Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Top Ten Random Fungus Facts

Top Ten Fun Fungus Amongus Facts:



1. Gliocladium roseum (which grows inside ulmo trees in the South American Patagonia Forest) eats cellulose, saw dust, wood chips, or any plant material, and produces straight diesel fuel. This discovery challenges current scientific theory about where oil comes from.

http://www.livescience.com/5178-oil-creation-theory-challenged-fuel-making-fungus.html

As a defense mechanism, when its attacked, the fungus Aspergillus carbonarius makes jet fuel.

http://www.livescience.com/5178-oil-creation-theory-challenged-fuel-making-fungus.html



2. A particularly relevant fungal disease called 'Wheat rust' is currently threatening the world's wheat supply, furthering the need for humans to switch from a monoculture grain based diet to a perennial- based permaculture diet.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...s-to-destroy-the-world-crop-9271485.html



3. 350 million years ago when insects ruled the land and mammals hadnt crawled out of the ocean yet, there were forests of giant 20 feet tall and 3 feet wide mushrooms.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141114-the-biggest-organism-in-the-world

But thats nothing compared to the largest organism alive in Oregon; Armillaria solidipes coveres 4 square miles and is estimated to be between 1900 and 8600 years old.

http://www.livescience.com/1461-prehistoric-mystery-organism-humongous-fungus.html



4. Contrary to popular belief, cloud seeding actually comes from fungi.

http://www.livescience.com/22838-amazon-fungi-atmosphere.html

Fungi produce trillions of spores that create clouds that make it rain.

http://discovermagazine.com/not-found?aspxerrorpath=/2012/sep/04-mushroom-cloud



5. World's most expensive food is the difficult to grow wild White Truffle;

The largest one ever grown was 4 pounds and sold for a million dollars

http://www.businessinsider.com/1-million-worlds-largest-truffle-2014-12



6. Cordyceps sinensis - Yartsa gunbu- The Mummified Catepillar Fungus-

The Viagra of The Himalayas - sells for 2000.oz- twice that of gold.

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsan...yas-brings-in-big-bucks-and-big-problems



7. Industrial Strength Fungus: Stronger Than Concrete

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1957474,00.html



8. Environmentally Friendly Styrofoam Replacement Fungus

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/20/form-and-fungus



9. Fungi kill more people than malaria and tuberculosis worldwide. Fungal diseases also destroy about a third of all crops.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/20/form-and-fungus

Coccidiomycosis (valley fever) is a fungus that grows in the soil of the American Southwest and if inhaled can turn into a flesh eating infection that eats away at your lung tissue

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/05/20/form-and-fungus

Another fungal disease called Cryptococcus gattii, is in the Pacific Northwest; There are no known preventive measures nor any vaccine available.



10. Some fungi become carnivores when they get hungry enough

http://www.pnas.org/content/104/20/8379.full

Chemicals from nematodes are detected by fungi if they are hungry, and they become worm- hunting predators

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic...avesdrop-on-the-chemicals-of-their-prey/

They actually set a tiny little noose to snare the worm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22528749


http://listverse.com/2009/08/17/top-10-incredible-funguses/

http://listverse.com/2015/11/21/10-facts-about-fungi-that-will-astound-you/

Can any of them melt steel beams? I have to say mycology was one of the more interesting courses I took in school.

We have a family of fungus currently in the WH and a technically female fungus running to replace the current fungus among us...

We grew up with a close neighbor family. He was a doctor whom I am named after and was my mentor (another story) that had eighty acres and a basic cabin (no power, water...) in Mendocino county California. We would spend numerous weekends there each year and do a summer two week trip. We were rather poor so cheap vacations. One summer, we signed up with a hippie Phd that was a 'shroomologist for a hiking class. We did a long hike with him, he stopping us at every new 'shroom advising us of the effect of eating one. From making pasta sauce, a nice buzz, a crazy buzz to death. A fascinating walk even at age thirteen.

Great post stx. I wish someone could come up with an explanation however as to how a mobile one celled organism got life and progressed not only into mammals but some of those creatures turned into non mobile plants. I wonder why they would do that and not be able to run away from a freakin cow or somtin.

I guess they decided we would need our greens.

nah God made everything for a reason and we're still learning some of those and have forgotten or made some taboo in modern times.

Now that's some fun stuff to learn about!

Speaking of fungus...corn smut (not to be confused with ergot)

It's ugly but edible. It's a delicacy in Mexico and migrants often gleen corn fields looking for it.
Ooogly for sure, though.

Pretty sure my parents told me that stuff would blind you if it got in your eyes.

Some varieties of corn ergot look similar but are poisonous. Smut's something else entirely. Yum!
Is corn smut the same as corn porn?

Didn't know that stuff was edible. Sure picked and destroyed plenty of infected ears growing up in NoDak