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Fungus from HELL: Messed up mushrooms that look like boners, brains & zombie fingers!
09.27.2017
09:16 am
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An example of “Xylaria polymorpha” aka a mushroom known as “Dead Man’s Fingers.”
 
Even though I love being outdoors and have hiked my way around much of the Pacific Northwest, I have a deep-rooted fear of bears—and that keeps me from deviating from paths that are not well-worn. Now, thanks to what I’ve recently learned about mushrooms, I’m also afraid of running into some of the bizarre fungi that grow in the woods. Bleck! For this post, I’m going to showcase four different types of mushrooms that for very good reasons have earned the following names; “Dead Man’s Fingers,” the nightmarish “Bleeding Tooth,” the “Brain” mushroom, and one that should need no real introduction at all, the “Common stinkhorn” which looks just like a penis. For the record, I’ve never seen any of these natural abominations in the wild, and I’d love to keep it that way. Now, here are a few gross facts about each weird shroom.

Dead Man’s Fingers” are unsurprisingly as bad as they sound. And not because ingesting them will result in a long strange trip, but because the appearance of this fungus at the base of a tree means that it is quite literally breaking down the structure of the tree which results in soft rot. In other words, Dead Man’s Fingers (aka Xylaria polymorpha) are tree-murdering mushrooms though it is said that they are edible. Good luck with that. As gross as those mushrooms are, the “Bleeding Tooth,” (Hydnellu Peckii) fungus looks like something Dr. Seuss might have had nightmares about. The Bleeding Tooth secretes a dark red liquid which as you may have guessed, makes it appear to be “bleeding.” The non-toxic fungus is quite useful as it possesses the naturally occurring chemical, atromentin which is said to work quite well as an antibacterial and anticoagulant. (It’s a dessert topping and a floor wax.)
 

As if going to the dentist wasn’t enough of a drag, here’s a species of mushroom known as “Bleeding Tooth.”
 
Gyromitra esculenta or “Brain” mushroom is somewhat common fungus, and highly toxic. But that doesn’t stop people from eating them despite the risks associated with ingestion that include vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, dizziness and sometimes (though rarely) coma and death. Brain mushrooms are quite popular in Finland and are sold with extensive warning labels because even boiling them in water will causes the chemical gyromitrin (the stuff that might kill you in a Brain mushroom) vaporize which can make you sick just by breathing too much of it. Yikes.

Lastly, I give you the “Common stinkhorn” or the Phallus impudicus—the mushroom that looks like just like a dick. The stinky horns allegedly smell wretched and toward the end of their lifecycle the produce a nasty looking dark-colored goop out of the top of their “heads.” Regardless of what appear to be warning signs to stay the fuck away from them, the stinkhorns are eaten widely across Germany and France. The mythology around the distinct-looking mushroom includes its use as a “love potion” in medieval times for somewhat obvious reasons. I’ve posted photos of all the funky fungus discussed in this post below—some images are slightly NSFW.
 

A Gyromitra esculenta or “Brain” mushroom.
 

A “Common stinkhorn” or “Phallus impudicus” in the wild.
 

Dead Man’s Fingers.
 
More images of disturbing mushrooms after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Cherrybomb
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09.27.2017
09:16 am
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Watch a 61-year-old mom take ‘shrooms for the first time and ‘reconnect with her real self’
02.25.2016
03:00 pm
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So this guy gave his 61-year-old mom a gram of psilocybe cubensis, a species of psychedelic mushroom (1 gram is a small, safe dose) and then he documented it for YouTube. Her trip lasted about four hours, and she said she wouldn’t want to reproduce the experience of being filmed while tripping, but she did say that it helped her “reconnect with her real self.”

She wants to try it with friends in the woods. I’m calling the whole affair “momshrooms.”
 

 
via BoingBoing

Posted by Martin Schneider
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02.25.2016
03:00 pm
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Turkish reporter confuses giant mushroom with microphone
02.04.2016
09:02 am
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Haven’t we all done this one time or another? I just wish I knew what these two guys were talking about. Perhaps something about mushrooms? That would be my best guess.

Or maybe he’s just tripping?

 
via Neatorama

Posted by Tara McGinley
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02.04.2016
09:02 am
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This is your brain on ‘shrooms: Why magic mushrooms make you trip
03.25.2015
10:12 am
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Speaking (writing?) as a longtime, er, aficionado of the fabulous fungi and the veteran psychonaut of many a wild psychedelic experience (I’ve had some doozies) I enjoyed watching this short animatation that explains the how and the why of tripping on psilocybin mushrooms.

There’s only really one way to do mushrooms properly, if you ask me, and that’s what Terence McKenna called a “heroic dose”—five grams of dried cubensis taken in the dark with no music (and the doors locked and the phone turned off). When you come out the other end, you’ll be… uh… reborn.

Or something like that. It’s probably the single most direct route to a spiritual experience available to human beings, like tapping into the engine room of the universe and meeting God (or gods!). Quantum physics will start to make a lot of sense afterwards, trust me on that one…

Imagine being the first person who discovered them, right?
 

 
via Raw Story

Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.25.2015
10:12 am
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Calm your rage (or work on your handjob technique) with these stress reducing ‘shrooms
10.10.2014
04:59 pm
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Never feel the need to lose your shit again, just grab your handy rubber mushroom and yank the hell out of it! 

... whether it’s financial pressures, relationship problems or overworking – just squeeze the bejesus out of a realistic rubber mushroom and feel your troubles fade away.

 
The stress reducing mushrooms are by Firebox and come in four different varieties: Enoki, Fly Agaric, King Trumpet and Matsutake.

  • Stretch them, twist them, smash them on the desk
  • Japan’s favourite anger management solution
  • Made from durable rubber, they even feel like the real thing
  • Non hallucinogenic, but more effective than magic mushrooms
  • Four different and slightly phallic fungi to choose from

Each mushroom goes for about $9.50 + shipping. They even feel like the real thing...

As a sidenote: THESE MUSHROOMS ARE NOT EDIBLE!!!


 

 

 
Via Boing Boing

Posted by Tara McGinley
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10.10.2014
04:59 pm
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Viagra induces fractal growth in mushrooms
05.14.2014
11:09 am
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boletus.jpg
Photo of Boletus edulis by Jean-Pol GRANDMONT
 
The Boletaceae family of mushrooms “display a phallus-like morphology formed by a stalk a cap,” or a shaft and a bell-end to you and me. When these mushrooms were given the pharmacological compound “Sildenafil,” used for the treatment of male erectile dysfunction as Viagra, scientific researcher Gabriele Losa discovered that the synthetic drug increased fractal growth.

Boletus edulis, a Basidiomycete of the Boletaceae family, can be found gathered around beechwood trees (Fagus) in Ticino, an Italian district in the southern part of Switzerland. In his studies, Losa noted some similarities in the “phallus-like morphology” of the mushrooms may be influenced by “various environmental agents, including growth factors and complex molecules such as polyphenols and other antioxidants.”

Some analogies had also been noted between “Sildenafil” (Viagra) and the “chemical structure of natural polyphenols, flavonoids and many other cyclic compounds as rosamarinic acid abundant in macro-fungi, which exhibited an antioxidant free-radical scavenging activity.” Such changes prompted an investigation into the possible growth effects on Boletus type mushrooms by Sildenafil. In other words, researchers gave a selection of mushrooms Viagra, and some others a placebo, to see if the drug would affect their growth.

The results showed the mushrooms given Sildenafil had “a significant growth increase as expressed by numerical desnity [#B/m2], which ranged from 0.15 at time zero to 0.5 at day 14 of treatment, whilst it remained stable around 0.2 without significant changes in the control domain.”

Knowing the role of sildenafil on certain parts of the male human body, one can easily hypothesize an analogous effect on other, rather different biological targets such as Boletus mushrooms. According to such a hypothesis, in these mushrooms, a strengthened lymph drawing and water afflux suitable to permeate the roughage tissue, thus favoring both firmness of stalk and smoothness of cap. If so, then the effect induced in mushrooms might mimic the polymorphous effect observed in human males.

But how to explain the observed diverging behavior? On the one hand, the numerical density [#B/m2] increased by 35%, proving a significant growth of Boletus after fourteen days of treatment. On the other hand, the height dimensions of specimens treated with Sildenafil were found smaller than those of control area, with data interval ranging between 6.5-8.1 cm and 7.4-9.6 cm respectively.

Hence in this experimental system the growth rate was inversely related to Boletus height. The fractal dimension values recorded on the cap and stalk border outlines of Boletus mushrooms deserved a critical comparison with data recovered in the living realm; in the former fractal dimension values ranged between 1.10 and 1.23 rather close to fractal dimension values recorded on contour profiles of most biological structures and cell tissues, notably liver cells, healthy lymphoid and white blood cells, leukemic circulating cells, oocytes, immature astrocytes and neuronal cells, all characterized by a similar degree of irregularity (Losa & Nonnenmacher 1996). Unfortunately, fractal dimension data on mushrooms have never been calculated (or at least have not been reported in the scientific literature).

To sum up: The numerical density (#B/m2) of the mushroom was increasing with time, i.e. from 0.15/m2 up to 0.5/ m2 at day 14 of treatment, while the fractal density reduced from 1.23 to 1.11. Thus, there was a significant reduction of border profile complexity and irregularity in Boletus mushrooms that were treated with Sildenifil, a drug that provokes penile erections in human males.

And the conclusion?

Our investigation highlighted the main fractal principle which rests on the unlimited iteration of a unit fragment as a chief generator, either determined or unknown, until completion of the whole structure. The same principle serves to explain the fractality of growth mechanisms, the irregularity of morphological structures and the complex dynamics of living processes which occur at different spatial and temporal scales in connection with the principle of the recursive genome function (Pellionisz 2008), all the phenomena implicated in growth and maintenance of the fascinating and mysterious kingdom of mushrooms.

Fascinating indeed, and you can read the complete paper here, and below, this is what mushrooms on Viagra look like. None too appetizing…
 
viagramushrooms.jpg
 
H/T Nerdcore, via Improbable Research
 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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05.14.2014
11:09 am
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Babysit us!: Babysitter needed for mushroom trip
08.24.2011
04:39 pm
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(via reddit )

Posted by Tara McGinley
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08.24.2011
04:39 pm
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