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Introduction

Dear FungiLovers Hivemind

This week I'm back with a Fungi special and a new Mushroom Protocol from my weekly mushroom identification at the Zurich association for mycological studies.

Firstly I'd like to dedicate this post to Hive account@trucklife-family, Hive account@qwerrie and Hive account@bambuka, the #fungilovers, Hive account@hive-166168, #theherbalhive, Hive account@theherbalhive, Hive account@riverflows and Paul Stamets, who has been an ought inspiring character when it comes to this. Many thanks for all the members of our association, who are keeping my enthusiasm for this topic alive and making it grow even more. I still haven't watched the documentary fantastic fungi. My imagination still goes wild and gets captivated when I read the peer reviewed research at https://mushroomreferences.com/.

The excitement I get while talking to a few of these mycological enthusiasts really sparks this frenzy that makes my heart beat with so much joy. One of the attendees is a teacher for a course on the 4^th of April on saprophytic fungi and generally mycological studies. Him and another mycophilic enthusiast and me, briefly spoke about the differences between Endomycorrhiza and Ectomycorrhiza (ECM) and then about how filaments of mycelia resemble Neuron pathways. Apart from that commonality, the question whether the two are actually interlinked gave me the goos bumps in a very positive way.

When we spoke about bacterial activity dispersion and migration through mycelial pathways on so called fungal highways, the suspense turned into a thrill. Hyphae are highly fascinating. Even the hydrophobicity of the mycelial fungal surface on a molecular level seemed like a property out of a science fiction movie for my imagination. I don't even wanna describe where my mind went after I thought about all the possible connections i'd make with all that information.

We talked about biodynamics and holistic views on the equilibrium of biodiversity in natural habitats and how this should inspire agro ecological environments to be 100% chemical free. Specially how ignorant and induced farmers are because it is completely unwarranted to use chemicals. Convinced they'd get better yields from disturbing such natural processes that evolved over millions of years, they are incognisant that it's all there and better evolved than what humans create. It's probably advisable to understand more about these complex synergies prior to trying to play god.

At times I think humans try to work against it, instead of with it and this is now drastically changing towards something positive.

Apart from interesting topics like actinobacteria or actinomycetes, bioactive secondary metabolites, I concluded that natural habitats are just more avant-garde compared to agro-ecological environments and their associated food microbiological studies due to their pharma and chemical corporate funded studies and rigged advances. Positively although, it's all coming together during our paradigm shift of phylogenetic data, DNA sequencing, computational biology and our methods are currently being rigorously enhanced.

It's truly exciting where this current mycological revolution is taking us.

Recap

In my previous post Mushroom Protocol 08 , we went over 3 mushrooms.
Namely:

The Boletellus obscurecoccineus, rhubarb bolete
The Sarcoscypha austriaca, scarlet elfcup
The Daedalea quercina, oak mazegill

So far we covered:

The Scleroderma citrinum or earthball
The Craterellus cornucopioides or horn of plenty
The lycoperdon or puffball
The Boletus calopus, bitter beech bolete or scarlet-stemmed bolete
The Hygrocybe punicea, Crimson or waxycap
The Hypholoma fasciculare, sulphur tuft
The Hericium Erinaceus, Lion's Mane
The Gyroporus castaneus, chestnut bolete
The Stabilomyces Stabilaceus, old man of the woods
The Hydnum repandum, hedgehog mushroom
The Hericium Erinaceus, Lion's Mane
The Coprinopsis atramentaria, ink cap
The Hericium cirrhatum, tiered tooth fungus
The Clitocybe nuda, wood blewit
The Armilliria ostoyae, Dark Honey Fungus
The Laccaria Amethystina, amethyst deceiver
The Omphalotus illudens, eastern jack-o'lantern
The Armilliria ostoyae, Dark Honey Fungus
The Laccaria Amethystina, amethyst deceiver
The Omphalotus illudens, eastern jack-o'lantern
The Clitocybe nebularis, , Clouded Agaric
The Amanita Muscaria, , Fly Agaric
The Pholiota squarrosa, , shaggy scalycap
The Clitocybe nebularis, , Clouded Agaric
The Amanita Muscaria, , Fly Agaric
The Pholiota squarrosa, , shaggy scalycap
The Clitocybe nuda,, Wood Blewit
The Pleurotus ostreatus,, Oyster Mushrooms
The Lactarius deliciosus, , saffron milk cap

^{While identifying mushrooms one should be very careful and consult the advice of a specialist. Mushrooms that aren't identified properly and ingested can cause intestinal stress, could be very toxic or even poisonous. In some cases they can even cause death. This blog content is only for personal and educational purposes and not a guide on mushroom picking.}

Before we start, I have to mention an experienced Lady, whose enthusiasm for mushrooms is contagious. She has amazing mnemonics to remember how to identify mushrooms and her extensive knowledge is highly valuable. A lot of the members of the mycological study group have lot of elderly and experienced individuals with extensive experience. Their knowledge is a treasury and at times a life's work of peerless data collected through rigorous activity and consistency. I find it necessary to spark this appetite amongst younger adults.

Mushrooms

Daldinia Childiae, Carbon balls

Very little about this mushroom can be found online. We do although have extensive data on more than 28 different Daldinia species in various literature.

Class	Sordariomycetes
Division	Ascomycota
Family	Hypoxylaceae
Order	Xylariales
Genus	Daldinia
Scientific Name	Daldinia Childiae
Appearence	The shape is often hemispherical but also irregular in shape. It has layers, similar to an onion when cut open. It has concentric layers and is a wood fungus. The surface appears finely dotted (pimple-dotted)
Type	Mycorrhizal
Properties	their secondary metabolites act as antimicrobial for insects.
Culinary	Non-Edible
Habitat	They grow on decomposing branches of fallen ash trees.

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Formitopsis pinicola, red-belted conk

Class	Agaricomycetes
Family	Fomitopsidaceae
Order	Polyporales
Division	Basidiomycota
Scientific Name	Fomitopsis pinicola
Common Name	red-belted conk
Appearence	Shelflike, smooth surface, a woody, hoof shaped structure. The flesh is hard and pale brown. The pores are cream in color and spaced in 3 to 4 per mm.
Type	Saprophytic
Odeur	Not signicficant.
Habitat	Found on living or dead conifers or in coniferous forests and sometimes on birches.
Medicinal Properties	The braket fungus or formitopsis pinicola has anti-cancer characteristics. Experiments revealed the pro-apoptotic, anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of extracts inhibit tumour growth. Although these experiments were performed through in vitro studies, the mushroom has been reported to inhibit tumour growth, it had been used as a medicinal fungus in Korean and Chinese medicine for centuries. Source reference citing

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Stereum subtomentosum, Yellowing Curtain Crust

Class	Agaricomycetes
Division	Basidiomycota
Order	Russulales
Family	Stereaceae
Genus	Stereum
Scientific Name	Stereum subtomentosum
Common Name	Yellowing Curtain Crust
Appearence	Individual fan-shaped brackets are 3 to 7cm across and have irregularly wavy edges. The colours, which are zoned, are various shades of greyish-orange or greyish yellow. There is no stem, but the attachment region is usually quite narrow. The lower spore-bearing surface is smooth, without pores, and rather paler than the upper surface; it is less distinctly zoned and when bruised bleeds yellow. The flesh is 1 to 2mm thick. Source The surface is velvety smooth and the pointed base look like feet. A mnemonic to remeber this for an identification would be to remember the smooth walk of a cat.
Habitat	Grows on dead hardwood, usually on fallen branches of beech trees.

Conclusions

Little is known about the mycobiome on mushrooms. I am specially writing about the one in the gut, apart from our microbiome, which has received quite a lot of attention in the past few years. This study of the mycobiome is still in it's infancy and new breakthroughs related to gut health will soon elucidate many aspects of gut health through metagenomics sequencing analysis. Fungi bacteria interaction with the gut brain axis through the consumption of polysaccharide and various fungal metabolites are related to our gut mycobiome and constitute to human homeostasis. This is really exciting to think about. Apart from a myriad of microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, archae, and viruses, the microbiome received a lot of attention in the past years for it's bacterial flora, that can maintain gut health. The field Metagenomics of the Human Intestinal Tract (MetaHIT) and the famous Human Microbiome Project (HMP), also talked about a lot by Rob Knight, really sparked the revolution of systems biology and enterotypes that I keep writing about in my posts.

Imagine a biosphere. Like an atmosphere that thrives in your gut. It's probably unwise to pore acid on top of it. Think of is as an environment or an eco-system like an atmosphere where organisms thrive much like within the atmosphere of our earth.

There is also something called the rare biosphere. The fungal microbiota resides on the mucosal and luminal surfaces of the gut. Imagine similar processes I described at the top of this post and let that imagination flourish. Mushrooms can have a revolutionary impact through their antiobesity, antidiabetes, anticancer, antibiotic, probiotic and prebiotic effects and the properties of their bioactive compounds. The mycobiome and it's composition have a major effect on the host metabolism. Thermomyces and Saccharomyces and the interaction between gut microbes interface
to take part in digestion and energy extraction that truly shapes human metabolism. Oligosaccharides produce short-chain fatty acids and metabolites condition and even repair endobionenic immune signalling. We humans are actually a Superorganism, consisting of independent smaller organisms. Bacteria, fungi, virus, archaea. It is clear that epigenetic modulation takes place in this molecular relationship and impacts the hosts gene expression. Major bioactive compounds, such as glucans (homopolysaccharides) and polysaccharides (heteropolysaccharides) have anticarcinogenic, antimicrobial, and antiviral effects. The remarkable immunomodulating potential will imminently reveal itself to us in the coming years. We live in exciting times. More here

Thank you for reading

Best Wishes
Rane

Previous Posts on Mushrooms:

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Posts about Wild Herbs:

Allium Ursinum - Wild Garlic

^{Vanishing
Dong Chang 东厂
aka Rane}

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