3 ms·

Psilocybin is the active ingredient (a psychedelic prodrug, or drug precursor that's metabolized into a drug) in Magic Mushrooms. The fungus generates psilocybi

Psilocybin is the active ingredient (a psychedelic prodrug, or drug precursor that's metabolized into a drug) in Magic Mushrooms. The fungus generates psilocybin and sheds it into the cicada, causing them to become hypersexual.

neom 5y ago
I wonder how the fungus knew how to make psilocybin, and that psilocybin was the right thing to make? Nature is pretty intense.
- bdamm 5y ago
  Presumably this is an outcome of selective breeding. The symbiotic interaction results in more offspring for both species. The invisible hand of mother gaia "knows".
  - besnn00 5y ago
    But the cicadas have no genitalia at that point.
hinkley 5y ago
I did not realize just how many different kind of mushrooms produce that chemical. All over order Agaricales. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin_mushroom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin_mushroom So what's weird is that Massopora isn't even in the same division as Agaricales. They're both fungi. So what does that mean? That the classification is wrong, convergeant evolution, or fungi have been making drugs for an insanely long time?