My fascination with mushrooms only continues to get stronger and deeper from year to year as I learn more about them and spend more time out in nature looking for them. They are luring me in to some kind of philosophical and religious contemplation that I would have never imagined these commonly overlooked and unappreciated creatures would have the power to do. I'm not even talking about "magic" mushrooms although I have had a great deal of experience with those gifts in my younger life and plan to rediscover them again soon now in the middle part of my life.
The more I learn about mushrooms, the more I have come to think of them as somewhat sentient. At least sentient by my human definition of that word. The mushroom itself is only a small but visibly noticeable portion of the overall organism, it is the "fruit" similar to how an apple is only a small part of the overall apple tree. The "tree" portion of the mushroom lies underground and covers large areas of a forest. The "tree" part of the mushroom is called the mycelium which branches and weaves itself among the roots of the above ground plants and in many cases, has a symbiotic relationship with these neighbors. The mycelium is connected to the forest in a way that makes me think of the internet because of all the information it receives through this nervous system like network. When I see mushrooms now, I see them almost as if they are a sentient and knowing being, similar to when I see an animal in the forest.
There is a very significant amount of anecdotal and scientific evidence to show that the relationship between humans and mushroom has existed for millennia and that these humble organisms have had some very profound and significant effects on us and very possibly helped us become the advanced hominids that we are. I have mentioned the Stoned Ape Theory in past posts in which I explained that this unfortunately named theory explores the possibility that our hominid ancestors consumed mushrooms with mind expanding properties while they foraged for food. Mind expanding mushrooms like the Psiloybes have been scientifically shown to increase the neural connections in our brains so this theory has some true potential to have at least some truth to it.
There is also an increasingly hard to deny amount of evidence that psychoactive mushrooms and other plants have had a significant role throughout the more recent history of humans. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new book titled The Immortality Key which was researched for over 12 years by the author in which he provides archaeological, botanical, and historical evidence of how these plants and fungi, ergot in particular, have shaped our belief systems and cultures for millenia.
This is one of the most delicious of edible mushrooms, the King Bolete. I realize there is nothing in this picture to give a sense of scale but these mushrooms can easily get to a foot tall and the cap can be nearly a foot in diameter, These are hefty, solid mushrooms that can provide several meals/ /They have a somewhat nutty flavor and make me feel like I am ingesting the essence of the earth when I am lucky enough to find them before the insects find them. Being a day too late can be enough for these treasures to have begun to become inedible.
These mushrooms in the above picture are called Shaggy Manes and they are an easily identified edible mushroom often pickled. As you can see, they grow in areas that aren't necessarily the most pristine. This particular group was growing right next to the sidewalk near the chiropractor's office in "downtown" Wrangell. The hydrostatic pressure of these mushrooms gives them the strength to literally grow up through concrete pushing it aside or upwards as they grow.
Although this looks like a tasty dessert morsel dropped on the forest floor, it is actually a really interesting mushroom called Strawberries and Cream.
I have written about these well known and photogenic mushrooms a lot in the past but there are so many interesting things about them and they are so prolific and pretty that they don't get tiresome to me. This is Amanita muscara, a mushroom known to and used by humans of the northern latitudes for centuries. They are commonly found throughout folklore and art and even in more contemporary popular culture like the cartoon The Smurfs. There is a reason for this - not only are they striking in appearance, they have had significant influence on our society in ways you would never guess. These are psychoactive mushrooms meaning consuming them will make you able to perceive aspects of our world that our daily minds typically do not and have been used by peoples from Siberia to Scandinavia before Christianity moved us away from many of the spiritual aspects of nature. I have yet to try these as my reading has said that they are more effective after having been consumed by another person. Shamans would eat these mushrooms in order to absorb and detoxify some of the more unpleasant effects and then the urine of the shaman would be drunk in order to obtain the psychoactive and spiritual effects. The reason for this is that the principle psychoactive chemical is ibotenic acid which is converted to muscimol in the human body. Muscimol is a more powerful chemical that is excreted from the body in urine. Sounds gross to us now I know but it is incredibly interesting to me.
This mushroom is also very possibly connected to the origin of the Santa Claus myth. It's red and white coloration is an obvious similarity as its home in northern latitudes but there is more. Caribou and reindeer, both found in latitudes with Amanita muscara, love these mushrooms and the idea of Santa's flying reindeer could be more of a figurative form of flying than actual aviation. The "flying" is possibly the trip the mushrooms give. These mushrooms are also found under coniferous trees like spruce and pine which present an image of gifts under a Christmas tree. It is very possible that many of our Christmas traditions are tied to this beautiful mushroom. As Christianity spread throughout the pagan world, it did its best to find a way to tie in some of the pagan beliefs with Christian ideology to make conversion more tempting and acceptable or because some of the pagan beliefs were too true to deny. Easter and Christmas are awfully close to the winter solstice and the spring equinox which could be coincidental or very intentional.
This was a new one for me that we found while taking a walk in the Muskeg Meadows Nature Preserve. This is called Purple Fairy Club and is a type of coral mushroom. Avid birders keep track of their bird sightings on what is called a lifelist, I feel like I am doing the same with mushrooms. When I find a new mushroom, I get excited even if I don't know exactly what the mushroom is.
No idea what these orange mushrooms are but they are growing in a few spots by the hundreds!
These are Shaggy Manes again with the top photos being nice new ones still ready to be eaten while the bottom photo is an example of what Shaggy Manes look like as the rapidly age, They basically dissolve into an inky black liquid which is an interesting trait of these guys,
I hope that my mushroom obsession may spark some interest in whoever reads this and that the next time you see one growing somewhere that you think a little differently of them. Maybe you will see it as something much different and more mysterious and amazing than before or even as a possibly sentient being that may be seeing you as well like the above mushroom that Andrea found looking at her as she sat in one of our secret spots!
