I've been meaning to post a bunch of pictures of things I've been finding around my home, like those two Amanitas. We had a week of moist and warmish conditions that allowed lots of mushrooms to come up. But I've also been keeping half an eye on the fungal news.
In research news, an article just came out in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, showing that the spicy heat of chili peppers is related to the moisture of the home range. Why? because the more moist the area, the greater the risk of infection by fungal pathogens, and the greater need for protective secondary compounds like capsaicinoids. Here's a pop-sci wrap up of the research, which talks about the seed pathogen, a species of Fusarium, as 'the Fusarium fungus'. There are many species of Fusarium, and they are a notoriously difficult genus to work with taxonomically.
Another article touts another medical benefit of mushrooms. A diet high in selenium and nickel has been linked to a decrease in risk of pancreatic cancer, so a mushroom omelette is indicated by this newspaper, eggs being rich in selenium, mushrooms in nickel. Bonus: reference to the original article in the medical journal, Gut.
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