Some Mushrooms in the World Drive You Crazy – but insect feasts are the target #poem #poetry #poems #mushroom

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http://mushroomobserver.org/

Many kinds of mushrooms

Occupy the lands,

Genetics lets a scientist

Distinguish distant aunts.

Perhaps a virus grabbed some genes,

Transferred them here from there.

Horizontal gene transfer

Could explain this share.

More than once these fungi

Have made a wild find,

Psilocybin chemicals

That alter human minds.

But that can’t be the reason

‘shrooms would develop this,

They sure don’t care if you or I

Are sent upon a trip.

What good does psilocybin do

For a mushroom fighting rivals?

Suppresses insect appetites!

Ensures its spores’ survival!

Kate Rauner

Since highs are often associated with the munchies in us humans, I thought it was funny that this chemical might suppress appetite in bugs. Thanks to livescience for this hypothesis, and also for an article on the possibility that psilocybin may relieve depression in cancer patients.

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Psychoactive mushrooms grow around the world