"They Actually Eat That:" Chocolate Mushrooms.

If you dip anything in chocolate, it instantly sounds more palatable. I've seen chocolate pasta, chocolate bacon, and now, chocolate mushrooms. No, I do not mean those cute little "Chocorooms" cookies; I mean honest-to-goodness mushrooms coated in chocolate.

Unfortunately, I can't find the ones I actually ate at GreenFest one year. They were super expensive, but definitely worth trying. They were made by CordyChi, a brand that uses mushrooms (specifically a Cordyceps-Reishi blend) for all sorts of things. Go figure, the 'shrooms in question were Cordyceps- the parasitic mushroom from China that's becoming more and more popular for helping with respiratory issues, among other things.Alas, the chocolate-covered mushroom caps seem to have vanished off of the face of the planet.

From the official site.

Instead, something new has surfaced. Several sites have started making their own mushroom chocolate. Rather than simply covering mushrooms in chocolate, these Cordyceps are mixed into the chocolate. Better still, sometimes it's raw, vegan chocolate. I'd give it a shot if it's anything like the chocolate Cordyceps caps I had. Hell, even if they were just a product of my imagination, this odd  chocolate has my curiosity piqued.

What? You want an explanation for why dried mushrooms are being made into chocolate? Pff. Everything gets put into chocolate at some point. It's just the mushrooms' turn. This is still not as weird as chocolate-covered ants, which probably started as an unfortunate accident in the kitchen. Bacon chocolate is weirder still; at least mushrooms and ants have some nutritional value to compensate for the sinfulness of chocolate.

Chocolate is probably the Murphy's Law of food: Anything that can be put into chocolate will be put into chocolate. The issue, then, is whether it actually tastes good or not. Surprisingly, mushrooms work. Maybe ants and bacon aren't so far out, after all.

Fungus Among Us: Skirted Stinkhorn.

Since the power outage unfortunately cut our fungus week short, here's what I would have done if the power hadn't gone out. Yes, I know, we already did a stinkhorn, but this stinkhorn is a little more eerie.

More here.

Perhaps this would have been a little more appropriate for Halloween, but the skirted stinkhorn (Phallus indusiatus) is the quintessential "weird mushroom." It's identifiable as a mushroom, but looks like it was laced with cobwebs or the skirt of a ghost. Every tropical region in the world has this thing. It's that one mushroom that people photograph and demand to know what it is. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

P. indusiatus has a very distinctive 'skirt' of lacy indusium- the stuff beneath the cap on this mushroom. As in the basket stinkhorn, this mushroom uses its scent and presumably holes to help spread its spores around. Again, the spores are stored in a sticky fluid called gleba as opposed to being airborne. Is it just me, or do all stinkhorns sound like something out of alien movies?

Unlike the other stinkhorn we covered, yes, this baby is edible. It was a rarity in Qing dynasty cuisine for a long time. The notorious Empress Dowager Cixi had a particular fondness for skirted stinkhorn, and Henry Kissinger got a taste of it as well. It has been successfully cultivated in China since 1979. It is now sold commonly in Asian markets, so if you're curious, take a look there.

Along with actually being edible, P. indusiatus has a few compounds in it that may prove useful. One, hydrxylmethylfurfural, could prevent browning in commercial food. Extracts are antioxidants and antibiotics. There is almost nothing bad about this mushroom...except that it might be an alien spore. Quick, run!

Bio-Art: Asymmetrical Butterflies.

Well, that was a stressful weekend. So let's ease our minds with a look at some nice, pretty butterflies...

...Wait a minute! This butterfly is not perfectly symmetrical! What's going on, here?

In 1999-2000, Portuguese artist Marta de Menezes began working with butterflies of the genera Heliconius and Bicyclus. After presumably mastering their breeding habits, she began manipulating the wing patterns of one wing only while they were still metamorphosing. The pieces were collectively called Nature? They now reside in the artist's home.

Her motivation?  To create a butterfly just as natural as it was man-made. Think about it: One wing was the only thing altered on these butterflies. The same cannot be said of, say, the GFP Bunny. The butterfly's unique metamorphose allowed it to be manipulated differently from every other animal. Neat, huh?

Each butterfly is also 100% unique. Since these patterns are made during the butterfly's life, it was certainly not inherited.  Every butterfly lovingly has its very own pattern on its wing. No two are exactly alike. We could totally market this, but we aren't allowed to do that.

Thing is, these wing patterns aren't permanent. Menezes did not breed the butterflies to be asymmetrical. She went in there in the chrysalis stage and made little designs with a hot wire. The traits thus applied will not be passed on to the offspring. Unlike most genetic art, this piece is impermanent. It's about as permanent as a tattoo, in other words.

Fungus Among Us: Honey Fungus.

(Stupid thing didn't publish. I don't know why, but it didn't at first.) 

Welp, the power came on right after we went out to get a generator. Fancy that.  Looks like I get to continue with Fungus Among Us, which could be good for some of you and downright terrifying for others. Without further ado, let us look at today's terrifying...jaw-dropping...

Aww, aren't they cute? I mean, cute for mushrooms. They're called "honey mushrooms" due to the color, and Armillaria solidipes  otherwise. They are found throughout the northern hemisphere, particularly in the Pacific northwest. They loooove feeding on pine trees and have their own blight.

Let's be honest, here: These are not impressive-looking mushrooms. They're cute and yellow. Yes, they feed on wood like many a fungus.  On the plus side, they're safe for work.

Thing is, remember: Those mushrooms are only the fruiting bodies. It's impossible to judge the size of the whole fungus by the size of what are effectively its genitalia. While we humans tend to judge 'size' based on junk, this is an extremely poor way to gauge the size of an organism that has most of its body underground. Big mushrooms do not make a big fungal organism. In fact...

Somewhere in this forest is a HUGE mushoom.

...those tiny little mushrooms? They belong to the single largest, and possibly longest-lived, organism in the world. Forget the blue whale; if a mass of these things in Malheur National Forest,  Oregon are indeed one organism, it spans 2,000+ acres. We aren't even going to try and weigh that. Again, if it is indeed one organism, it is also 2,400 years old, making even tuataras and Galapagos tortoises whippersnappers by comparison. It only got that huge because there was very little competition for land and resources.

Do not, however, try this at home. Outside of being crazy and massive, these mushrooms are dangerous to trees -  Douglas firs in particular. They can remain on a tree for up to 50 years and are very, very hard to remove entirely. Please to not be trying to make a Guinness Record out of this.

POWER OUTAGE: Expect Delays.

So I was about to do another freaky mushroom for you guys when the power ran out. This is unfortunately nothing unusual for my particular sh*thole of a suburb. Usually, the blackouts only last a little bit; there were a few flickers of electricity before the power died completely. 

I waited for the power to come back on. It didn't. 

It turns out over 300 people in our suburb alone do not have any form of power. This is not counting Posen, where one of my friends lives, which was totally black when we went to her house at 1 A.M. Massive blackout is massive. We won't have power until 4. P.M. (16:00) on Tuesday. That's two more full days without power, guys. 

I'm debating whether this is the worst blackout I've ever faced or not; there was one in the chilly dead of winter that was so bad I kept my reptiles and birds warm with my own body. It's definitely in the top ten, though, especially since I happened to be in one of the strips under blackout. There are some parts of town that do have power; mine just so happened to not be among them. 

The only reason I can even write this is thanks to Starbucks. Next time you're around one, please to be buying something from them in thanks. I may still get a few blog entries done, but expect delays. 

Fungus Among Us: Athlete's Foot.

Today's entry has to be one of the least glamorous ever. Really, we've done the majestic bald eagle, cool big cats, and giant blue iguanas...but athlete's foot? This has to be a new low for the blog. That's coming from the woman who finds tapeworms kinda cute.

Actually, I find athlete's foot fascinating in the same way I find pigeons fascinating. Athlete's foot is one of those mundane things that we take for granted. I'm sure people still consider fungi gross, but isn't it at least somewhat impressive that one has evolved seemingly specifically to invade our bathing spaces?

Yes, athlete's foot is caused by a fungus. Also called tinea pedis, it's usually the work of Trichtophyton rubrum or T. mentagrophytes. It thrives in dark, moist areas and is spread in places where people go barefoot, such as gym lockers and For whatever reason, it prefers the crevice between toes 4 and 5 on most individuals. Who knew a fungus could be so picky?

Athlete's foot manifests itself as a rapid peeling of the skin on the bottom of one's foot. It's more of an annoyance than truly painful unless you obsessively peel away the skin. Most of the time, you know athlete's foot when you see it. It itches like crazy, but has a million easily-accessible cures to prevent you from clawing your feet red. If you haven't encountered it yet, you have never been in a gym.

Do NOT pick on athlete's foot. I know it's tempting.

Usually, athlete's foot is nothing to worry about. There are plenty of over-the-counter remedies and  If left untreated, however, it can lead to the exposure of raw skin and bleeding. Such cuts open the way for more severe bacterial infections. Athlete's foot can also spread to the crotch, by the way, but "athlete's groin" is so unceremonious that we have to call it "tinea cruris."

Never badmouth a fungus that can attack your crotch. You never know when it might be listening. 

Fungus Among Us/"They Actually Eat That:" Mycoprotein.

Lately, there are just so many reasons to go vegan: cows contribute to global warming; meat is expensive; oh gods, factory farms are horrific.  There are so many reasons to not eat meat that it makes one wonder what else there is. Well, this is a fungus week; you can probably guess that mushrooms are on the list.

Fungi have been used as meat subs since vegetarianism was a thing. Even outside of being marketed as a meat substitute, large mushrooms are sometimes used as a "meat" in sandwiches due to their texture. Mycoprotein, however, is even more blatanly a meat sub.  It is marketed as Quorn in the U.S. and Europe because, y'know, long Greek names just don't sell. 

Mycoprotein comes from the filamentous fungus Fusarium venenatum. It was first discovered in Buckinghamshire, Britain in 1967. The high-protein fungus was officially approved for human consumption in 1985. Since then, it has been in our grocery stores - not only as a meat sub, but also as a sub for fat in dairy and or actual grain in cereal. Yep, even the meat subs are using 'shrooms.

Wrong species, same basic idea, here.

Mycoprotein was originally developed to combat food shortages that would arise from a booming population. F. venenatum's fibers are roughly the same length and width as animal protein, however, and thus is a feasible meat substitute. Now it joins tofu and various nuts as being a "meat"  for people who don't like the idea of hurting animals.

Before you ask: Yes, some people do have allergies to mycoprotein. Fusarium species have been found to contaminate food to the point where it was touted as an herbicide in the past.  If you're sensitive to mold, be wary. For the record, I'm allergic to penicillin, and I've had no problems aside from it kinda tasting funny. If this is what we'll be stuck eating at the end of the world, you'll probably be able to handle it.