Mushrooms 🍄 Or more accurately “Fungi” aren’t like 🪴plants. Fungi lack chlorophyll & don’t have the ability to photosynthesis ☀️ having to instead take nutrients from other sources.
Sure… A lot of them grow out of The ground like plants 🌱, But did You know that fungi breathe oxygen & exhale CO2 like Us Humans❓
Mushrooms are neither plants nor animals. They constitute a 3rd Lifeform On This Planet 🌏…The Fungal Kingdom.
It’s a little more complicated than that, but for simplicity sake We will lump it into 3 Types:
Animals🦒
Plants Or Vegetation 🌱
Fungi🍄
If I confused You or Peaked Your Interest… The Further Details On Earthly Life Can Be Found Here 👇🏽
There are about 10,000 kinds of mushrooms in North America alone & somewhere around 140,000 species worldwide, with many yet to be discovered❗️
They have an astonishing array of shapes, sizes & colors. These include the familiar mushroom forming species, as well as Yeasts Molds Smuts &
Rusts
Unless You are a mushroom🍄cultivator or maybe a Worm🪱… You don‘t see the entire life cycle of fungi, since most of it takes place underground or beneath the bark of dead or living trees. Before developing the mushroom structure, the fungus lives as mycelium, a threadlike network of filaments infusing a patch of soil or wood.
Food🍽️For💭Thought: There is currently a Mycelial Mat located in The Old Growth🌳Forest in the Northwestern North American Coastal Area of the US & Canada that is The Oldest & Largest Living Thing In/On Our Entire World 🌏❗️
When conditions are right, the netlike mycelium develops a fruiting structure (A 🍄Mushroom❗️) which emerges from the ground or the tree. Instead of seeds, Mushrooms produce spores, which are almost as fine as smoke. 💨 When spores land in a suitable place, they germinate, developing the fine filaments that eventually become new mycelium.
Food🍽️For💭Thought: The Mushroom 🍄 is simply the sexual reproduction organ of a lot of fungi. It is more than a casual reference to call a man’s penis a “mushroom cap“ & to notice the resemblance.
Mushrooms usually don’t last very long. Once they’ve shed their spores, they collapse & deteriorate. Some, such as turkey tails, however, last much longer, like 1-2 months. You can harvest turkey tails as long as they are in good health (have a white underside) & still growing .
Some fungi digest nutrients from dead material, such as leaves & fallen trees—a compost heap hosts plenty of these fungi! The members of this group are called Saprophytes.
Other fungi digest materials from living tissues—these are called Parasites. When you see mushrooms growing from a living tree, that tree is undoubtedly being parasitized by a fungus under its bark.
The Mycorrhizal fungi are a third group. Underground, they form a mutually beneficial relationship with the roots of plants. They help the plants to absorb water & minerals, & the plants provide nutrients for the fungus. Many trees & other plants cannot live without these fungal partners.
IMPORTANT ROLES Fungi play a vitally important roles in nature & to humans.
🟠As Saprophytes that break down dead materials, fungi are responsible for keeping us from drowning in a sea of leaf litter, sticks & branches & the carcasses of dead animals.
🟠Mycorrhizal fungi not only are important to many plants in nature, but also are used by horticulturalists for encouraging plants to grow.
🟠Yeasts don’t develop “mushrooms” to spread their spores, but they make bread rise & turn grapes into wine and grain into beer.
🟠Fungi make blue cheese blue. Others create antibiotics & other drugs. One early strain of penicillin was first isolated in the 1940s from a rotten cantaloupe!
🟠Fungi, especially the rusts & smuts, have spoiled grain, fruit & vegetable crops for millennia. Even after a successful harvest, fungi are responsible for a staggering amount of food spoilage.
🟠Some beetles & wasps use fungi to soften wood that their larvae eat. Leaf cutter ants cultivate & eat the fungus that grows on leaves the ants collect.
The "Zombie Mushroom" is describing a group of parasitic fungi that can infect & control the behavior of their host insects, effectively turning them into "zombies." One example of a zombie mushroom is Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which infects 🐜 ants. When an 🐜 ant becomes infected with Ophiocordyceps🍄unilateralis spores, the fungus begins to grow inside the 🐜 ant's body, consuming its tissues & releasing chemicals that alter the 🐜 ant's behavior. The infected 🐜 🧟♂️ ant is compelled to leave its nest & climb to a high location, where it bites onto a leaf or stem & dies. The fungus then continues to grow, producing a stalk-like structure called a "fruiting🍄body" that emerges from the 🐜 ant's body & releases spores into the surrounding area. These spores can then infect other 🐜 ants & continue the cycle. While the behavior of infected 🐜 ants may seem like something out of a horror movie, it is a fascinating example of how parasitic fungi can manipulate the behavior of their hosts for their own benefit.
This can be seen depicted in the Play Station🎮Game & HBO📺Show “The Last Of Us” where an 🧟♂️ Outbreak of Inoculation of Cordycep spores spreads throughout humanity causing a Zombie Apocalypse.
❓Frequently Asked Questions❓
FAQ❓: Are psychedelic mushrooms made from poop❓
Answer💡: No
Coprophilous fungi release their spores to the surrounding vegetation, which is then eaten by herbivores. The spores then remain in the animal as the plants are digested, pass through the animal’s intestines and are finally defecated… You know… Pooped💩out. The fruiting bodies of the fungi then grow through the animal feces. The Poop 💩 is a potent source of nitrogen & other food & the mycelium will choose this location to grow through the Poop 💩 But from the mycelium developed in the ground. So through the Poop 💩 not From the Poop 💩❗️
Food🍽️For💭Thought: When growing Your own Mushies… Most people don’t even use any poop 💩 in their mix.
FAQ❓: Are mushrooms becoming legal❓
Answer💡: Yes & No
The movement to decriminalize psilocybin in the United States began in the late 2010s, with Denver, Colorado becoming the first city to decriminalize psilocybin on May 7th 2019.
The cities of Oakland & Santa Cruz, California, followed suit & decriminalized psilocybin in June 2019 & January 2020, respectively.
As of this writing ✍🏽 The entire state of Colorado(November 2022) has now Decriminalized All Entheogenic substances & Allowed the use & prescription of these substances to be included in therapeutic settings By Dr’s & Therapists❗️
This Will have to be actively monitored to actually find out current progress here.
Food🍽️For💭Thought: I personally feel (& My thoughts on this seem to be consistent with the community) that Decriminalizing is the way to go forward that is for the people. Legalization opens a window 🪟 for big business & government to jump in & out of at will & muscles 💪🏽 out the individual. 🧠Think💭 🤢Big Pharma 🤢DC Lobbyists influencing laws passed 🤢Owning Patents 🤢Genetically Modified Organisms 🤢Etc. 🤮Ewe…“GMO Shroomies” We have The Legalization Of Cannabis To show & prove these points) Decriminalization allows for Your freedom & tells government to get the hell out of My face telling Me what I can & can’t put into My own body.✊🏽That should be a personal choice between You & at most a Dr., Therapist, or Shaman specifically trained.
FAQ❓: So mushrooms are basically just like plants🌱… Right❓
Answer💡: Not Really
About 50 percent is similar DNA to humans & believe it or not, the genetic composition of mushrooms is actually more similar to humans than plants. For example, when mushrooms are exposed to sunlight they can produce vitamin D — just like humans. & Again… just like humans 🍄 Mushrooms breathe oxygen & exhale C02
FAQ❓: How poisonous can mushrooms be?
Answer💡: Only about 3% of known mushroom varieties are poisonous
The symptoms of poisoning can vary from gastrointestinal discomfort to liver failure & death, depending on the type of toxin ingested. Acute liver failure from mushroom poisoning is relatively less common, but it does happen.
FAQ❓:
What percentage of mushrooms are safe to eat❓
Answer💡: Almost ALL, BUT…
There are over 50,000 species of mushrooms, including molds & yeasts. Various types are hallucinogenic. Others are used for their medicinal properties.
Less than 3% of mushrooms are poisonous, which does not mean mortal; only about a dozen are fatal. Many mushrooms are famously delicious, & nutritious, too❗️
Others are notoriously deadly (Although Very few world wide will actually kill You).
⚠️🚫Don’t eat any mushroom unless you’re certain it’s safe to eat!🚫⚠️
Food🍽️For💭Thought: A great idea 💡 is to buy a mushroom field guide. There are many to choose from & any will do the job however I personally use the “Peterson Field Guide To Mushrooms”… I like the size. It’s small & fits in Your pocket. I also feel it’s really easy to quickly find through pictures & tabs a Mushroom 🍄 🆔
Wanna Grow Your Own 🍄🟫’s❓
So Friends…
If You would like to grow Your own mushrooms… I invite You to Grow With Me.
Here are sources for the 3 things You need to grow…
Equipment
Spores
&
Instruction
• Equipment & materials to grow with
• Spores for the source of the mushrooms. Like if You’re growing a garden… You’ll have nothing if You don’t plant seeds… that’s the Spores
• Instruction so You know what to do
This is where I started & is the perfect one stop shop for all Your Mushroom 🍄🟫 Growing Equipment❗️
A recommendation from a friend at My local Psychedelic Club.
I have now “Grown” to recommending MGK to Others.
So much so that I just contacted them & I’m happy to say I got a referral code❗️
It’s an easy way to support My efforts by simply taking a step to grow Yourself a source of natural medicine.
Here Is My Affiliate Link🔗👇
Here is where I highly recommend going for Your Spores. No affiliate link🔗 (Not yet at least)… just a genuine suggestion from personal experience with many companies.
Here is Your link🔗 for that👇🏽
I have a growing guide I’ll be publishing soon.
However I can share this information with You now with this link to my Notion page where I compiled everything.
It’s Free❗️
It’s not all illustrated yet, but the info is there for You complete with a dictionary & more❗️
Here’s Your link🔗 for that here.(If the 🔗 is broken please let Me know & I’ll fix it.) 👇🏽
Please… If You find Value here, consider supporting My work by becoming a paid subscriber & sharing this with as many like minded minds as possible.
Share this post