Do you know – Mushrooms?
As a gesture of thanks to all the visitors to the post “Mushrooms – by Sylvia Plath“, this ‘Do You Know?’ has been placed.
Did you know that –
* the mental picture we have of a mushroom with cap, gills and stalk is typical only of the Agaricales, (an example being the store-bought White mushroom). The wide variety of shapes a mushroom can take can be understood from their names – polypores, puffballs, jelly fungi, coral fungi, bracket fungi, stinkhorns, and cup fungi.
* not all mushrooms are edible, the vast majority of these produce a vast array of toxins and allergens. You should only eat a commercially produced mushroom or a known edible mushroom reliably identified by an expert.
* many mushrooms produce secondary metabolites that render them toxic, mind-altering, or even bioluminescent.
* the term ‘toad-stool’ was used in earlier times for poisonous mushrooms.
* though mushrooms are commonly thought to have little nutritional value, many species have nutritional or medicinal value. Many mushrooms are high in fiber and provide vitamins such as thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, biotin, cobalamines, ascorbic acid. Mushrooms are also a source of some minerals, including selenium, potassium and phosphorus.
* some mushrooms, if exposed to UV light can become valuable sources of Vitamin D.
* poisonous mushrooms containing hallucinogenic substances are eaten by some people in order to get a ‘high’!
* oyster mushrooms, a widely eaten mushroom, naturally contain the cholesterol drug lovastatin.
* that a large number of valuable drugs such as penicillin, lovastatin, ciclosporin, griseofulvin, cephalosporin, and ergometrine, have been isolated from the fungi kingdom.
* that in Tolkien‘s trilogy “The Lord of the Rings” the favourite food of hobbits is mushrooms.
Credits –
* All mushrooms – Wikimedia Commons. Original filenames have not been changed for all the photos.
* A Hobbit – Andrew DeWitt, drew this picture at ehow.com to show us how to draw a hobbit! Used non commercially here under ‘fair use’.
Explore posts in the same categories: edible, hallucinogenic substances, mushrooms, nature, poisonous substances, self-advertisementTags: Amanita phalloides, Death-cap, edible mushrooms, enoki, hallucinogens, lovastatin, mushrooms, oyater mushrooms, psilocybe mushrooms, shiitake, thank you, white mushrooms
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11 October 2009 at 6:02 am
I love mushrooms ! Yummy ! I find only button mushrooms for sale in markets and not any other variants (except a long stemmed white one one called milk mushroom)… When we were in native , we used to cultivate at home one simple mushroom (duno the name) for cooking.
11 October 2009 at 7:42 am
Stick to commercial mushrooms. Mushrooming in India is a good idea..NOT!
11 October 2009 at 5:00 pm
Yes, I like the mushrooms we get in packets. I am certainly not going to pluck anything growing by the wayside and pop into my mouth.
11 October 2009 at 7:29 pm
Discretion is the better part of valour as far as “Mycophagy” is concerned. BTW even the button mushroom must be cooked and never eaten raw to destroy its hydrazine (carcinogen) content.
11 September 2010 at 4:05 pm
comeon! i have been eating button mushrooms raw since years?!
11 September 2010 at 4:07 pm
true. i have also eaten button mushrooms in salads. is there a problem?
12 October 2009 at 5:43 am
I never knew that corals are mushrooms.. is the yellow coral mushroom in your post an exception to other corals, or can all corals be called as mushrooms?
12 October 2009 at 4:49 pm
Hi Iniyaal, This mushroom resembles a coral, hence its called a yellow coral mushroom. Its a mushroom all right. Corals are marine organisms with calcereous shells. They are actually animals and very different from mushrooms.
13 October 2009 at 5:24 am
Oh.. okay. SO this one grows on land and just looks like a coral! Thanks for the information 🙂
19 October 2009 at 2:13 pm
Wonderful pics and an enlightening post for sure!
I wasn’t aware that the staid ‘mushroom’ was so pleasing to the eye. Ummm, one never ceases to be surprised, I guess…
The variety that grows everywhere on the open fields… especially after the rains…. are called “bang-er chata” in bengali.
“Bang” refers to “frog” or “toad” and “chata” is “umbrella”…
Whoever coined it… definitely had a lot of imagination… right… ?!!
P.S. Wish you a very happy, safe and prosperous Deepavali/Kali Puja… !!! May the festival of lights bring lots of happiness and colour into your life and a New Year blessed with prosperity!
26 January 2010 at 5:01 am
Hey there, cool article, thanks for the image credit. My name is actually Andrew DeWitt not Andre, sometimes ehow can screw it up.
Word up!
Andrew
26 January 2010 at 1:12 pm
Hi Andrew, how nice to have a contributor (albeit indirect) visit the site! Glad you liked the post. Name corrected, now that I know better.
27 March 2010 at 4:17 am
As we know there are different types of people living around us there are different types of mushrooms present. Some are wild which harm us and some are good which provides us nutrition. I love mushrooms
2 January 2011 at 12:50 pm
[…] Do you know – Mushrooms? October 2009 13 comments 3 […]
6 May 2011 at 11:41 am
Hey..
thanks for all the info posted by you guys its helping me alot. I have an assignment to write, where i have to write 15 varieties of mushrooms.. the descriptions that you have posted are accurate so thanks a million!!! 🙂
Francine