7 ms·

How a carnivorous mushroom poisons its prey

153 points by sohkamyung 6y ago

noobly 6y ago
As a cultivator, I wish they'd eat the fungus gnats too!.. And I wonder how much supplementing substrate with nematodes would increase protein content, or how'd I'd test this. The ratio of protein to carbs is about 1:2 in these, getting closer to 1:1 would be awesome for cost effective protein, especially as a non-meat item. Apparently, nematodes can get a whole meter long. It'd be interesting to drop one of such size into a liquid culture or other colonized medium and see what happens, lol.
- steve_adams_86 6y ago
  What kind of cultivation do you do? I wondered about protein content as well. It would be great to be able to produce a mushroom with respectable protein content. It seems like a stretch, though.
  - noobly 6y ago
    Primarily indoor cultivation of oysters (most cost effective), but also lion's mane and shiitake in lower quantities along with a lot of screwing around with other species for fun. I began construction of my small scale farm just before the pandemic started looking serious (~December 2019), and my business plan was reliant on getting higher-end restaurants as customers (which have fared poorly during this). So it's been somewhat on pause, but I'm hoping things clear up soon, as I've been gathering some nice equipment for good prices over the last year (in large part due to covid, ironically). It would be great to be able to do assays for protein content at home or for nearly free at a lab to work towards better genetics. An ~86g or "one cup" serving of raw oysters supposedly has around ~3g, and it's worth noting that a raw cup cooks down to maybe a quarter cup or less, which is probably comparatively substantial for those that don't consume meat. The Vitamin D content is also noteworthy, as apparently they're the only considerable source of this in the produce aisle (which I didn't fully appreciate until binge researching last night).
- robert_foss 6y ago
  The larvae can be killed using Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis powder mixed into water.
steve_adams_86 6y ago
It’s remarkable just how active fungi are in their respective biomes. They seem like passive growths which inhabit decaying materials from afar, but up close, you discover that they’re entwined in virtually all life cycles, quite actively, and they’re absolutely essential to day to day life as we know it. One of the best things I ever did was go to a seminar on mushroom picking 20 years ago. It opened up my eyes to a whole new world. After reading this I have a sense of amazement at what fungi are capable of, but I’m not surprised at all. The more you dig into it, the more you discover how crazy that world is. Fungus is really cool.
- pfundstein 6y ago
  Indeed, it's no wonder fungi has a whole kingdom of life to itself. A fun fact I like to repeat is that fungi are more closely related to us than to plants -- their evolution diverged from animals 9 million years after plants, some 1.5 billion years ago.
  - ljf 6y ago
    I love the specificity of the 9 million figure, 1.5 billion years ago. You set me off on some reading to find out more as it seems so interesting, but I can't find a detailed figure, so I like exactness your estimate provides. Amazing to consider what the common ancestor was like and also what our animal ancestors were like at that time. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_fungi https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_fungi
    - divbzero 6y ago
      This paper by Taylor & Berbee [1] describes one attempt at dating the divergence of clades on the evolutionary tree. Figure 2 shows the evolutionary tree inferred from analyzing the similarity of gene sequences between species. Table 1 shows estimates of the age of last common ancestors. [1]: https://taylorlab.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/taylorlab/publications/taylor2006b.pdf https://taylorlab.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/taylorlab...
    - boxed 6y ago
dschuetz 6y ago
Reading this feels like reading a news story from a parallel universe. With fungi it always kinda is.
jansan 6y ago
My guess is that more than half of all readers misread "carnivorous" as "coronavirus" at the first glance.
01100011 6y ago
Weird, I just ate the first harvest off my blue oyster mushroom kit. I've never been a huge mushroom fan but they were delicious. Tear them up, fry them until they're crisp in olive oil, and top with garlic sauce(*). (*) - My poor attempt at recreating Lebanese 'toum' ended up making an insanely delicious garlic sauce that keeps for weeks in a plastic squeeze bottle in the refrigerator. 2 heads of garlic, 1 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp of lemon juice, and enough olive oil to make it squeezable and palatable. Blend in a blender and squeeze on everything you eat. The garlic has to be insanely fresh though. Garlic that is good enough to cook with may be too bitter to use and result in a sauce that sucks. You can even cut the core out of the cloves to tame the bitterness more but I find that is not necessary if you have fresh garlic. Definitely avoid green garlic or any that has started sprouting.
- jcims 6y ago
  I live out in the woods and had gone morel hunting a few times without success. I had heard so many stories about how good they were and i was getting frustrated b/c it seemed like the perfect setting for them. One day I was mowing my back yard and was stopped in my tracks by this beautiful morel standing proud right in the middle of my yard like it was placed there by God himself lol. They are incredibly tasty. Also highly recommend folks try those kits you’re talking about, they are really fun.
  - saiya-jin 6y ago
    Morels here in Europe are priced insanely high, only a bit below black truffles. For a good reason I must say, if well prepared they taste properly awesome.
    - medstrom 6y ago
      Well gosh, button mushrooms if well prepared, they taste properly awesome.
      - Turing_Machine 6y ago
Sniffnoy 6y ago
> The delicious, inescapable inference is that they’re the only vegan food that can itself eat meat. OK, this bothers me. Carnivorous plants are well-known. Surely it must be possible to eat at least one of them? Edit: The article then even says later that other fungi do this too! Oy.
- jtms 6y ago
  The author’s entire writing style bothers me.
- nerdponx 6y ago
  But you can't eat pitcher plants, can you?
- LurkerAtTheGate 6y ago
  Carnivorous plants are only edible in the most technical sense. They grow in low nutrient environments and slowly digest prey - meaning you'd be eating something that is mostly small leaves coated in rotting insect goo.
wnscooke 6y ago
You know why I like mushrooms? Cause I’m a fun guy!
- sideshowb 6y ago
  This appeals to my silly um sense of humour

153 points by sohkamyung 6y ago

As a cultivator, I wish they'd eat the fungus gnats too!.. And I wonder how much supplementing substrate with nematodes would increase protein content, or how'd I'd test this. The ratio of protein to carbs is about 1:2 in these, getting closer to 1:1 would be awesome for cost effective protein, especially as a non-meat item. Apparently, nematodes can get a whole meter long. It'd be interesting to drop one of such size into a liquid culture or other colonized medium and see what happens, lol.

steve_adams_86 6y ago
What kind of cultivation do you do? I wondered about protein content as well. It would be great to be able to produce a mushroom with respectable protein content. It seems like a stretch, though.
- noobly 6y ago
  Primarily indoor cultivation of oysters (most cost effective), but also lion's mane and shiitake in lower quantities along with a lot of screwing around with other species for fun. I began construction of my small scale farm just before the pandemic started looking serious (~December 2019), and my business plan was reliant on getting higher-end restaurants as customers (which have fared poorly during this). So it's been somewhat on pause, but I'm hoping things clear up soon, as I've been gathering some nice equipment for good prices over the last year (in large part due to covid, ironically). It would be great to be able to do assays for protein content at home or for nearly free at a lab to work towards better genetics. An ~86g or "one cup" serving of raw oysters supposedly has around ~3g, and it's worth noting that a raw cup cooks down to maybe a quarter cup or less, which is probably comparatively substantial for those that don't consume meat. The Vitamin D content is also noteworthy, as apparently they're the only considerable source of this in the produce aisle (which I didn't fully appreciate until binge researching last night).
robert_foss 6y ago
The larvae can be killed using Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis powder mixed into water.

steve_adams_86 6y ago

It’s remarkable just how active fungi are in their respective biomes. They seem like passive growths which inhabit decaying materials from afar, but up close, you discover that they’re entwined in virtually all life cycles, quite actively, and they’re absolutely essential to day to day life as we know it. One of the best things I ever did was go to a seminar on mushroom picking 20 years ago. It opened up my eyes to a whole new world. After reading this I have a sense of amazement at what fungi are capable of, but I’m not surprised at all. The more you dig into it, the more you discover how crazy that world is. Fungus is really cool.

pfundstein 6y ago
Indeed, it's no wonder fungi has a whole kingdom of life to itself. A fun fact I like to repeat is that fungi are more closely related to us than to plants -- their evolution diverged from animals 9 million years after plants, some 1.5 billion years ago.
- ljf 6y ago
  I love the specificity of the 9 million figure, 1.5 billion years ago. You set me off on some reading to find out more as it seems so interesting, but I can't find a detailed figure, so I like exactness your estimate provides. Amazing to consider what the common ancestor was like and also what our animal ancestors were like at that time. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_fungi https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_fungi
  - divbzero 6y ago
    This paper by Taylor & Berbee [1] describes one attempt at dating the divergence of clades on the evolutionary tree. Figure 2 shows the evolutionary tree inferred from analyzing the similarity of gene sequences between species. Table 1 shows estimates of the age of last common ancestors. [1]: https://taylorlab.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/taylorlab/publications/taylor2006b.pdf https://taylorlab.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/taylorlab...
  - boxed 6y ago

dschuetz 6y ago

Reading this feels like reading a news story from a parallel universe. With fungi it always kinda is.

jansan 6y ago

My guess is that more than half of all readers misread "carnivorous" as "coronavirus" at the first glance.

01100011 6y ago

Weird, I just ate the first harvest off my blue oyster mushroom kit. I've never been a huge mushroom fan but they were delicious. Tear them up, fry them until they're crisp in olive oil, and top with garlic sauce(*). (*) - My poor attempt at recreating Lebanese 'toum' ended up making an insanely delicious garlic sauce that keeps for weeks in a plastic squeeze bottle in the refrigerator. 2 heads of garlic, 1 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp of lemon juice, and enough olive oil to make it squeezable and palatable. Blend in a blender and squeeze on everything you eat. The garlic has to be insanely fresh though. Garlic that is good enough to cook with may be too bitter to use and result in a sauce that sucks. You can even cut the core out of the cloves to tame the bitterness more but I find that is not necessary if you have fresh garlic. Definitely avoid green garlic or any that has started sprouting.

jcims 6y ago
I live out in the woods and had gone morel hunting a few times without success. I had heard so many stories about how good they were and i was getting frustrated b/c it seemed like the perfect setting for them. One day I was mowing my back yard and was stopped in my tracks by this beautiful morel standing proud right in the middle of my yard like it was placed there by God himself lol. They are incredibly tasty. Also highly recommend folks try those kits you’re talking about, they are really fun.
- saiya-jin 6y ago
  Morels here in Europe are priced insanely high, only a bit below black truffles. For a good reason I must say, if well prepared they taste properly awesome.
  - medstrom 6y ago
    Well gosh, button mushrooms if well prepared, they taste properly awesome.
    - Turing_Machine 6y ago

Sniffnoy 6y ago

> The delicious, inescapable inference is that they’re the only vegan food that can itself eat meat. OK, this bothers me. Carnivorous plants are well-known. Surely it must be possible to eat at least one of them? Edit: The article then even says later that other fungi do this too! Oy.

jtms 6y ago
The author’s entire writing style bothers me.
nerdponx 6y ago
But you can't eat pitcher plants, can you?
LurkerAtTheGate 6y ago
Carnivorous plants are only edible in the most technical sense. They grow in low nutrient environments and slowly digest prey - meaning you'd be eating something that is mostly small leaves coated in rotting insect goo.

wnscooke 6y ago

You know why I like mushrooms? Cause I’m a fun guy!

sideshowb 6y ago
This appeals to my silly um sense of humour