XPost: alt.drugs.psychedelics   
   From: riburr@shentel.net   
      
   dwheeler@ipns.com wrote:   
   > Frederick Burroughs wrote:   
   >   
   >>I have harvested a Gymnopilus sp. from the local forest for several   
   >>years in a row.  I am very surprised to find it fruiting this year, as   
   >>it is *very* dry.  I am tempted to leave it alone, because it is a   
   >>survivor, and because of its courage in the face of drought.  It is an   
   >>anomaly to see it when no other mushrooms are evident.  Very strange.  I   
   >>would never have thought it would fruit under these very dry conditions.   
   >>   
   >>I plan to forage for other drought survivors this weekend, out of   
   >>curiosity.  The Maitake, Grifola frondosa, is completely absent from the   
   >>usual places I find it.   
   >>   
   >   
   > Not so surprising to me. Gymnopilus typically grows on wood,   
   > apparently. Wood organisms can absorb a lot of moisture just by   
   > increased humidity in the air. And they have a lot more surface area   
   > to obtain moisture from. In fact the breakdown of wood by fungi   
   > produces even more water. When the log is lying on the forest floor,   
   > it is able to obtain even more water from the simple variable of   
   > shade. A difference of a few degrees in temperature is enough for some   
   > fungi to obtain sufficient water to fruit with. Maybe not abundantly,   
   > but a few sporocarps nonetheless.   
   >   
      
   I'll *try* to get a picture of these things.  They are fruiting in as   
   large a cluster as I've seen from them, despite the fact that it is   
   bone, dusty dry.  I need to be discrete, given the *nature* of this   
   mushroom.  Though, in fact, I don't know anybody besides myself with any   
   interest in it.  (This mushroom has proved to be *definitely* psychoactive.)   
      
   They appear to be coming from the ground, but I know there used to be a   
   large tree stump where they are growing.  The stump has rotted to ground   
   level.  I find Laetiporus cincinnatus growing in the same place/stump,   
   but not this year; too dry.   
      
      
   --   
   I can tell your future just look what's in your hand...   
      
   - Robert Hunter   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)