Unsupervised use of psilocybin, or “magic mushrooms,” has accelerated among all age groups in the United States, but especially among adolescents and people 30 and older, a new study found.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/21/health/psilocybin-use-poison-calls-wellness/index.html
Antique hammers specifically designed for this task... Interesting.
They did publish a study on this...
Google Translation of this:
"Shiori Toki, Hiroki Ishihara, Chiemi Iida: Effects of timber tapping on dried shiitake mushroom log cultivation Kyushu Forest Research 73: 143-145, 2020 In dried shiitake mushroom log cultivation, watering and felling the logs to promote shiitake mushroom emergence are called emergence operations. One of these is the tapping process, in which the logs are tapped after rainfall or while being watered. There are cases where the amount of emergence is secured by performing bed raising in the first year after inoculation and tapping in the second year at production sites. However, there are no concrete examples of the emergence effect of tapping. In this study, we investigated the effect of tapping on shiitake mushroom emergence in a one-year raising test and a tapping method examination test. In the one-year raising test, the amount of emergence increased with tapping, but the effect on the quality and the diameter of the mushroom umbrella was small. In the test to examine the method of striking, it was found that the amount of occurrence increased with the number of times the trees were struck, and that the amount of occurrence tended to increase when the end of the tree was struck rather than the bark."
Sora News: "Strange as it may sound, the technique has been a bit of folk wisdom for some time, and the Oita Prefectural Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries Research Guidance Center recently confirmed that hammer time really does help lead to mushroom time.
Last month, the organization conducted an experiment, comparing the effects of hitting a log with a hammer versus leaving it un-smacked, and found that the wood that had been hammered subsequently produced more than twice as much shiitake (by weight). "
Okay, today I learned that part of the traditional Japanese method of growing Shiitake mushrooms is hitting logs with hammers. Apparently they whack the logs infused with the mushrooms to "trigger" the growth of the mushrooms (apparently the theory is that the mushrooms appear when the tree falls over). I have no idea if there is any actual science behind it, but...
They even sell special Shiitake mushroom hammers. 🤯
Suillus cavipes
https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Suillus_cavipes.html
Ecology: Mycorrhizal with larch (species of Larix, especially Larix decidua); growing alone or gregariously; fall; originally described from (and neotypified from) Austria; distributed in northern and montane Eurasia, where the host trees occur. The illustrated and described collection is from Alpine Italy.
Cap: 4-9 cm; convex at first, becoming broadly convex; dry; densely hairy to sub-scaly with whitish to brown hairs and fibrils; yellowish brown, reddish brown, or brown; featuring white partial veil remnants on the margin.
Pore Surface: Yellow; not bruising; pores angular and radially arranged, about 1-2 mm across; tubes to 5 mm deep.
Stem: 3-6 cm long; 1.5-3 cm thick; equal or slightly club-shaped; yellow and bald toward the apex; brown and velvety below; with a fragile white ring; hollow; basal mycelium white.
Flesh: White; not staining on exposure.
Odor and Taste: Not distinctive.
Spore Print: Olive brown.
Microscopic Features: Spores 7-10 x 3-3.5 m; boletoid-fusiform; smooth; yellowish in KOH. Basidia 25-28 x 4-5 m; clavate; 4-sterigmate. Cystidia 45-60 x 5-10; cylindric or subfusiform; thin-walled; smooth; hyaline to yellowish in KOH. Pileipellis a cutis of elements 5-20 m wide, smooth, hyaline to brownish in KOH, septate; with aggregations of upright hyphae; terminal cells cylindric to fusiform.
#mushrooms #fungi #mycology #shrooms #mushtodon #sporespondence #floraspondence
Fomes fomentarius
https://www.mushroomexpert.com/Fomes_fomentarius.html
Ecology: Parasitic and saprobic on the wood of hardwoods (especially birches and beech); causing a white rot; growing alone or gregariously; perennial; fairly widely distributed in northern and north-temperate North America
Cap: Up to about 20 cm across; shell-shaped to hoof-shaped; with a dull, woody upper surface that is zoned with gray and brownish gray.
Pore Surface: Brownish; 2-5 round pores per mm; tube layers indistinct, brown, becoming stuffed with whitish material.
Stem: Absent.
Flesh: Brownish; thin; hard.
Microscopic Features: Spores 12-20 x 4-7 ; cylindric; inamyloid; smooth. Hyphal system trimitic.
#mushrooms #fungi #mycology #shrooms #mushtodon #sporespondence #floraspondence
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