Good gravy, people.

I don't mean to prattle on about this, but really. Death cap mushrooms? Yes, there are edible and choice Amanitas, but I'm a professional mycologist and I don't feel like I've missed out on anything by staying away from these easily confused species. Especially when it's a choice between haute cuisine and the Pearly Gates.

I'm hesitant to say that any mushrooms are easy to identify and unlikely to be confused with anything else, because easy and difficult are relative terms. I've known people who've mistaken jack o'lanterns for chanterelles, which could have been a fatal mistake if they hadn't decided against picking them at the last minute. I don't think these mushrooms look much alike. I also don't think Gyromitras look much like morels if you look closely, but mistakes get made and people end up in the hospital or cemetary.

There are mushrooms that are great delicacies, and I enjoy eating beyond the regular button mushroom very much. But there's no reason to risk your life for a good meal. Mushrooms are much maligned in our culture, out of misunderstanding and ignorance. I shouldn't chastise those who at least try to broaden their palates, although it rankles me that people don't exercise more caution.

Jack Teagarden sings Stars Fell On Alabama and some notes on license tags

Here's another YouTube post, featuring the song that graces our basic license tags. Some folks prefer to cover the "Stars Fell On..." part with a "Heart of Dixie" sticker, and as of 2009 you can get the new Sweet Home Alabama tag. I, for one, love the song Stars Fell On Alabama, though I think I'm in a minority, there. This rendition of Stars Fell on Alabama is performed by Jack Teagarden, a trombonist who played with many of the luminaries of jazz including Louis Armstrong, Glenn Miller, Bix Beiderbecke, "Fatha" Hines, and Paul Whiteman.


I have yet to see the Nuked Vet tag, but I'll let you know when I do.

Not Alabama, but next door

Would you get your girlfriend a chainsaw for Valentine's Day? You might could...

Not much going on in the mushroom news...

The mushroom news has been rather dull of late. So I thought I'd amble over to see what's on YouTube if you search for mushrooms.
Here's what I thought was the pick of the bunch.

As usual, you can expect a lot of good fungal love from Japan. This is Shonen Knife with a song called "Brown Mushrooms", which isn't particularly descriptive. Lots of found mushrooms are often immediately shunted into Arora's "LBJ's" (Little Brown Jobs). But hey, at least I'm posting something.

Really, most of the mushroom news hasn't been too exciting of late.

An update, I'm still around, and Best Christmas Wishes

I've been traveling, and I'm back in the US of A, and I have been out and about in ol' Alabama, but now I'm celebrating Xmas with the in-laws out west.
I did get a chance to play around with the new Wii game, Mushroom Men: Spore Wars. What can I tell you? I'm not a big gamer geek, but I did have fun trying it out. There's a lot of fun fungal references in the game, although the protagonist, Pax, is supposed to be a bolete but he has gills. When he gets abused by the vicissitudes of life, bits of his mutated brain are exposed through his cap, which he can then regenerate by consuming special spores. Also, another type of spore is sprinkled on other objects, which Pax can move by 'sporokinesis'.
Hopefully, I'll get through more of this game when I get back to my friend's house. I confess to the lame act of giving someone a gift with the intention of using the gift, since I don't have a Wii, myself. For now, Merry Christmas! Hope you find some fungal gifts under the trees of the forest!

An interesting top ten list courtesy of the BBC

What's my secret? Google news alerts, mostly. And for the most part, what I get is recipes, news of people poisoning themselves, the use of the word mushroom to depict rapid growth, news about forays and foragers, articles about "magic mushrooms" and information about kits for growing edibles. But here's a link to an article from the BBC telling about what fungi do for us (Thanks, Mat!). I'm not sure I agree that Marmite is number 1, and they don't mention mycorrhizas (except in the case of orchids), but here's a good quick list of reasons to study fungi. Maybe the top ten list is related to this article and is meant to bait the hook for those considering a career in mycology?

Sorry for the delay...

I've been in South Africa for the past month and a half, and will be until the end of November. But there has been some interesting mushroom news out there...

First of all, I haven't been able to find out which of these lovely ladies became the Texas Mushroom Festival Queen, and I'm pretty ticked off about it. There's been no follow up. (sigh)
But other interesting news has been developing.

Could fungi have contributed to the Stradivarius sound? This article suggests so. Xylaria longipes is not really a mushroom, per se, but is related to what I've been calling dead man's fingers. I had a fling with this family awhile ago, especially the genus Hypoxylon, and was interested in the decay caused by these fungi. While basidiomycetes, especially polypores, cause rots of the brown and white varieties. Ascomycetes like Xylaria cause 'soft rot', which has been classified as a type of white rot, but apparently the loss of wood structure is not as extreme, and can apparently still be used for wood under stress (like in a violin).

In other news, a Spanish man found a puffball weighing over 17 pounds. He declared it "too good to eat". Actually, my experience has been that bigger isn't always better with fruiting bodies, as far as flavor goes. Usually, the bigger ones are older, and may be past their peak. The puffball in question was a basidiocarp of Lycoperdon perlatum (in the article, Lycoperdum, which is incorrect), which has a funny translation.

And finally, mycodiesel? It appears that a certain fungus may be capable of turning wood fiber (cellulose) into diesel. Now wouldn't that be something? I mean, it shouldn't be such a surprise, seeing as yeasts have been converting sugar into ethanol for us for thousands of years, as well as making carbon dioxide to give us this day our daily bread. In the case of myco-diesel, the fungus in question is a mold (or mould, if you will), in the sense that it is a microfungus that may produce a macroscopic fruiting body, typically somewhere you don't want it. You can learn a lot about moulds (or molds) from this site. Why are molds and molds so different? I've often wondered, but have no answer.