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Agarikon

The fungus Fomitopsis officinalis has a long history of use in North America and elsewhere, both as medicine and as a medium of ritualistic art. Read about Agarikon and its uses, and follow Fungi Perfecti President Paul Stamets on a successful expedition to find this rare mushroom.

Mushrooms as Sacred Objects in North America

Although surely many Native American peoples were experts on fungi, we have little knowledge of how they used them, particularly the more ephemeral mushrooms. Here’s a primer on three different bracket fungi (conks) used by some native peoples.

The fungus you want in your walls

Fungi are good at binding stuff with their filamentous cells. Now a group of New York entrepreneurs at Ecovative is producing sustainable packaging and insulation based on agricultural wastes bound by fungal mycelium. So instead of petroleum-based styrofoam, they can grow us some packing materials in whatever shape we like.

Dyeing with Lichens & Mushrooms

This post was written by PLPA 309 student Randi W., who encouraged our class to try dyeing and collected some Pycnoporus, too. Did you know that fungi can be used to make dyes? Perhaps that lovely carpet your grandmother had in her living room was dyed with lichens early in the 20th century? That’s right! […]