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Mushrooms are aboveground fungal fruiting bodies composed of a stem, cap, and spores that live either as saprophytes, parasites, or mycorrhizal symbionts. They are high in protein, low in calories, and contain vitamins and trace minerals. Mushrooms can be edible, medicinal, hallucinogenic, and poisonous. Forays for edible wild mushrooms are most common in Europe, China, and Japan. Mushrooms were considered the poor person's equivalent of meat in Eastern Europe and Russia. There is no difference between a toadstool and a mushroom. According to folk beliefs, a toadstool is poisonous while mushrooms are edible.
Mushrooms are considered magical and mysterious. They appear suddenly, often after rain and lack both leaves and a distinct root system. Additionally, their occurrence on decaying material led medieval people to fear them. Wood infected with Armillaria mellea is phosphorescent and emits a weak green light when moist. This wood was used to mark forest paths in Scandinavia, was carried at night in trenches during World War I, and may possibly be the "magic wand” of folklore. And, it was thought that mushrooms came from bolts of lightning, fairies, witches, or falling stars.
Mushrooms and other fungi have been used for medicinal purposes since the early ages. Spores of puffballs were packed into wounds or nostrils to staunch the flow of blood from cuts and nosebleeds. The 5,000-year-old Iceman, found in Italy, was carrying a birch polypore (mostly likely for internal parasites) and a tinder polypore (for fire-starting). Polypores are also known as bracket (or shelf) fungi or conks. Daldinia concentrina, known as the cramp ball because of its shape, was believed that it would alleviate cramps if worn in a bag or pocket. Penicillin is an antibiotic that comes from fungi belonging to the genus Penicillium. Ergot, caused by Claviceps purpurea, was and is still used to induce contractions of the uterus. However, ergot poisoning (by consumption of ergot-infected grain) became known as Saint Anthony's fire and historians have debated about its involvement in the Bubonic Plague during the Middle Ages and also during witch trials.
Siberian tribes consumed the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria); urine from those intoxicated by the mushroom was saved for later consumption. An American mycologist suggested that characteristics of some Siberian midwinter ceremonies may be connected to the present day features of Santa Claus. A tribal shaman would enter the yurt, Siberian dwelling, through the smoke hole in the roof carrying a sack filled with dried fly agarics or derived urine, perform a ceremony, and climb back out through the smoke hole. People believed this shaman could fly or that he rode a flying reindeer. Santa Claus, as we know him, is robed in red and white (the color of the fly agaric), enters the chimney, can fly in sleigh pulled by reindeer, carries gifts in a sack, and lives at the North Pole.
The mushroom has played an important role in cultures throughout the world and across the ages.
Raini Rippy is an Extension forester for OSU Extension Service in Douglas County. She can be reached by e-mail at raini.rippy@oregonstate.edu or at 541-672-4461.
Mushrooms are considered magical and mysterious. They appear suddenly, often after rain and lack both leaves and a distinct root system. Additionally, their occurrence on decaying material led medieval people to fear them. Wood infected with Armillaria mellea is phosphorescent and emits a weak green light when moist. This wood was used to mark forest paths in Scandinavia, was carried at night in trenches during World War I, and may possibly be the "magic wand” of folklore. And, it was thought that mushrooms came from bolts of lightning, fairies, witches, or falling stars.
Mushrooms and other fungi have been used for medicinal purposes since the early ages. Spores of puffballs were packed into wounds or nostrils to staunch the flow of blood from cuts and nosebleeds. The 5,000-year-old Iceman, found in Italy, was carrying a birch polypore (mostly likely for internal parasites) and a tinder polypore (for fire-starting). Polypores are also known as bracket (or shelf) fungi or conks. Daldinia concentrina, known as the cramp ball because of its shape, was believed that it would alleviate cramps if worn in a bag or pocket. Penicillin is an antibiotic that comes from fungi belonging to the genus Penicillium. Ergot, caused by Claviceps purpurea, was and is still used to induce contractions of the uterus. However, ergot poisoning (by consumption of ergot-infected grain) became known as Saint Anthony's fire and historians have debated about its involvement in the Bubonic Plague during the Middle Ages and also during witch trials.
Siberian tribes consumed the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria); urine from those intoxicated by the mushroom was saved for later consumption. An American mycologist suggested that characteristics of some Siberian midwinter ceremonies may be connected to the present day features of Santa Claus. A tribal shaman would enter the yurt, Siberian dwelling, through the smoke hole in the roof carrying a sack filled with dried fly agarics or derived urine, perform a ceremony, and climb back out through the smoke hole. People believed this shaman could fly or that he rode a flying reindeer. Santa Claus, as we know him, is robed in red and white (the color of the fly agaric), enters the chimney, can fly in sleigh pulled by reindeer, carries gifts in a sack, and lives at the North Pole.
The mushroom has played an important role in cultures throughout the world and across the ages.
Raini Rippy is an Extension forester for OSU Extension Service in Douglas County. She can be reached by e-mail at raini.rippy@oregonstate.edu or at 541-672-4461.
