Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/04/22/the-weird-beauty-of-fungi-tim.html
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I always get weird ideas and fascinations, some years ago i got really interested in the concept of having a mushroom garden. Usually comes down to “If only i had some property” 
But mushrooms are really neat
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Hmm… Not sure I appreciate the tone of this segment. All the talk of rot & decay with ominous music seems kind of fearmongerish. I get it for the cordyceps bit, but even that was overdone a bit with the echoing voice over. Also, “a network of roots has infiltrated her muscles” (speaking of the ant), fungi do not have roots, strictly speaking.
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What is that eldritch horror at the 52-seconds mark?
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Well I always wondered where Gygax got his slimes and jellies.
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Nightmare fuel.
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The presentation was done more like a WWE promo than a nature doc (and it greatly overstated the mind control over the ants) but awesome nonetheless. We are so selectively tuned to things that move at similar time scales as us, this sort of timelapse is great for seeing how much of life is going on at completely different scale from us
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I’ve grown mushrooms before - no ants were harmed.
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Really great photography. Embarrassing script and sound.
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I had a friend that grew mushrooms in his attic space. But eventually he barricaded himself in the attic and it was 2 weeks before his company noticed him missing and did a welfare check. But in this case I’m pretty sure it was the cocain that took him over, not a human targeting cordycep. Oh Portland, you were a wild chapter in my life.
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Well for me my interest is not recreational mushrooms but the edible sort, but i will think that the non-edible kinds are pretty cool though i wouldn’t want to mix the two.
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The ones he was growing were edible but not something you would take to a potluck. Beside the whole going bonker’s aspect, his grow didn’t take up much space. Regular food mushroom grows might take less space than you think.
Here are some kits I found doing a quick search. I haven’t used any of these. Buyer beware.
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Speak for yourself.
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I’ve been growing Oyster, Lion’s Mane & occasionally Shitake on and off for a while now. I set up a somewhat climate controlled chamber based on an ikea shelf. Oysters are by far the easiest, you can start with store-bought mushrooms & cardboard, and don’t really need to climate controlled chamber…
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Starfish fungus, Aseroe rubra.
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Figures that it’s native to Australia. I’ll bet that Aseroe rubra is actually the embryonic stage of Lovecraft’s Elder Things, but Australia is just too deadly a continent for them to actually survive to adulthood. Thanks, Australia!
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You’ll be glad to know that the Octopus stinkhorn Clathrus archeri, is much more widespread (including the US and Europe).
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Those are so satisfying to watch. Thank you for sharing.
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Blants! (and everything else too!)
This seems to be the norm for national geographic documentaries. I saw one clip from a nat geo documentary, again about cordyceps, where the fungus had infected a snail. The narrator sounded like he was doing the voice over for an 1980s action film.
Here’s a slightly more toned down look at cordyceps fungi.
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