Mushrooms Final

Morels phylum, location, raw

• Ascomycota

• Like dying trees

• Poisonous

When do mushrooms fruit & why

Fall, tree roots richest in nutrients

Spore printe

Unique for each shroom

Brown vs white for agaricus

Blewits appearance and location

Purple mushroom with pink spore print

Grows in wood chips

Toxin quick facts

Not absorbed through touch

1-2% of shrooms

No reliable test

How can you get sick from shrooms other than poison? (5)

Allergy

Food poisoning

Insecticide

Panic

Drug interaction

Charles McIvaine

Tried a bunch of mushrooms to see if poisonous

Amanita Phalloides

• death cap

• Symbiotic of oak and spruce trees

• 90% of all mushroom deaths, half a cap to kill

Boletes

Pores intead of gills on bottom

Hydnum

Teeth instead of gills

Amatoxins (how do they work)

Block dna transcription by bonding to rna polymerase

Cyclic peptides

How are amatoxins useful

Cancer cure

Amanita: parts

Huge genus of mushrooms

Some r poisonous some not

parts: annulus and volva

Why do we harvest mushrooms wild?

Some cannot be grown

How to safely forage (4)

Learn poisonous ones first

Eat a small amount the first time

Don’t mix new ones

Save a specimen

Shiitake cultivation

Grown since 1100

Put in hole in log, beat the hole to stimulate growth

Can also soak in water or shock

Agaricus origin, production in USA

Paris 1700s

now mostly made in Kennett Square PA

Agaricus bisporus

portobello, cremini, white button, etc.

Steps to growing a mushroom

1. grow spawn in grains eg. rye

2. let substrate (compost/straw) ferment

3. run the spawn and let it grow/eat the substrate

4. case the compost to stimulate fruiting

5. pinning: mushrooms form

6. harvest

Agaricus controversy (chemical name)

contains agaritine, carcinogenic

eating raw mushrooms can cause cancer

What mushrooms can be cultivated?

primary decomposers eat wood: oyster, shiitake, lion’s mane

secondary decomposers eat compost: button, inky caps

Problems with farming mushrooms

pests

green mold eats mycelium

trichoderma virus digests

Mycoremediation

degrading things we don’t like (plastic)

breaking down minerals

eating hydrocarbons (oil spill)

Serpula Lachrymans

dry rot: can rot without water

Rhizomorphs

grown by serpula lachrymans (the long black things), can move water from one area to another

basidiomycota

brown rot

eats cellulose, leaves lignin (brown)

like cubes

white rot

eats lignin very fast, leaves cellulose (white)

like thread

spalting

in tree, black zone lines where fungi are fighting for space

signs of decay in trees

open wounds

fruiting fungi bodies

discolored wood

seedlings growing in tree

agarwood

economically beneficial decay: wood = incense

amanita muscaria: role, color

fly agaric

mind altering fungi

white and red

ibotenic acid: what does it become

toxin that becomes muscimol upon drying

muscimol effects

• within 30 mins: muscle spasms, dizziness, vomiting, feelings of disproportionality, sleep

• recovery within 24h

• don’t usually die, excrete chemicals in urine

amanita muscaria cultural importance

used by shamans, berserkers

gordon and tina wasson

collected mushroom culture around the world

coined mycophilia and phobia

Mycorrhizal fungus origin

introduced through pine plantations

photosynthetic creatures

plants, algae, lichens

lichens

symbiote between fungi and algae

• fungus = housing

  • algae = food

most are cup fungi, some have mushrooms

Maria Sabina

local healer who used psilocybe

introduced mushrooms as ceremonial use

life ruined after fame

psilocybe

brown mushrooms, turn blue when bruised

psylocobin (psilocin)

active psychedelic in psilocybe

Terence mckenna

advocated for positive use of psychedelics

believes fungi came from space, stoned ape theory (developed consciousness after shrooms)

Psilocybin as Golden Teacher

realizatino that all things are connected

all things imbued with new meaning (shroom goggles)

effects of psilocybin

• time slows down

• senses heightened

• detachment from physical being

• oneness with world

• 2-6 hours

what DOESN’t happen on psychedelics

• minimal memory impairment

• not associated with agitation

• minimal side effects

• no addiction

what happens on psychedelics

• changes in mood

• evokes pseudohallucinations and distorted perception

  • people KNOW the hallucinations are fake

  • distort reality, don’t conjure new things

• prolonged afterimages/trails

• synesthesia

• slowing time

what neurotransmitter does psilocybin and LSD resemble

what does it do

serotonin, increases release of glutamate and metabolism

causes desynchronization of neurons across the brain

psilocybin breakthrough in antidepressant

effective in days with trained therapist

why does psilocybin work for depression?

• Aha moment

• enhances suggestability of therapist

• biological effects of serotonin and 5HT2 receptors

Set and setting

• calm, comfortable, supportive setting

• mindset & environment

• bad environment = panic and anxiety

mycorrhizae

symbiosis of roots of plants and fungi

90% of plants do this!

how do fungi benefit plants

better absorption of nutrients/water

access to nitrogen/phosphorous in soil

protection from disease

underground social network

how to plants benefit fungi

make sugar: 25% goes to fungi

Frank

discovered mycorrhizae → must grow trees to grow truffles

truffle tree

has brule under it, takes 7 years to grow

carbon cycling with trees

trees fix carbon, wood rot breaks down wood and releases it

fossil fuels

excess photosynthetic production made by photosynthesis

ectomycorrhizae

• fungus surrounds root cells

• trees and shrubs

• basidio and ascomycota

• mycelium covers roots and grows into the roots, wrapping around cells without popping them

  • transmit things through membrane

Arbuscular mycorrhizae

- fungus is WITHIN root cells (all microscopic)

- herbaceous plants (leafy)

- Glomeromycota

- creates fungal structure in a single root cell, doesn’t pop cell

- large surface area for nutrient exchange

Vaucluse (french town)

ecosystem services

reforestation using truffle trees: forest and watershedsalt

alternative views of nature (2)

1. cooperative, altruistic, wise

   1. “mother” trees and “child” trees

2. market economies driven by supply/demand

   1. more predatory

farming vs harvesting

plant, cultivate, harvest, eat

farming pros vs cons

• good: more food and reliable

• bad: division of labor and need protection

domestication with termites

• eat the biggest crops, poop the spores out as seeds to re-plant

  • selecting for larger crop

cultivation (example in bugs)

leafcutter ants add leaves to farms similar to mulch

termite mounds and tempearture/moisture

huge mounds with open chambers let air circulate and exchange

ambrosia beetles

cultivate farms in wood tunnels

selected for large nutritious spores that lost spore functionality

want to kill mushrooms

using agriculture for nutrients

extract nutrients from soil into edible form (food)

mycangia

difficult for ambrosia beetles to regenerate farm each year bc need new tree

stash seeds in mycangia: pockets in the body

steps for propagating fungus in mycangia

• take spores and add to pocket

• recognize the correct spores and fill pocket with nutrients

• nutrients help the crop grow

  • only helps the specific spore grow, pushes out bad things like other spores/dirt

cordyceps infection stages

1. infect your host (spores enter through exoskeleton)

2. move your host for optimal spore disposal

3. clamp onto a twig high up

4. kill the ant and sprout fruiting body

Laboulbeniales

kill ladybugs by growing on reproductive parts

cordyceps (what genus)

host specific

ascomycota

zygomycota as parasite

similar functionality to ascomycota version: convergent evolution

infects a fly and disperses spores to another

spongy moth

pest: can use fungus as pesticide?

• difficult to grow

periodical cicada

underground for 17+ years

infected loses lower half and can’t mate, spores in the area infect others

nematodes & how do fungi eat them

lasso

sticky traps

attack with missiles

entomophaga muscae

spread through sex in fliex

disease targetting insects

beuveria bassiana

biocontrol fungus

• narrow host range

• adaptable

• compatible life cycle

• high reproduction

• short kill time

chaga

false conk (tree fungi) in trees

used as herbal medicine: indicates 50-100% decay in a tree

fly agaric theories

lucky devil, god of fire, raven’s bread, thunderbolts, burning bush

roccella

purple dye

vary in hue

lentinan

anticancer from shiitake

activates immune system

amatoxin symptoms

diarrhea, nausea, symptoms fade (false recovery 24-72hr), death in 1 week

phenology

seasonality, when fruit

impacted by climate change: 2x fruiting

ethnomycology & examples

mushroom use in different cultures

vikings, indigenous, alice in wonderland, cults, bible, berserkers, Santa

What were lichens used for?

nesting material

dye

dating artifacts

food source

Galerina

Deadly lookalike to Psilocybe

negative impact of psilocin trip

nervousness/paranoia

schizophrenia patients regress

long-term disconnection from reality

suggestibility