I wanna talk about this with others who’ve experienced a similar experience. The “grid” in the sky when you take mushrooms. This is only for people who’ve seen it so please do not comment if you haven’t seen it before.
Found this in my backyard, heavily wooded area with ample creatures. Deer, squirrels, birds, foxes, raccoons, chipmunks etc.
is this a mushroom or something else!?
Not sure about 3 on the top right
Hey everyone!
Long-time lurker here. I’ve always been fascinated by the intersection of hardware and biology, so I wanted to share a fun DIY project I've been experimenting with in my kitchen lab.
This actually started as a research project of mine back in 2022. I was looking into how different microbial cultures react to environmental stimuli, and I became obsessed with the principle of light-inhibited growth—essentially using light to control mycelium development into precise visual patterns.
After a lot of tweaking since then (and way too many contaminated agar plates), I finally managed to turn that concept into a compact, functional setup!
How it works: Instead of using mechanical nozzles like a standard 3D printer, it uses light as an invisible, non-invasive barrier. Since certain fungal strains are sensitive to light exposure, I can project specific light patterns onto the culture medium. It basically tells the mycelium, "Hey, don't grow in the bright areas, but feel free to spread over in the dark."
The current setup: To get the best contrast, I’ve been testing different combinations of dry-powder agar mixtures for quick activation, utilizing standard petri dishes and disposable inoculating loops. I also put together a modular frame to house the culture and hold the light source perfectly in place.
I’m just treating this as a fun bio-art and maker experiment right now, but I wanted to bring it to the real experts here to get your thoughts:
Would love to hear your feedback or just nerd out about bio-art with you all! 🙌
The Core Issue
*Lanmaoa asiatica*, a bolete fungus from Yunnan, China, has been making people see miniature elves, gnomes, and clowns for as long as locals can remember. Western science mostly ignored this, filing it away as "mushroom madness." A PhD student at the University of Utah decided to take it seriously.
The Finding
Colin Domnauer traveled to both China and the northern Philippines, collected samples, and ran full genomic and chemical screens on *L. asiatica*. No psilocybin. No known psychoactive compounds at all. Whatever is causing these hallucinations appears to be something science has never catalogued before.
Why It Matters
Lilliputian hallucinations (clinically defined visions of tiny people) also show up in alcohol withdrawal, dementia, and Charles Bonnet syndrome. Until now, researchers had no reliable, consistent way to study them. This mushroom may provide exactly that, offering a repeatable research model for a brain phenomenon nobody currently understands.
Limitations of Study
Mouse trials show clear bioactive effects, including hyperactivity followed by a stupor-like state, but whether that maps onto what humans experience is unknown. The effective dose is also undefined, hospital records may only reflect the worst cases, and the active compound still hasn't been isolated.
Interesting Statistics
• 90% of people who eat the mushroom report seeing hundreds to thousands of highly-detailed miniature figures
• Hallucinations begin 12 to 24 hours after eating and can last several days
• Hospital reports show zero deaths and no abnormalities in vital organ function
• The same species was confirmed independently in both China and the northern Philippines
• The mushroom was being sold in Yunnan markets for decades before scientists formally identified it as its own species in 2015
TL;DR
A wild mushroom that reliably makes people hallucinate tiny people appears to work through a completely unknown compound, and finding it could open a new window into how the brain generates one of its strangest experiences.
I almost walked right past these.
One thing I’ve noticed since I started hiking is my AuDHD brain is weirdly good at spotting the tiny stuff. Mushrooms the size of my fingernail? Instantly. Where I left my car keys? That’s a different investigation.
These little guys completely made my day. It’s funny how something so small can make you stop and just… appreciate being outside for a minute.
Anyone know what they are?
How do I even go about transferring the colonies to my Petri dishes? They’re on soggy, mouldy tissue paper with a bunch of old oats.
We have been converting our woodland yard into an almost entirely native landscape, leaving the natives we inherited when we bought the house two years ago and pulling out the problematic stuff (SO. MUCH. MUGWORT. But also tons of beautiful wood and blue aster!).
About a week ago, we noticed that our yard began to smell like someone had tried to cover the smell of a rotting animal carcass with mothballs and lilac spray (seriously, it’s like a vinegary-death smell with floral notes). We had a hidden dead animal problem last summer (solved: it was two squirrels under our now-demolished shed) so thought it might be the same. I have been sniffing every known and possible woodchuck burrow to see if maybe one died in there but to no avail.
Last night, we finally tracked it down to this patch of unknown sprouts/shoots. I have tried to identify it via Picture This and every descriptive term I can think of in a Google search. Does anyone know what this is? Should I be concerned? Do I need to set this whole patch of my yard on fire (kidding)?
The mystery of the scent has been driving me batty, but now that I have found the source, I’m still at a loss as to what it is and what, if anything, I should do to remediate it. Any help is greatly appreciated.
TL;DR what is this foul-smelling stand of mystery shoots/fungi in my yard?
(In RI, zone 6B)
So, I was misting as usual & found this little guy in my green anole Belle Pepper's tank(fully bioactive been going for about 2 months now, live plants, isopods, springtails, the whole shebang). Is it safe to just leave him in there, or should I remove him?
mods, feel free to remove if this violates rule #4. 🥲
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South Ontario, Canada, near enough to Toronto. Not 100% certain what used to be there, but I think it may have been a smokebush?
The mushroom is stiff, but squishier after mom wet it. It smells very mushroomy. It seems to have rings to its flesh, looking from the nonexistent "stem" end, and the flesh itself is somewhat fibrous, it peels away in strips. Edit: This is on the edge of my back yard, the tree was growing into the fence.
Thanks in advance!!
1-5 Psilocybe zapotecorum
6-8 Psilocybe caerulescens
9-10 Psilocybe mexicana
11-13 Psilocybe cubensis
14-16 Psilocybe subtropicalis
17 P. mexicana and P. subtropicalis
18 mexicana, subtropicalis, caerulescens, cubensis and zapotecorum
Veracruz, México
Found on decaying stump in northern Kentucky. Trying to ID the organism on the right. The closest thing I’m familiar with is Tubifera ferruginosa. But I’m used to them being uniform color throughout. Clusters are about dime size with individual fruiting bodies ~1mm.