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Funguary Day 28: Caesar's Mushroom

The Caesar's mushroom is one of the very few fungi of the Amanita genus. It is close relatives with fungi such as the death cap (see that post here), however it is edible and reportedly delicious. That doesn’t stop it from having many poisonous look-alikes, as every year there are poisonings of people who thought they were eating Caesar's mushroom but were rather eating a poisonous species. 

One of the most famous poisonings involving this mushroom took place in ancient Rome. emperor Claudius had ascended to the throne after the assassination of his nephew. He had many wives in his life but finally married his fourth wife Agrippina. Agrippina had a son, Nero, whom she had big plans for. She persuaded Claudius to adopt Nero, putting him in line for the throne, but she was not a patient woman. You can see where this is going. She decided to speed up the time it would take for her son to take the throne by feeding Claudius his favorite meal, the Caesars mushroom, laced with extracts from the death cap fungi. When the symptoms set in the next day a co-conspirator doctor administered a toxin from a plant called the bitter apple, finishing him off. Nero became the emperor, and the rest was history. 

And that is funguary officially finished! One post per day on mycology for 28 days! Started preparing back in January, still finished the research for this post last night. Regardless, I loved it so much, and more importantly, now I have EVEN MORE mushroom facts to force upon my poor unassuming friends. If you're interested in seeing the rest of my posts for funguary you can find them all here!

And from now on, I will have a mushroom post every Saturday so if you're interested in that keep an eye out for it :)

Thanks for listening to my rambles!

Funguary Day 1: Veiled Lady

This mushroom has an intense stink that attracts insects and gives the mushroom its several other names, including “basket stinkhorn”, “longnet stinkhorn”, and “crinoline stinkhorn”. The insects attracted to the smell help spread the spores of the mushroom after coming into contact with it.

I've also made an art piece for this day you can see here!

What do you think of The Last of Us and many of humans very.. fungal fate, so to say

I think they should be honored for the opportunity to become one with the mycelium 😌

no but seriously I loveeeee this game, it has to be one of my favorite games out there :) The tv show is great too

Funguary Day 7: Wrinkled Peach Mushroom

When young this mushroom has a soft pink color and deep net patterns. The color and patterning both fade with age.

This particular wrinkled peach is “weeping”, also known as guttation, a process in which the mushroom secretes excess moisture. 

The wrinkled peach is also the only species in its genus, meaning taxonomists had such a difficult time fitting it into any other category that they had to make a whole new genus just for the wrinkled peach. 

See the rest of my posts for funguary here!

Funguary Day 16: Mycena Chlorophos

Mycena Chlorophos is what's known as a foxfire fungus- a fungus that glows at night. The mushroom regulates its glow through a circadian rhythm, at night the levels of the chemical compound and enzymes that react to produce the bioluminescence peak. 

It is theorized that the light it emits at night is to attract beetles and other insects that might help spread the spores similar to how flowers use scents and colors to attract pollinators

Once an experiment was ran by Olson in which two cultures of the biter oyster, another foxfire fungi, were grown and placed on a completely dark box under constant conditions. He left them alone for a week with a camera sensitive enough to pick up their bioluminescence. What the camera showed was that the mycelium grew in an irregular circle, with the glow more intense at the center than at the edges. After a couple days there was a sudden shift, in one of the cultures a wave of bioluminescence passed over the network from one edge to the other. A day later a similar wave passed over the second culture. Though the fungi were kept in the dark for several more weeks, the flare up never occurred again. Years later, Olson still did not know what had caused the sudden flare.

See the rest of my posts for funguary here!

Let's talk about possible uses for the dried ghast!

-Lampshade

-Lawn gnome

-Toaster

-Plushie to sit on my shelf

-Rock for landscaping

-Put him in trees as a weird alien fruit

-Back to toaster, you see the resemblance right?

-Stepping stones in pond

-Outlet/plug

(your honor this is a joke)

coughcoughprobablycough

I have cried about him no less than 3 times today

Did the soulsand dry him out??? Did his mommy abandon him??? Are those his mom’s bones and he got dried out waiting for her??? Do ghasts shrink if they cry too much? Why do ghasts eat snowballs if they’re from a no-water environment? Are ghasts from the overworld originally and that’s why there’s fossils there too?

Also the implication of people using the dried ghasts as building blocks? NO! YOU PUT THAT POOR BABY IN WATER RN I SWEAR

Funguary Day 22: Oyster Mushroom

While most fungi get their nutrients through decomposing organic matter or through symbiotic relationships with plants, some, like oyster mushrooms, are carnivorous. These carnivorous fungi are known as “nematophagous”, given their ability to hunt and eat nematode worms. Most nematode-eating fungi only resort to hunting when there is insufficient food to eat. There are several methods these fungi will use to catch the nematode worms. The oyster mushroom in particular grows a hyphal stalk with a single toxic droplet on the end that paralyzes the worms, giving the oyster mushroom enough time to grow through the mouth of the worm and digest it from inside. 

Other similar fungi grow adhesive nets or branches to which the nematodes stick or create a noose that inflates within a tenth of a second when touched. Yet another way some nematode-hunting fungi will catch prey is by releasing spores that can swim through the soil, then bind to the nematode worms. Once attached, they sprout, and the fungus harpoons the nematode with specialized hyphae known as “gun cells”.

See the rest of my posts for funguary here!

I decided to do a meet the artist! :D

So! Important things: My name's Mycota, like the mushroom, and I'm your local mycelium obsessed *probably* human! (sorry, the names different in art, I'm working on updating it)

Theres also a couple other hyperfixations mixed in there, currently being Hermitcraft, The Magnus Archives, and Minecraft :)

I post about mushrooms every Saturday (#mushroom of the week), and I have a TON of mycology related posts over in my Funguary 2025 right here! :) I am definitely not hyper fixated on fungi whatsoever (definitely not)

As for art, it happens whenever about whatever but it does happen somewhat often!

Mushroom fact of the week!

Mushrooms scam trees!

Some fungi get their nutrients by exchanging nutrients with plants. The fungi provides phosphorous and the plant gives carbon in return.

The less phosphorous available, higher price the plant will pay for the phosphorous, giving more carbon for each unit received. However, when there is more available the fungi will receive less carbon for its troubles.

So what these fungi do, being the scammers they are, is transport phosphorous through the mycelium from areas of high abundance to areas of low abundance where it is more scarce and fetches a higher price. This way, the fungi is able to get much more carbon out of the plant.