Trees and fungi…
Last year, in an effort to diversify my social opportunities, I joined a local mycology society. Unfortunately their regular speaking events land on a night I’m otherwise occupied, and their forays fill up so quickly that I haven’t yet been able to get on the list. Nevertheless, I find myself, like others over the past decade, with a growing interest in fungi.
Though I’ve purchased books, and read a few, the puzzle of this biological kingdom still eludes me. What exactly are mushrooms, and what do they have to do with ecology, cycles of life, and human cultural development? Apparently it’s more than meets the eye. In the book The Secret Life of Trees, the author describes mycelium (that’s fungus) as facilitating a kind of communication network across trees roots through the subterrain vastness of the forest which enables trees to send signals or messages to each other. Do I know this as a fact? No. Is it intriguing if true? Yes. The author of The Secret Life of Trees argues that deforestation removes that mycelium network with the trees and when the mountains are replanted the network is not replaced and the forest is not as healthy and dynamic in its response to environmental stressors. If this is true (and if I summarized it somewhat correctly) it’s amazing! It implies that there are collective behaviors of plants we don’t really understand, and what is mycelium or how is it a part of this function? Fascinating.
Amanita muscaria…
So far I’ve only mentioned plants with respect to fungi. Let’s talk about people, and since this is a winter focused blog, let’s talk people and Christmas. With the current growing interest in mushrooms, many who are delving into this topic have been reminded or made aware that the symbol of the red mushroom with white spots has been associated with Christmas for a very long time. The red capped with white spots mushroom is called the Amanita Muscaria, and if you need to verify the classic Christmas association with this mushroom just go to Google Images and search for “Santa Amanita muscaria”. Why are Christmas colors red and white? It isn’t just Coca Cola marketing. Shamans of the far northern regions ranging from Finland to Siberia collected the red and white Amanita muscaria mushrooms from under evergreen trees around the time of the winter solstice. They would then dry the mushrooms in socks near the fire before ceremonial use……..evergreen trees, socks by the fire….sounds like Christmas to me. If this bit of speculative anthropology is correct, it seems clear to me that the Amanita muscaria had an influence over the Christmas tradition that carries on today.
The Amanita muscaria is a striking figure. The white stem and rounded white spotted red cap is the fruiting body of the mushroom. It looks like it came straight out of a fairy tale. Its image begs for the addition of a frowny toad, a slimy snail, and a cheeky fairy. It’s a fungi that can be found all over the world, and it’s connected with the tree roots of birch, pine, and spruce. Mostly notably, Amanita muscaria is psychoactive. It’s dangerous to consume and there are more toxic (read: deadly) relatives of this fungi. There are historical accounts of explorers partaking of Amantia muscaria in traditional shamanic ceremonies, but the cultures that once performed shamanic rituals with mushrooms have faded, declined, or otherwise abandoned the practice.
I am spellbound by this winter mystery. It’s incredible that we bipedal, communicative, highly mobile, sophisticated human creatures may be so hijacked by this “simple” life form that its symbolism, its representation takes a prominent seat during one of our most beloved and popularly celebrated holidays. Sometimes the dynamics of terrestrial life are not so obvious to me, and I wonder, do we use the natural world, do we have dominion over it, or does it use us? Perhaps we are so interlinked, us using and manipulating nature and it manipulating us back, that we cannot ever really be sure which creature has the most influence over the other. Merry mushroomy Christmas to you!
Source links…
North Spore: https://northspore.com/blogs/the-black-trumpet/what-does-amanita-muscaria-have-to-do-with-christmas
Bridgetown Mushrooms: https://bridgetown-mushrooms.com/blogs/learning/amanita-muscaria-the-mushroom-behind-christmas-lore
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