Spring archive - Part II

It has been very warm and dry recently, so much in fact that I had to start watering my garden plants. Not very typical Scottish weather!

There seemed to be little point to venture to the forest in these conditions, so I was sorting through some pictures, and found a couple in my mailbox, sent from Moscow region, which are worth sharing. Meet Gyromitra esculenta, the false morel:

In its natural habitat...

And in the basket, ready for processing

These mushrooms were subsequently parboiled and eaten. Now, if you look up reference on these, there would be warnings that these can be fatal when eaten raw, and even when properly cooked, may cause liver and kidney failure through the effects of cumulative poison.

They also, apparently, tasted more or less like slices of rubber.

Hmm, I'm not at all conservative with my food, but if I ever choose to risk serious poisoning, it would be for something that at least tastes good... Fugu fish, anyone?

Mushrooms and kilts

Scottish foraging
(artist's impression!)

Glasgow these days is getting ready for Commonwealth Games that are due to open on 23rd July next year, and part of the preparations is to make city's numerous blank building walls look better by painting murals on them. These have been springing up left and right recently, mostly featuring some kind of athletic activity. The one in Merchant city, however, features local wildlife: red deer, highland cattle, badgers, a manic squirrel being hunted by a fox, and a man in a kilt hunting mushrooms.

It is good to see that fungi are being featured with prominence they deserve. The picker is even holding an edible mushroom (bay boletus in fact), so the artists must have done some basic research. Just don't take it as recommendation for action and go to a forest dressed like this: a kilt would do nothing to protect you against ticks!

Botanicula

The journey begins

I came over this unusual game by accident, and still wondering if I should get a full version of it. It is a point and click adventure in which a motley crew of mushrooms and insects are embarking on a journey to plant a seed. It has most adorable sounds and music (if you listen to the tiny squeaks those travelling fungi make, you are guaranteed to fall in love with them after five minutes), and graphics like I have never seen before. Beautiful. And weird (in a good sense).

As for the gameplay, the demo can be played in under a minute if you know what you are doing, but the great thing about this game is that there are so many objects and places you can explore that are not compulsory. The more you click, the more cute animations and adorable sounds you discover.

A full version of Botanicula costs $10, and if you enjoy leisurely meditative puzzles (although, who doesn't?), it is worth every penny.

Mushrooms at Kew Gardens

These would fill a few freezers...

Being based in Scotland is great for mushroom forays, but sometimes it feels like I'm way too far from the places where exciting things are happening.

Certainly, the new exhibition of fungi sculptures at Kew Gardens is one of such events. The best I could do in this case was to ask a couple of friends to go for a visit and take a few photos.

The pictures are not the best you'll see in this blog, but the subject matter is so great that even these mobile phone snaps look amazing. If only I could do them myself, with a proper camera!

Mmm... morels. One day, I'll find
the real ones!

The sculptor, Tom Hare, used different shades of willow twigs. Look how skilfully he layered them in his morels, to show off the wrinkles and cavities that distinguish this species. My favourite bit though is the underside of porcini mushrooms: the straw from which it is made does a perfect job imitating the spongy hymenium, both in texture and colour. They look... real!

The sculptures are enormous, some over 4 metres in height. Tom Hare's wonderful creations will be decorating the Broad Walk in Kew until 3rd November.

This might be infectious...

Wonderful crop from Ukraine

I have a Ukrainian friend who has never been interested in collecting mushrooms. She is (or maybe was - see below) a committed gardener. If you have read Karel Čapek's The Gardener's Year, you'll know what I'm talking about. If not, I have placed my translation of the Gardener's prayer from the book at the bottom of this post, so that you can get the idea.

Anyway, our previous discussions of fungi were usually limited to the ways of preventing phytophthora growth on her potatoes, tomatoes and other fruits of her allotment. So I was more than mildly shocked when she skyped me today, and the whole half hour of our conversation was spent showing the mushrooms she picked in some faraway forest. She had to get up at 5am to get there and back in one day! Even I'm not manic enough to do that.

I did take her mushrooming a couple of times when she visited me this summer, and she didn't show much enthusiasm then. I now suspect that local ticks carry a foraging bug which, like Lime disease, takes its time to incubate. Well, what can I say - welcome to the club!

---

Gardener's prayer, from The Gardener's Year by Karel Čapek

‘O Lord, grant us rain every day, from about midnight until three o’clock in the morning, and let it be gentle and warm so that the earth can soak it in; but make sure it would not rain on campion, alyssum, helianthemum, lavender, and the others which you in your infinite wisdom know are drought-loving plants; I can make you a list of their names if you need me to – and grant that the sun may shine the whole day long, but not in all places (for instance, not on spiraea, or on gentian, plantain lily, and rhododendron), and let it not be too hot; that there may be plenty of dew and little wind, enough earthworms, no woodlice or slugs, no mildew, and let once a week liquid manure and pigeon's droppings fall from heaven. Amen.’

Crazy ideas

Stage one: putting in spores

This weekend there was no forest trip, alas. This forager fell victim to a rather nasty common cold virus and had to spend a few days under a warm blanket, with painkillers and lots of tea and raspberry jam.

It wasn't all that bad. In fact, I think all people need a break from normal routine once in a while. We keep hearing that finding a cure for common cold is imminent, but I sure hope it won't happen in my lifetime.

Anyway, while semi-conscious in bed, I had this brilliant idea of how to cultivate chanterelles. All you have to do is to make a plantation of tiny trees of the required variety (birch, beech or pine will all work), put in some chanterelle spores, and - voila! You have a cultivated chanterelle.

Need I say that my paracetamol-infused brain could not find a single thing wrong with this plan! So I dragged myself from under the blanket, found the biggest chanterelle I had in the fridge and stuck it next to my rescued beech sapling that I found uprooted by forest management operations a few months ago.

Now that life is beginning to get back to normal, I have my doubts. But who knows, it might just work. There was at least one report of successful cultivation of chanterelles, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Magic mushrooms in hospital

A better kind of magic mushroom

I try to avoid, as much as I can, writing about hallucinogenic mushrooms. Partly because I disapprove of taking drugs in general: it is difficult enough to understand this complicated world even without confusing your brain with foreign substances. But also because fungal drug abuse is a cliche similar to lethal mushroom poisoning.

This blog aims to promote fungi as a valuable natural resource with great constructive potential, and the fact that some representatives of this kingdom can be toxic or hallucinogenic does not support the concept. So I try to pretend that these topics do not exist. Ignore them, and maybe they'll go away.

However, in cases when humour value of a news story is such as this one, I just have to write about it.

In a nutshell: a mental patient was kicked out of a hospital for consuming magic mushrooms that he found growing in the smoking area. Given the £5m cost of the facility, you have to wonder how it happened that the patch wasn't concreted over. I've heard that funny mushrooms can be used for treating certain mental conditions, but somehow I doubt that the medical facility in question is that advanced...

Image credit:
Magic mushrooms

How to command your fungal minions

This is a trailer to Mushroom Wars game for PlayStation3, and more recently, for iPad.

"TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR MUSHROOM ARMY"
"LEAD YOUR MUSHROOM ARMY TO VICTORY"

I'd say to the developers, eat less of funny mushrooms and maybe you'll still find your way back to the reality space occupied by the rest of humanity. However, I just might blow the dust off my PS3 and check it out. As long as my namekos do not have objections, that is.

Enjoy, and see you next week for more stories of mushroom hunts. The weather forecast for tomorrow is cloudy but no rain - excellent! For once, I might get out of the forest with my feet still dry...

Fungi on London Underground

Occasionally I wonder if I am the only one who is so crazy about mushrooms. Then I come across an article like this one, and it becomes very clear that I am not alone in the universe.

In short, it tells about a few mycologists who went on fungal foray in London underground, in order to find out which of the lines is the mouldiest. The winner by a small margin was, unexpectedly, the newest, Jubilee line, where unfortunate commuters breathe in 1 fungal spore a minute, and unlike other lines these spores are not from penicillin, and why that has to be so, remains an unsolved mystery.

So, what made those people to look for fungi in the underground? Perhaps, Nils Norman's vision of Piccadilly line in 2050? After all, in its bottom left corner it prominently features Hammersmith Mushroom Facility. Not too far from Green Park, where it intersects with Jubilee line. Hmmm, I wonder what those unknown spores actually are...