Mycological innovations

[freeztar]

Fungi Perfecti®: gourmet and medicinal mushrooms

;)

 

I was fortunate enough to attend a presentation by Mr. Stamets at my uni in '03. His ideas are off the wall (yet backed up) and I love it! :)

Here are some snippets from his website.

 

After several years, and redundant experiments to prove to naysayers that our data was valid, we have made some astonishing discoveries. (I am continually bemused that humans "discover" what nature has known all along.) The first significant study showed that a strain of Oyster mushrooms could break down heavy oil. A trial project at a vehicle storage center controlled by the Washington State Dept. of Transportation (WSDOT) enlisted the techniques from several, competing bioremediation groups. The soil was blackened with oil and reeked of aromatic hydrocarbons. We inoculated one berm of soil approximately 8 feet x 30 feet x 3 feet high with mushroom spawn while other technicians employed a variety of methods, ranging from bacteria to chemical agents. After 4 weeks, the tarps were pulled back from each test pile. The first piles employing the other techniques were unremarkable. Then the tarp was pulled from our pile, and gasps of astonishment and laughter welled up from the observers. The hydrocarbon-laden pile was bursting with mushrooms! Oyster mushrooms up to 12 inches in diameter had formed across the pile. Analyses showed that more than 95% of many of the PAH (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) were destroyed, reduced to non-toxic components, and the mushrooms were also free of any petroleum products.

After 8 weeks, the mushrooms had rotted away, and then came another startling revelation. As the mushrooms rotted, flies were attracted. (Sciarid, Phorid and other "fungus gnats" commonly seek out mushrooms, engorged themselves with spores, and spread the spores to other habitats). The flies became a magnet for other insects, which in turn brought in birds. Apparently the birds brought in seeds. Soon ours was an oasis, the only pile teeming with life! We think we have found what is called a "keystone" organism, one that facilitates, cascade of other biological processes that contribute to habitat remediation. Critics, who were in favor of using plants (as in "phytoremediation") and/or bacteria, reluctantly became de facto advocates of our process since the mushrooms opened the door for this natural sequencing.

Fungi Perfecti®: Mushrooms and the ecosystem

 

The novelty of mycofiltration is the purposeful introduction of fungi, saprophytic and mycorrhizal, to the wood chip buffers, enhancing effectiveness by accelerating decomposition. Spores infused into chain-saw bar oil or into the lubricating oil for chippers expose the wood immediately upon cutting to fungi that can begin the decomposition sequence. Or once in place, spores or spawn can be broadcasted onto the chipped wood as shown. In either case, accelerating the sequence of decomposition is essential for habitat evolution. Our method jump-starts the process of recovery, allowing nature to steer the course of species succession after inoculation. The benefits become soon apparent after application.

 

The advantages of using mycofiltration mats upon logging roads compared to the use of heavy equipment to achieve the tank-trap, scarification or 'terra interruptus' approach are listed below.

 

Advantages of Mycofiltration

vs.

Conventional Road Decommissioning

 

Sediment containment

–reduction of siltation/erosion into streams protecting spawning grounds & fisheries

 

Moisture enhancement

–restoration of aquifer function (allowing subsurface sheet flows of water)

–re-moistening of arid landscapes

 

Habitat recovery & Enhancement

–re-establishing native mycoflora (mycorrhizae & saprophytic, soil building)

 

Reduction/elimination of Hydrocarbon contamination

–reduction of diesel, oil, herbicides, pesticides, & other pollutants

 

Reduction/elimination of damaging downstream microorganisms

–mycofiltration of coliform bacterial, E. coli, Pfisteria, & protozoa

 

Temperature reduction

–cooling of water flowing into streams benefiting fisheries & marine systems

 

Minimal disturbance

–low impact on existing & adjacent ecosystems

 

Subsurface penetration by mycelium

–Subsurface growth of mycelium allows for mineral transport, aeration, without siltation flow

 

Aesthetic enhancement

–roads transformed into nature trails multi-use access

 

Educational showcase

–accessible educational showcase for habitat restoration

 

Bad bugs/Good bugs*

–breeding ground for grub for fish food chain

–mycopesticidal barriers for wood boring beetles & disease insects breeding grounds for beneficial bugs

 

Investment Protection

–road subsurface can be re-used in future at reduced cost compared to new construction

 

Obviously, we cannot perpetually draw from the ecological bank of forestlands without returning nutrition back to the system. We urge the establishment of a team to investigate and propose the concept of mycofiltration within a new economic model that synergistically combines the needs of Washington States' schools, timber harvests, fisheries, road reclamation, habitat recovery, and accessibility for recreational use.

Fungi Perfecti®: road restoration and mushrooms

 

If we are going to destroy, then we need some help. :hihi:

Fungi are truly amazing!

What else can they do? I'm sure we have not even scraped the surface of their potential.

[Queso]

Fungi are truly amazing!

What else can they do? I'm sure we have not even scraped the surface of their potential.

 

Here ye here ye I must agree with you.

Fungi, and Paul Stamets

are both fascinating Gaian specimen.

 

I love how mushrooms regenerate.

 

Mushrooms for food.

Mushrooms for Earth restoration.

Mushrooms for shamanic trance.

 

One thing I love and always keep in mind

is how the roots of fungi look like our neural networks.

 

Consciousness on a whole different scale!

[freeztar]

One thing I love and always keep in mind

is how the roots of fungi look like our neural networks.

 

Consciousness on a whole different scale!

 

Funny you should mention that!

At his lecture, he posted a picture of the mycelia of a certain strain and went on to discuss how the mycelia reacted when it encountered different situations. He described it as a kind of consciousness. To the observers, it appeared that the fungi was making intelligent decisions based upon accrued data! :hihi:

[Queso]

Yeah.

He's the guy that taught me that as well.

I get kundalini chills up and down my spine just thinking about it.

[Ganoderma]

i, to, am constantly impressed by that mans work. Unfortunately i am unable to attend his lectures. but i have grown some mushrooms from his strains, good stuff

[jungjedi]

thank you for this thread.i to am an amature mycologist.theres always so much more to learn about mushrooms.

[freeztar]

Here's an interesting bit about the "intelligence" of slime fungus.

 

News in Science - Slime mould solves maze puzzle - 28/09/2000

[Michaelangelica]

Thank you for introducing me to Paul Stamet's work.

Anyone interested in fungi should try to read some of the books by Gordon Wasson, a merchant banker, and his Russian wife Valentina.

Now all out of print, I think, and old copies are expensive and highly sort after.

Bookride: Mushrooms, Russia and History, 1957.

MetaHistory - Metahistory: Lexicon W

 

We have our most intelligent organ -our stomachs-on the inside, fungi have them on the outside . So fungi "intelligence" seems possible. The slime mould seems to be at least as bright as some rats??

Healing Mushrooms - Google Book Search

Here is a good link about Paul Stamets work

Fungal Intelligence and Bioremediation | Bioneers

I like his (outrageous?) staement

I believe that mycelia are Earth's natural Internet, the essential wiring of the Gaian consciousness. The recent creation of the computer Internet is merely an extension of a successful biological model that has evolved on this planet for billions of years.

Fungi Perfecti®: Mushrooms and the ecosystem

his story of mushrooms taking over the ant brain is facinating. It makes you wonder what their agenda is when they get us to "see god".

 

 

The Chinese even have an "intelligence increasing mushroom' given to young kids and adolescents (Enoki Flammulina velutipes) Perhaps something more useful than cannabis on a developing mind.

Handbook of Vegetable Preservation ... - Google Book Search

I wonder if it would work for Alzheimer's?

Although they do have this one for that?

Qingyuan Jingyuan Mushroom Polysaccharide Product Company.,Ltd

[Ganoderma]

i never knew Flammulina velutipes was used for intelligence. it is eaten a lot here!!! cheap as anything too! everyone eats it...people here i would say are "smart" but totaly lack comon sense lol.

 

i have not read Wasson that much, just snippets. but i have to say i have 3 people i really look up to in the science world. Steve Irwin, Richard Shultz, and this crazy Stamets fella. all world class leaders in their feilds if you ask me! the thing i liek about all of these guys is they make a big public "stink" in the RIGHT direction, and prove everything they beleive in with real science....love it!

[Michaelangelica]

i never knew Flammulina velutipes was used for intelligence. it is eaten a lot here!!! cheap as anything too! everyone eats it...people here i would say are "smart" but totaly lack comon sense lol.

I found it interesting that it is suggested for adolescents.. This is the time the brain is developing and changing like no other time in life. Also the time they say people should avoid illegal (and some legal e.g. anti-depressants) drugs.

 

It would not surprise me if we had drug warnings for adolescents in the future similar to the ones we now have for pregnant women (another time when the brain is developing!)

 

i have not read Wasson that much, just snippets. but i have to say i have 3 people i really look up to in the science world. Steve Irwin, Richard Shultz, and this crazy Stamets fella.

Unfortunately all Wasson's books are out of print and cost a fortune to buy second hand. Perhaps Dover will re-print them one day.

If you like Shultz you would also like "The Shaman's Apprentice" my Mark Plotkin, he was a student of Shultz, I think.

Irwin is a great loss but there are many doing similar, but less publicised, work in Australia.

 

PS

Oops I tell a lie; some of Wasson's work has been re-printed

Amazon.com: Gordon Wasson

[Essay]

Thank you for introducing me to Paul Stamet's work.

....his story of mushrooms taking over the ant brain is facinating. It makes you wonder what their agenda is when they get us to "see god".

I have to admit, I'm seriously wondering...;

...in addition to enjoying my best laugh of the day.

Thanks, Michaelangelica....

;)

[Mike C]

i never knew Flammulina velutipes was used for intelligence. it is eaten a lot here!!! cheap as anything too! everyone eats it...people here i would say are "smart" but totaly lack comon sense lol.

 

i have not read Wasson that much, just snippets. but i have to say i have 3 people i really look up to in the science world. Steve Irwin, Richard Shultz, and this crazy Stamets fella. all world class leaders in their feilds if you ask me! the thing i liek about all of these guys is they make a big public "stink" in the RIGHT direction, and prove everything they beleive in with real science....love it!

 

I like the FV mushrooms as well.

However, I never have eaten the cultivated FV's that are different physically from the wild ones.

The wild ones grow on the inside of dead elm trees that are shedding their bark .

I found about a quarter bushel at one site.

That was the first time I ate them.

Another common name for them is 'winter mushrooms '.

 

Mike C

[Michaelangelica]

How do you write the music for "Twilight Zone"? (What ever happened to that great show?)

Do do do do, do, do, do ?

The research could provide not only a source of new drugs, but a way to "listen to what fungi are saying" to organisms around them.

. . .

Many fungi have a wealth of genes encoding for far more natural products than they actually produce, says Cichewicz.

The explanation is thought to be that when fungi do not need certain compounds, they inhibit the transcription of the DNA that codes for the proteins that make them, preventing their biosynthesis.

. . .

To show their idea in action, the researchers took a culture of Cladosporium cladosporioides, a tidal pool fungus, and treated it separately with 5-azacytidine and suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid. Both treatments, says Cichewicz, dramatically changed the natural product output of the fungus, with two completely new natural products being isolated.

. . .

The results also have important implications for research into fungi and other microorganisms, explains Cichewicz. Natural products are the means by which fungi 'communicate' with organisms around them, so we are in essence, he says, 'discovering chemical means for listening to what fungi are saying'.

 

Royal Society of Chemistry, the largest organisation in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences

Silent fungus metabolism awakened for source of new drugs

Mushrooms "talk"?

Change the environment and different genes are immediately expressed or turned on?

[Mike C]

Freezestar:

 

I should have replied in my previous post that that was a truly remarkable experiment with those oyster mushrooms.

That is like a miracle for disposing of a waste product.

 

Mike C

[freeztar]

Freezestar:

 

I should have replied in my previous post that that was a truly remarkable experiment with those oyster mushrooms.

That is like a miracle for disposing of a waste product.

 

Mike C

 

I agree Mike. What is so surprising to me is that very few people know about this. I imagine much more money is spent on bacterial remediation than fungal remediation. This should be in use right now, but as far as I know, it's still in the research realm.

[Mike C]

I agree Mike. What is so surprising to me is that very few people know about this. I imagine much more money is spent on bacterial remediation than fungal remediation. This should be in use right now, but as far as I know, it's still in the research realm.

 

BTW, I misspelled your 'user name'. Sorry

 

Mike C

[Ganoderma]

a nice part with using oyster mushrooms for clean up is there is no risk of spills, contamination or infection of native areas of some kind of foreign bacteria....and seen as oysters eats DEAD things and are already world wide, it would really put a big dent in the local ecosystem i wouldnt think.