Shiitake mushrooms showing their faces

[TBRS1]

These two objects that look like moldy zucchini bread are actually blocks of sawdust infected with Lentinula edodes - the Shiitake mushroom:

The blocks fist turn fuzzy white, then develop a hard, brown crust. Once this happens, the mushrooms begin to form under the crust, then break through. Here's one breaking through the crust (the white star-ish shape in the middle):

And here's one that has "popped":

In a day or two this will be easily recognized as a mushroom.

 

[Outdated]

I thought of you the other day when I was reading this story:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09...ion-manjimup-photo-club-dragons-eye/102794880

 

[TBRS1]

I thought of you the other day when I was reading this story:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09...ion-manjimup-photo-club-dragons-eye/102794880

That "eye" is so cool.

I've really got to get out my better camera (the one on my A. Fire stinks) because the fungi outside are popping madly (here, it's the rainy pre-winter season).

Truly, mushrooms are one of the more interesting obsessions commonly available (IMHO).

 

[Outdated]

I find a lot about fungii to be fascinating, especially the symbiotic relationships with other plants.

Orchid growers are quite intimate with these relationships as most orchids simply can't grow without their symbiotic partner. This partnership is well documented, more so in amateur grower's forums than in scientific circles though.

https://serc.si.edu/research/research-topics/biodiversity-conservation/orchids-fungi-symbioses
A lot of people don't understand that many trees also have these same types of relationships with specific kinds of fungii and that's where a lot of reforestation and rewilding schemes end up failing. If trees have been gone from an area too long then so too have the fungii that relied on those trees. They both need each other.

 

[tree]

No faces.
I was expecting to see mushrooms with faces.

I know that fungi don't have eyes/noses/mouths....

 

[Outdated]

for @tree :

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

At the Asian market, they sell enoki mushrooms, still attached to the root plug.

I often just leave them in the fridge to continue growing. I snip off what I need and then let more grow, until the plant eventually dies.

I have been really curious to try to use that root plug to innoculate some old wood, and propagate more enoki mushrooms.

 

[TBRS1]

At the Asian market, they sell enoki mushrooms, still attached to the root plug.

I often just leave them in the fridge to continue growing. I snip off what I need and then let more grow, until the plant eventually dies.

I have been really curious to try to use that root plug to innoculate some old wood, and propagate more enoki mushrooms.

Not sure about enoki, but you can add oyster mushroom trimmings to coffee grounds and grow from that.

It's worth trying with enoki. However, if it works, the mushrooms will be of a more traditional mushroom shape, and light brown. The enoki "long thin white" (LOL - the David Bowie mushroom) comes from intentional low air/zero light growing conditions.

 

[TBRS1]

No faces.
I was expecting to see mushrooms with faces.

I know that fungi don't have eyes/noses/mouths....

Did you see the "eye" Outdated posted?

When the shiitake are up, maybe I'll put googly eyes on them.

 

[Progster]

Fungi are fascinating. There's one that grows in the woods near where I live, that looks like a phallus and stinks... you can smell it for miles around.

 

[Mary Terry]

Did you see the "eye" Outdated posted?

When the shiitake are up, maybe I'll put googly eyes on them.

It's the fungus among us.

I've grown those mushroom logs in my kitchen in years past, and one of my daughters did that for her science project in grade school. A local specialty food store sells the pre-seeded (inoculated?) logs so all you have to do is to spray them with water on a regular basis and keep them in low light.

 

[Outdated]

Fungi are fascinating. There's one that grows in the woods near where I live, that looks like a phallus and stinks... you can smell it for miles around.

View attachment 114340

We have a very similar one here in the north of the country. It has another stage beyond that where it grows a lacy frill underneath. It still stinks though.

 

[Progster]

One of the largest living organisms on Earth is supposedly a fungus living in North America, Armillaria ostoyae or honey fungus, which covers an area of about 4 square miles.

 

[Mary Terry]

One of the largest living organisms on Earth is supposedly a fungus living in North America, Armillaria ostoyae or honey fungus, which covers an area of about 4 square miles.

We have fairy ring fungi where I live and one or more of those varieties of the phallic mushroom. They pop up in humid, wet weather. Another kind that grows in the pasture is the size of dinner plates and also grows in a large ring. Sorry, I don't have photos.

Pennsylvania is the major producer of commercial mushrooms grown in the US. I guess they have the right weather and terroir.

 

[Outdated]

I love this little film clip of fungi trapping and eating nematodes. They're amazing things.

 

[Progster]

In Tibet, there's a kind of fungus that infects a caterpillar and then kills the caterpillar. This is then collected by locals who sell them as traditional medicine.

 

[TBRS1]

Fungi are fascinating. There's one that grows in the woods near where I live, that looks like a phallus and stinks... you can smell it for miles around.

View attachment 114340

LOL - technically, Phallus impudicus. Translates to something like "rude penis" (although there are more colorful ways of translating it).

I have a culture for this mushroom, but I haven't grown it out yet.

 

[TBRS1]

In Tibet, there's a kind of fungus that infects a caterpillar and then kills the caterpillar. This is then collected by locals who sell them as traditional medicine.

View attachment 114342

Cordyceps sinensis. Like you say, these are wild harvested, and cost about $40 per bug/fungus combo.

I am growing a closely related species, Cordyceps militaris. These also grow on bugs in the wild, but in vitro I grow them on rice - here's A jar I inoculated A few days ago:

The stuff that looks like marshmallow fluff is the fungi. When it fruits, the mushrooms look like Cheetos.

Currently these creep people out, thanks to The Last of Us, where humans get infected by Cordyceps and become zombies. This does not happen in real life.

So far.

 

[Aspychata]

 

[Aspychata]

It's puffball mushroom, l want to grow and eat it.