User:WB Frontier

Interesting Mushroom

I was playing golf in my backyard once and I hit a mushroom with the club, it looked white inside and common enough so I didn't pay it much attention, but when I came back 5 minutes later it was bright blue. I picked it up and snapped it and watched it turn from white to Prussian blue in about 20 seconds before my eyes.

The location was the Southern Highlands, NSW, Australia.

Does anyone know what kind of mushy it was? What chemicals are involved and how toxic is it?

Since I'm too lazy to move this to the sci desk, I'll just answer. The best match I've found is "Gyroporus cyanescens", aka the "blue-staining bolete" mushroom. There is a nice website about the mushroom complete with a video of the staining here. A google search for "Gyroporus cyanescens" yields several other sites. I haven't seen any sites specifically mention Australia as a habitat, but it seems to be widespread throughout N America and Europe. Hope it's what you're looking for! --Bmk 16:27, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

And btw, according to the cited site (how awkward), the chemical reaction is variegatic acid + oxygen + enzyme ==> quinone methide of variegatic acid. I'm no chemist, but that's what the site says. And it seems to say that it is good to eat, but for god's sake, don't eat it!!! It's very easy to misidentify mushrooms, and many of them are fatal to humans. Just don't eat it. It isn't worth the risk. --Bmk 17:16, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

Many Psilocybe species also stain blue, so you may have found yourself some magic mushrooms. —Keenan Pepper 06:22, 22 August 2006 (UTC)