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Fungal Forteana / Fortean Fungi

From that shot it looks like Laetiporus sulphureus, the sulphur bracket. Personally I’m not going to comment on edibility, particularly from a photograph. What I will say is if you don’t know 100% what it is don’t eat it.
Agree on Laetiporus sulphureus. It's the season. IIRC not poisonous, but there's some debate on edibility.
 
From a Facebook contact of mine: Octopus Stinkhorn:
190472290_316944206580685_2830370156937145063_n.jpg191696212_316944239914015_2407937320199951080_n.jpg
 
Fungi in space, getting astronauts high as well.

Mushroom expert Paul Stamets, author of Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World, is part of a new NASA-funded study on "astromycology," how fungi could be used in space as building materials, to generate healthy soil for agriculture, and even as batteries. Scientific American interviewed Stamets about his current research and also his most far out ideas beyond the NASA project. From Scientific American:

Before we wrap up, let's get a little more speculative. What are some of the more fantastic ways mushrooms might be applied in space?
Well, what I can tell you? I'm sure some of your editors may go, "No way, we're not going to publish this." But I think using psilocybin mushrooms in spaceflight makes a lot of sense. There are more than 65 articles right now … at ClinicalTrials.gov that say psilocybin mushrooms help people overcome [post-traumatic stress disorder], loneliness and depression. Do you think the astronauts are going to have loneliness and depression and PTSD? I think yes. How are you going to help them?
Under carefully controlled conditions, our astronauts [being] able to take psilocybin in space and look at the universe and not feel distant and alone but feel like they're part of this giant consciousness will give them a better frame of mind—psychologically, emotionally—to work with other astronauts and stay on mission. I feel that isolation, loneliness and depression are going to be major issues that astronauts face.
So I say this with great sincerity: NASA and anyone else working and looking at the settlement of space, you should consider that psilocybin mushrooms should be an essential part of your psychological tool kit for astronauts to be able to endure the solitude and the challenges of space and isolation.
Psilocybin mushrooms build creativity; people who are more creative come up with more solutions. I think that, in a sense, is a fertile ecosystem that can lead to the sustainability of humans in space.

https://boingboing.net/2021/08/03/s...ertilizer-and-yep-to-get-astronauts-high.html
 
Wait a minute - Paul Stamets?

There's a character in Star Trek Discovery called Paul Stamets who pilots the ship using the mycelial network - basically space fungus.

That's either the biggest coincidence I've ever encountered or the character was named after the real guy. Or you've been reading some Star Trek expanded universe shit.

EDIT: He is named after him. Boo.

"The character Lieutenant Commander Paul Stamets on the CBS series Star Trek: Discovery was named after the real Stamets. The fictional version is an astromycologist and engineer aboard the USS Discovery, and is credited with discovering a mycelial network that powers an advanced spore drive.[13]"
 
Wait a minute - Paul Stamets?

There's a character in Star Trek Discovery called Paul Stamets who pilots the ship using the mycelial network - basically space fungus.

That's either the biggest coincidence I've ever encountered or the character was named after the real guy. Or you've been reading some Star Trek expanded universe shit.

EDIT: He is named after him. Boo.

"The character Lieutenant Commander Paul Stamets on the CBS series Star Trek: Discovery was named after the real Stamets. The fictional version is an astromycologist and engineer aboard the USS Discovery, and is credited with discovering a mycelial network that powers an advanced spore drive.[13]"
"Astromycologist" ... I like that!
 
The fungus, Pestalotiopsis microspora, is the first anyone has found to survive on a steady diet of polyurethane alone and–even more surprising–do this in an anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment that is close to the condition at the bottom of a landfill.
 
This parasitic fungus turns houseflies into lust-driven 'zombies' literally dying to spread the fungus' spores via mating.
Creepy Zombie Fungus Turns Insects Into Horny 'Necrophiles', Proving Nature Is Sick

The parasitic fungus Entomophthora muscae goes to great lengths to exploit the sexual urges of house flies. According to a recent study, after taking control of a fly's brain and sending its host to die on the highest point it can reach, the zombifying mold concocts a powerful aphrodisiac to complete its ruse.

This love potion fans the flames of lust in healthy male flies, encouraging them to put their moves on the opposite sex, dead or alive. Sometimes that means bloated female carcasses, literally bursting with spores.

The urge to reproduce drives so much in nature that it's an ideal target for hijacking. From plants that disguise their flowers as female insects to tempt males into doing their dirty pollen-carrying work, to fungi that trick male spiders into mating with infected females, many organisms tap into this power of lust.

After all, when two potential mates lock onto each other in blind attraction, decision-making skills can become... compromised.

The zombie fungus exploits this weakness to an astonishing level, and University of Copenhagen researchers conducted a series of experiments that conclusively demonstrate how. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/creepy...to-horny-necrophiliacs-proving-nature-is-sick
 
My first (legal) exposure to exotic fungi was in the mid 80's, when my classmates had to write a report on a mycological topic literally drawn out of a hat (bag, hat-bag). I got nematophagous fungi ie fungi that capture and eat nematode worms. I spent most of the day at the Science Reference Libray waiting for a book by the leading authority GL Barron (1977). Unfortunately it could not be found as the book had previously been returned to the wrong stack position - 10 million books, game over.
Anyway, the nematodes burrow through the soil causing crop damage and eventually one will stick its head through a loop produced by the hyphae of a fungi like Duddingtonia hagrans. The loop snaps off and starts constricting and the nematode carries on until it is squeezed to death. Spores then start sprouting from the loop, now some distance from the parent fungi, using the body as food . There were some trials in seeding fields with nematophagous fungi as a biological control against nematodes, but never heard the results (misfiled).

Nematophagous fungi.jpg
 
Came across this fungus on a young hazel tree when out on my eight mile walkabout last weekend, never seen it before, not sure what it is. It's very delicate, thin 'leafed,' and papery in appearance.
The nearest association I managed to find online, is one called 'Rainbow' Tree Fungus?


Tree Fungus.png
 
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Came across this fungus on a young hazel tree when out on my eight mile walkabout last weekend, never seen it before, not sure what it is. It's very delicate, thin 'leafed,' and papery in appearance.
The nearest association I managed to find online, is one called 'Rainbow' Tree Fungus?


View attachment 51481
I think it’s a many-zoned polyphore, AKA turkey tails (Coriolis versicolor). They’re pretty widespread around the world, with hazel being one of its many hosts.
 
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Mushrooms ‘talk to each other and have a vocabulary of 50 words’

MUSHROOMS can talk to each other and have a vocabulary of up to 50 words, fungi boffins say.


And they are thought most likely to be chatting about the weather and potential dangers.

They could even be letting other mushrooms know they are about and warning them off their patch.

Researchers analysed patterns of electrical activity of four species.

They say spikes of activity were where the fungi were “chatting”.

It is thought the info is relayed along fungal roots called mycelium.

Prof Andrew Adamatzky, from the University of the West of England, found the average “word” length was 5.97 letters.

It makes their language more complex than English, with 4.8, but simpler than Russian’s six-letter average.

Prof Adamatzky said the findings showed fungi had minds and consciousness.

Writing in the journal Royal Society Open Science, he added: “Assuming that spikes of electrical activity are used by fungi to communicate, we demonstrate that distributions of fungal word lengths match that of human languages.

“We found that the size of fungal vocabulary can be up to 50 words.”

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/18178297/mushrooms-talk-to-each-other/

maximus ottet
 
Mushrooms ‘talk to each other and have a vocabulary of 50 words’

MUSHROOMS can talk to each other and have a vocabulary of up to 50 words, fungi boffins say.


And they are thought most likely to be chatting about the weather and potential dangers.

They could even be letting other mushrooms know they are about and warning them off their patch.

Researchers analysed patterns of electrical activity of four species.

They say spikes of activity were where the fungi were “chatting”.

It is thought the info is relayed along fungal roots called mycelium.

Prof Andrew Adamatzky, from the University of the West of England, found the average “word” length was 5.97 letters.

It makes their language more complex than English, with 4.8, but simpler than Russian’s six-letter average.

Prof Adamatzky said the findings showed fungi had minds and consciousness.

Writing in the journal Royal Society Open Science, he added: “Assuming that spikes of electrical activity are used by fungi to communicate, we demonstrate that distributions of fungal word lengths match that of human languages.

“We found that the size of fungal vocabulary can be up to 50 words.”

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/18178297/mushrooms-talk-to-each-other/

maximus ottet
I was looking at that earlier. It’s a bold claim lacking a lot of detail - but it is the Soaraway Sun.
 
I was looking at that earlier. It’s a bold claim lacking a lot of detail - but it is the Soaraway Sun.
Seems like a similar system to what tree roots use to 'talk,' and send/warn, their neighbouring trees then I'm assuming?
 
Middle European fungi still radioactive 36 years after Chernobyl:
1650996634080.png


The radiation exposure is quite different. Why is that?

There were violent thunderstorms in southern Germany during the Fallout, some of which were very local. To this day, the Area of Munich, Berchtesgaden and the Augsburg region are affected. In addition, in forests where mushrooms are collected, the radioactive substances remain longer in the biosphere than in the field or meadow. On the one hand, this is due to the relatively closed material cycle in the forest, but also to the fact that the forest floor is not washed out so much. In addition, different types of fungi absorb the radionuclide cesium 137 to varying degrees via their mycelium from the forest floor. Another effect is that clay soils of fields chemically bind the cesium.

It's not yet a mushroom season, but which mushrooms are particularly contaminated?

Chestnut tubes, for example, are more heavily loaded, the bread stubble mushroom even very strong, porcini mushrooms and chanterelles (roe deer) less strong. Wild boars can be much more irradiated than mushrooms. Actually, the animals must be examined for their radiation exposure. There is a limit of 600 becquerels per kilogram, above which food may not be sold. It is worrying if the measurement is bypassed for private consumption. In any case, we at the Environmental Institute think that the limit value is set too high.

Anyone who regularly eats wild boar with increased doses throughout the year can suffer radiation exposure from several X-ray examinations of the lungs.
 
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