Courtesy of Kottke, we are enjoying perusing the top one hundred entries for the Close-Up Photographer of the Year competition. There were too many outstanding images to choose from but we especially appreciated those who took the time to consider the toadstool, up-close and intimate, like Barry Webb’s huddle of Cribraria, a type of slime mould. The contest for 2023 opens already in March so plenty of time to get tiny.
Saturday, 7 January 2023
cupoty (10. 391)
Friday, 11 November 2022
6x6 (10. 291)
verifiable: Norman Bates checks out of Twitter
deatheaters vs sapsuckers: mycologists give an overview of the epic fungal wars happening all around us

the mansion on o street: Washington DC’s secret civil rights landmark with a heroes-in-residence programme
mapping emissions: charting out the biggest polluters near you
รฉminence grise: Twitter’s Blue Check verification scheme causing chaos
Thursday, 13 October 2022
8x8 (10. 220)
punto di ebollizione: pasta maker introduces ‘passive cooker’ meters

a shropshire lass: four decades of mushrooming in England and Wales
friluftsliv: the term for the Danish tradition of unwinding in the wilds popularised by playwright Henrik Ibsen
perfect for roquefort cheese: all about blue cheeses—see also
yes sirah: origins and production of wine grape varietals around the globe—via tmn
wormsign: building a functional Fremen thumper
hasta la pasta: the Italian influence in Argentinian cuisine
Saturday, 10 September 2022
6x6 (10. 122)
derivative art: online communities are rejecting AI-generated images
compostable mushroom shroud: when Luke Perry passed away in 2019, he requested that his mortal remains leave no trace—only it didn’t work—via the morning news

remember-tini: a Virginia country club is facing backlash for a planned 9/11-themed seafood Sunday brunch—via Super Punch
temenos: every four years a screening of experimental filmmaker Gregory Markopoulos’ eighty-hour Eniaios is held in the Peloponnese that his magnum opus could spiritually cleanse our over-polluted media diets
multi-level marketing: the online community bent on undermining crypto-scams and bitcoin pyramid schemes
Thursday, 2 June 2022
7x7
phillumeny: venerable Japanese matchbox manufacturer shuttering after almost a century
fpoty: Pink Lady’s finalist gallery of superlative food photographs in its annual competition—via Everlasting Blรถrt
posidonia australis: researchers determine that a giant patch of ribbon weed in Shark Bay Australia a

shadow gradient: expanding hole optical illusion is a touch trypophobic—via Boing Boing
metamorphosis: late fifteenth century ecologist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian who was among the first naturalist to closely observe insects and understand their life cycles
casein chipping: more on cheese heists and ways to stop them
philately: a travelogue of postage stamps of imaginary places—see also
Wednesday, 6 April 2022
fungi seeks same
Being long-time enthusiasts about plant and mushroom networking and communication, we quite enjoyed learning of this very preliminary, new research that goes further, responsibly suggesting analogues between the chemical and electrical signals that funguses employ to coordinate among colonies or distant parts of themselves—previously also compared to neurons—and human language. Analysis and attempts at decoding these shared messages reveal that missives are dispatched in packets with a vocabulary of possibly up to fifty words that vary across different varieties of mushrooms with split gills being the most chatty and nuanced among the species sampled.
Sunday, 30 January 2022
fashion icon
Continuing a very fine tradition of celebrities dressed as a range of a certain thing, the always excellent Everlasting Blรถrt presents an extensive and growing thread of Lady Gaga as mushrooms. The paired gilled fungus is called the Pleurotus citrinopileatus (the Golden Oyster Mushroom or Tamogitake), edible and all-around useful, it is also being studied for its analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties which could be harnessed for future health applications.
Tuesday, 14 December 2021
dyer’s polypore
Having seen the process of extracting dyes from our fungal friends before, via Things Magazine, we not only quite enjoyed perusing through this swath collection of colours derived from mushrooms in its own right but also appreciated the site as an important point of departure for cultivating a deeper appreciation for the mycorrhizal network that connects us all.
Saturday, 16 October 2021
atlas des champignons: comestibles, suspects et vรฉnรฉneux
Unsuccessful in our foraging this year (and usually coming up with the suspect varieties, if not outright poisonous ones), we appreciated pouring over the detail and descriptions from physician, botanist and accidental chronicler of the Haitian Revolution Michel รtienne Descourtilz’ 1827 guide, lusciously illustrated with the lithographs of Auguste Cornillon. More from Public Domain Review at the link above.
Friday, 3 September 2021
fantastic fungi
We appreciated the documentary suggestion and preview from Open Culture that not only features chapters on the accrued benefits in biodiversity, innovation (dyes, building and packing material), culinary, mental wellbeing and spirituality and the arts that mushrooms and the fungal kingdom (see also) have to offer but also provides some interesting insights in how cinematically these developing fungal blooms are captured on film for study and curation. This will get us excited to do some foraging this weekend. Much more to explore at the links above.
Sunday, 25 April 2021
robigalia
One of a number of Roman celebrated during this time of year to ensure a good growing season and bountiful harvest, the feast of the for the god Robigus was held on this day in the agricultural outskirts of the city.
The god, which was designated as the divine representation of fungal blight or rust needed to be propitiated in order to ensure that the crops wouldn’t spoil in the fields. Understood as a separate, corrupt manifestation of the same infestation that could be harnessed for fermentation, the games held at this time with their attendant feasts (see also) were also marked by rather dark sacrifices that expressed their anxieties over crop failure—especially for one this late in the growing seasons that wouldn’t be easy to recover from. Whereas animal sacrifice generally was reserved for livestock that was part of the Roman diet and was shared in a communal meal, Robigalia rather gruesomely demanded a dog with a red coat—that matched the rust disease—as form of homeopathic magic.
Other observations included a celebration of—for whatever reason—of male sex-workers, professional female prostitution having had their own honours in the previous days, specifically on Vinalia urbana, the grape harvest on 23 April. Though without the cruel bits, thankfully—or the fun bits either, I suppose, the holiday is preserved in Western Christianity with the same day of prayer and fasting known as Rogation (from the Latin to beseech—to ask God for protection from calamity) and was done to cleanse the body and mind in anticipation of the Ascension and farmers often had priests bless their crops, often holding mass and processionals in the fields.
catagories: ๐ฎ๐น, ๐ฑ, ๐, ๐️, ๐ , ๐งฟ, holidays and observances, myth and monsters, religion
Monday, 1 March 2021
pflanzenwissenschaft
Sunday, 20 December 2020
gastrodia agnicellus
Via ibidem, researchers at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew have released their top ten plant and fungal species new to science (see previously) of the some one-hundred fifty discovered this year, including what’s been dubbed the world’s ugliest orchid—found in the forests of Madagascar. Reliant on a symbiotic relationship with a particular fungus for energy—having no leaves or roots—emerges from a woolly stem only to flower and produce seed-bearing fruit. An addition to the family commonly called ‘potato orchids’ and despite its unflattering, vaguely xenomorph chestburster appearance, its scent is reportedly a rather pleasant citrus one.
Sunday, 18 October 2020
pilzfund
H and I wandered a bit in the woods foraging for mushrooms, and while we didn’t really encounter anything that we were reasonably certain was edible and warranted collecting and later research, we found that the forest was ripening with all sorts of fungi, including Wood’s Ear (Auricularia auricula-judae—see previously and which we forgot again was safe for consumption and is widely used in China—I just don’t know about the texture and the prospect of picking one up) that was pretty widespread along the path and some more nice examples of fly agaric (Amanita muscaria, Fliegenpilz, see above).
A new variety that we had not encountered beforehand, however, were these colourful ones in the same family—sometimes referred to “verdigris agaric” called blue roundhead (Stropharia caerulea, der Grรผnblaue Trรคuschling)—the specific epithet caerulea being Latin for blue while for contemporary speakers it generally indicates a shade between azure and teal. Host trees are usually beeches (Buchen) and thrive in alkaline soils.Thursday, 8 October 2020
7x7
blood pudding: British public reject Magnus Pike’s (see previously) modest proposal as taboo
urban jungle: artist employs banana fibre cocoons for the Milan of our over-heated future
a fungus among us: Public Domain Review explores fungi, folklore and fairylandobject lesson: a 1937 experiment with remote learning to contain a polio outbreak
those speedy clouds: Alvin and the Chipmunks cover Phil Glass’ Koyaanisqatsi—see previously
maybe i’m immune: James Corden performs a soulful parody of the Paul McCartney ballad
the cask of amontillado: Spanish navy upholding tradition of ageing wine at sea, transporting a buttload of sherry around the world
Tuesday, 17 December 2019
palm house and parterre or bulletin of miscellaneous information

catagories: ๐, ๐ฑ, ๐ณ, ๐ต, ๐, ๐งฌ, environment, libraries and museums
Friday, 1 November 2019
pilzfund ii
Having had less success up until this point and a bit envious of neighbours who return after foraging with mushrooms by the crateload, H and I went exploring in the forest again and had some fortune gathering some edible specimens.
Careful to collect discriminately and not spoil the woodland ecology (responsible, surgical removal affords the chance for the fruiting body to regrow) and more careful research so as not to end up poisoning ourselves, we were able to identify, along with the usual fare, Goldrรถhrling (Suillus grevillea, the larch bolete—for the root of the tree it is often found), Steinpilze (previously) and Birkenpilze (Leccinum sabrum, the birch bolete) mostly.
Though by no means is this rule-of-thumb universal or not without exceptions but broadly, mushrooms with stalks and a spongy, porous underside of its cap, called boletes, literally from the Latin for edible mushroom—as opposed to gills underneath—can signify that it is safe for human consumption. Please, however, consult the experts before trying to harvest wild mushrooms and know how to contact poison-control, just in case.
Saturday, 19 October 2019
lion’s tooth
To discourage the agricultural practises that hold our environment in disdain the most—production of those staples for consumption in the West whose distribution network is so well established and seemingly seamless, that we as consumers can easily be blind to the human and ecological toll it exacts, a UK designer is developing a coffee substitute brewed from the roots of dandelions (previously here and here).
I’m a little skeptical and prepared for disappointment, inulin, the researcher’s target compound for extraction, we’re already familiar with in the form of chicory and camp coffee but the chemistry bears out and the roots do contain what’s metabolised as caffeine (my target compound) as well and would be willing to give it a try. It makes me wonder too how estranged in the first place might my beverage and its taste and aroma be already, encapsulated and shuttled through an inscrutable supply-chain estranged from the bean I associate with. The designer has additional, circular aspirations for composting the spent grains into a medium for home mushroom cultivation.
catagories: ☕, ๐ฑ, ๐, environment
Monday, 14 October 2019
gemeine stinkmorchel
Just honoured by the German Mycological Association (Deutsche Gesllschaft fรผr Mykologie, DGfM) as mushroom of the upcoming year, we were a bit excited to share a few prime specimens in the middle stages of development of the common stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus—that is, immodest and at least a relative thereof), widely recognised by dent of its signature carrion-like odour that attracts insects to spread the spores and its distinctive shape. Not pictured is its first egg-like stage (the immature ones are prized for their culinary value and supposed aphrodisiac qualities), but later growth with the stalk forming and an olive-coloured fruiting body known as the gleba. It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to work out the sort of folktales sprouted up around these toadstools.
Sunday, 13 October 2019
pilzfund
H and I went foraging for mushrooms recently and though we’re not averaging a good return on edible specimens from the field, we are getting exposed to quite the menagerie of woodland types of fungi during our scavenging.
For all of its rather Lynchian baggage, the wood ear is very much edible—if not a bit bland unseasoned, and is a staple for umami flavourant in Asian cuisine. Please click on the images for more detail. The pharmacological merit of the fungus is currently being studied, research suggesting that its palliative use in folk medicine was not far off.