An unstoppable mushroom is tearing through North American forests

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260325-an-unstoppable-mushroom-is-tearing-through-north-american-forests

94•1659447091•15h ago

Comments

ragall•11h ago

Here's one for "The last of us". The fungi will get us all.

RealityVoid•2h ago

In Interstellar as well, I think. The blight felt like a similar fungi.

jsmo•6h ago

TIL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleurotus_citrinopileatus

abcd_f•4h ago

The good news is that's edible and apparently tastes good.

voidUpdate•1h ago

Same with Kudzu, and apparently that's an unstoppable plant too

gessha•1h ago

Unstoppable until you acquire a bunch of goats.

rkomorn•1h ago

But what if your goats become unstoppable?

ssm008•1h ago

Apply wolves!

nucleardog•50m ago

But what if the wolves become unstoppable?

u8080•45m ago

If they became unstoppable, we'll need unstoppable humans! Wait~~

Akasazh•56m ago

Then you have found the goat

Asooka•55m ago

Goatherd's pie.

throwup238•33m ago

You start an unstoppable business cleaning up dams and freeways of brush.

moron4hire•27m ago

I would say that it's more accurate to say that kudzu is not poisonous. I definitely would not say it tastes good. It's got that "green plant" taste that you get from just chomping on any ol' leaf you might find. I mean, if you're poor and starving you could maaaaaybe survive on Kudzu, but it will be rough, it's not very calorie dense, even for a leafy green. Goats won't even eat it unless there is literally nothing else to eat. This whole, "oh you, can eat kudzu!" thing is just crunchy-mom Instagram influencer bullshit.

voidUpdate•7m ago

You might want to tell the japanese and vietnamese that it doesn't taste good then, they seem to have been using it as food for quite a while now

neomantra•3h ago

2026 was already quite interesting and now I have marked “Unstoppable Carnivorous Mushroom” on my Bingo Card.

coreyh14444•1h ago

Wikipedia: "The Last of Us is an action-adventure video game series and media franchise created by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.[a] The series is set in a post-apocalyptic United States ravaged by cannibalistic humans infected by a mutated fungus in the genus Cordyceps."

rwmj•1h ago

I don't recall if The Triffids were delicious when fried in a little butter.

trekkie99•2h ago

https://youtu.be/ZcJjMnHoIBI

Pine_Mushroom•1h ago

I had a mushroom farm in Northern Michigan some years ago and we grew Golden Oysters, among other species. I think our winters are too cold for them to really establish themselves, but I was hearing reports of them 'going native' in Southern Michigan as long ago as 15 years.

Like the farmer in the article, I also wondered about the apparent lack of effort in growing native species. My area has a wonderful native oyster Pleurotus populinus; exceptional in taste compared to other oysters, but I have never heard of anyone cultivating them.

3yr-i-frew-up•11m ago

I've been thinking about farming in Michigan. If global warming takes off, we should have a nice environment and plenty of water to grow...

I just can't imagine doing agriculture in 2026. I have a masters in Mechanical Engineering and 2 decades of experience. It just seems like something for uneducated people.

comrade1234•1h ago

A company grows these (and other mushrooms) in a warehouse here in Zurich to supply restaurants and grocery stores, which is probably one of the reasons these mushrooms are now found in the wild.

I "hunt" (in German you use the verb "collect/gather") mushrooms in the forests around Zurich and I haven't seen these yet. They also don't appear in my Pilzfürher app specific to Switzerland. But I have heard they are here. From pictures I've seen of them in the wild I might dismiss them from a distance because I could mix them up with two common yellow mushrooms here - one poisonous.

(I'm going out to search for morels this weekend)

endgame•37m ago

The verb I've most commonly heard for this activity in English is "forage". What's the equivalent German word?

saltybytes•12m ago

Thank you for clarifying!

The German term is "Pilze sammeln" which literally translates to: collect mushrooms.

There are many dialects of the German language - where I'm from, we would use "Schwammerl suchen" ("Schwammerl" as another term for "Pilz(e)"). This literally translates to: searching for mushrooms.

zikduruqe•32m ago

> I'm going out to search for morels this weekend

I don't have any addictions in my life, but one. That's when morel season is in swing, I am in full hunt mode.

eps•27m ago

A friend of mine went to a local mushroom picking course and among things they mentioned that morels are difficult to cook from fresh, because of the gastro problems. Apparently, the advice was to dry them before using in recipes.

What's up with that?

b00ty4breakfast•56m ago

Wonder if I'll be able to add a new entry to the list of "mushrooms that supposedly grow in my region but cannot be located within 100 sq miles of my home" soon.

3yr-i-frew-up•10m ago

Wonder if this will have the Wolf phenomena: Where wolf populations explode until there is no food left.

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