6 ms·
It's really fucking suspicious that mushrooms evolved mechanisms to produce serotonin. But it helps when you remember that a mushroom is the fruit of a (usuall
by estimator7292 10mo ago
It's really fucking suspicious that mushrooms evolved mechanisms to produce serotonin.
But it helps when you remember that a mushroom is the fruit of a (usually) much larger organism. Then you can start applying normal fruit rules. Some want to be eaten, or picked up and moved around. Some want to keep insects from infesting the fruit. Others don't give a damn and release spores into the wind or water.
Also remember that nicotine is an insecticide. Insects that nibble on tobacco die, which prevents infestation at scale. (Un?)fortunately it's also neuroactive in apes, so we farm incredible quantities of tobacco to extract its poisons.
There is no logic in evolution at large scales. Things happen, sometimes there's fourth order effects like some oddball internal hormone causing wild hallucinations in apes. It's all random optimization for small scale problems that ripple out to unintended large scale consequences.
- Sam6late 10mo agoBTW, Caffeine is also a naturally occurring insecticide, yet humans tend to repurpose and hack things.
- barbacoa 10mo agoSome argue that THC in cannabis actually works similarly because when herbivores regularly ingest it, they become lethargic and lazy, causing them struggle to survive in the world. Kinda like my roommate.
- spike021 10mo agoyour last sentence reminds me of my dorm roommate in college. very standard stoner who was constantly blazing and years later i've never known a lazier dude.
- shaneofalltrad 10mo agoBut cannabis the needs heat to convert, it’s more likely it evolved with Human influence considering the years of overlapping land races tied to our trade routes
- joquarky 10mo agoBut CBD does not need heat to convert. I have a hypothesis that taking cannabis (and especially CBD) out of our food chain may be contributing to the increase¹ in prevalence of chronic pain. ¹ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12588185/?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12588185/?utm_sourc...
- jbkkd 10mo agoWhen was cannabis ever in the human food chain?
- TheGoddessInari 10mo agoTHC comes in a plant in the THCa form. CBD comes in CBDa form. Both are not bioactive by default in their natural form.
- horsawlarway 10mo agoAll I'll say is go spend a day picking hops without gloves. There are a large number of cannabinoids at play, some clearly (as in observably and demonstrably) are bioactive in their natural, unheated form. --- None of which is said to endorse the other theory. Just to point out that claiming heat is required is incorrect.
- mothballed 10mo agoThe farm bill makes 'hemp' anything with below 0.3% THC legal. For this reason, we have a LOT of testing on the THC content of cannabis, since it is required to sell and manufacture. As it turns out, naturally cannabis quite commonly has >0.3% THC even before heating or activation of THCa. Any human-like animal with our receptors eating a large amount would get high as fuck, cooked or not. A ruminant eating pounds of the stuff raw, would not be that different from a human consuming an ounce of baked pot.
- LPisGood 10mo agoI thought it wasn’t generally psychoactive until heated?
- hammock 10mo agoIbotenic acid, muscarine, psilocybin, amanitin, muscimol, THC, caffeine - these all natural pesticides target bugs primarily. Which are the biggest threat. Sort of funny how it also affects people though
- heavyset_go 10mo agoIt's a phytochemical that degrades readily in sunlight, it's likely both a UV protectant and aversive.
- bdbdbdb 10mo agoThat's, like, your opinion, man
- boxed 10mo agoAll spices basically too afaik.
- h33t-l4x0r 10mo agoChilis, tobacco and tomatoes are all in the same family (nightshades). And they are all "New World" plants. Which means Europe had to live without them until 1600 or so. If you can call that living.
- swiftcoder 10mo agoDon't forget the potato! Europe before the potato seems like a miserable place
- smegger001 10mo agoyeah before potato they had lots of lots of turnips and rutabagas, it is little wonder they went out exploring the world looking for anything better to eat. the new world gave tonnes of food not just nightshade family plant mentioned earlier (gp left out eggplant btw) corn, sweet potato, chocolate, sunflowers, and pumpkins, squash, peanuts, pineapple, cranberry and turkey.
- swiftcoder 10mo agoEggplant is actually an old-world nightshade! Arabs brought it to Spain as early as the 8th century, probably from Southeast Asia
- creshal 10mo agoAnd coffee didn't make the jump until around the same time, either. No wonder Europeans wanted to be anywhere on the planet except Europe.
- anthk 10mo agoCoffee in Europe predates 1492 I think.
- jacobolus 10mo agoThere are some flowers which produce tiny amounts of caffeine in their nectar, apparently to give the pollinators a buzz.
- bamboozled 10mo agoLove me some Capsaicin, even though I’m not supposed too (I guess)
- jyounker 10mo agoIt's even weirder than that. It turns out that at very low concentrations caffeine seems to have similar effects on insect neurology as it does on ours. There are some plant species whose flowers produce caffeinated nectar. Bees seem to like these flowers preferentially, and have an easier time remembering where they are. (Yes, bees get buzzed.)
- raverbashing 10mo agoCapsaicin as well And birds are immune to it
- mjanx123 10mo agoThe brain is a fiber network like the mycelium, likely the same genes (animals are related to mushrooms) and neurotransmitters are involved in its function.
- justinclift 10mo ago> animals are related to mushrooms ??? Apparently in very early evolution animals and fungi shared a common ancestor. That's a pretty far cry from "related to" as its generally used.
- gus_massa 10mo agoSlightly related as mushrooms are closer to animal than to plants, as anyone in a grocery store would guess.
- justinclift 10mo ago> anyone in a grocery store would guess. Actually, I'd challenge that particular point. Mushrooms seem to be found in the fresh fruit and vegetables area, rather than in the deli (meat and cheese), so that would probably point more towards them being considered "vegetables". Or fruit. ;)
- bigstrat2003 10mo agoYep, however one wishes to classify them botanically, mushrooms are a vegetable in culinary usage (similar to tomatoes in that way).
- gus_massa 10mo agoI agree. Sorry, bad English. "as" -> "in oposite of" (or something like that).
- mc32 10mo agoIt’s “alive” therefore it must have an early common ancestor and thus related… people like stretching definitions. At some point when aliens are confirmed and if they were carbon based you might have people say earth species and alien species are “related”.
- Llamamoe 10mo agoIt's not that suspicious- many molecules in nature are made from the same few precursors like cholesterol, amino acids, etc. and on top of that there's pressure for plants/fungi to evolve molecules similar to ones animals use in order to affect them.
- carlmr 10mo ago>so we farm incredible quantities of tobacco to extract its poisons. Evolutionarily the best survival strategy.