus otter
 
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