Sac Fungi of New Zealand

Psilocybe weraroa & Clavogaster virescens are both fungi that have evolved the peculiar morphological habit of producing mushrooms with caps that don't open to expose their gills to the surrounding atmosphere.
In this episode we explore the dark wet temperate rainforests of New Zealand's North Island, inspecting a liverwort that fluoresces bright blue under ultraviolet light, a vine that turns into a tree & peculiar fungi.
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Thanks, GFY.

[@brotomann]

This entire series has been amazing. I could watch you and Alan scrounge around in the dirt for hours. You have a lovely dynamic.

[@katiekane5247]

They are entertaining 🤣 Learning should always be this much fun!

[@greatestytcommentator]

I was asking oround to see if there was a Myco version of the 'Strain Hunters' series.. This is shaping up perfectly.

[@infowarriorone]

Alan is da best. 👍

[@tonyloxton1965]

My 4 yr old daughter and I watch and love it. They make learning a joy for both of us.

[@christiansky942]

"Hey!" 🤠

[@markwilliams8538]

So appreciating having you here putting a spotlight on NZ. Sadly these days the majority of us seem to have our heads down eyes glued to a cellphone rather than taking time to experience what Godzone has on offer. And dam she has a lot to offer.

[@libalj]

It looks like an overripe tick or grub. Maybe they are trying to look like that to get birds to eat them.

[@thepocketmonsterfamily2007]

I have learned so much from watching you over the last few years. Thank you.

[@Eighthplanetglass]

That moss alone was something new for me! How cool

[@rockyrivermushrooms529]

always love the Fungi Crossover episodes!

[@theMusiCandMedicinE]

Such wonderful plants and fungi in that forest. A real pleasure to explore it a bit via your videos 💚

[@EnglishDave6767]

Ahh yeah, love this! Looking after my friend’s place, & they have a really nice garden, with a fantastic tree fern. Been establishing a cyanescens patch for them. Fascinated by the evolutionary history of those NZ secotioid Pscilosybes. Thanks & Cheers, from Southern Oregon. 👍

[@cacogenicist]

Tree ferns hang in there in SW Oregon? Must be close to the ocean, I would guess. Yeah, hmm, I bet they would do well around Gold Beach and points south.

[@joshuabecker6799]

Watching you street-talk through primordial forest has been a trip! Just like a human I thought of how tasty that bird must be.😊

[@TheJamesRedwood]

Yeah, they are protected now but were a staple food for Mãori.

[@TheJamesRedwood]

Your passion is so infectious. It is a delight to hear. I thought I loved our bush but you have shown me how much I take it for granted when I see it through your eyes. Kia ora.

[@Zeebez]

Seriously my fav shit on all of the internet. ❤ and Alan’s vibe is so chill. I’ve learned so much from you guys. Come visit Southern Indiana. Ya fak

[@przyrodawmieszkaniu2887]

I love your channel. Feels like I am walking and looking at the fungi and plants together with you. So nice!

[@sativaburns6705]

Beautiful! I haven't eaten a lot of mushrooms, but I recently started growing cubes. A couple of grams of these albino P. E. Sent me on quite a vacation. I have a hard time imagining stronger, that's nuts.

[@clairebuckley7377]

Are u guys coming down to the South Island? My fav place to wander is at Blacks Point, only 2 hrs drive from where i live So lush 🌳🌳🌳💚

[@noelbreitenbach8673]

So neat how many psilo mushrooms there are in the world

[@wingdingdmetrius8025]

also mescaline producing cactuses

[@cacogenicist]

Definitely more than we have names for.

[@grahamstevens9642]

'here's a properly munted one"! classic -I love it,

[@ross1972]

I always thought these sack fungi were ugly but now I know more about them and seen them sliced open I see them in a different light. Im also imagining black birds paralised and taking some psychidalic internal journey haha.

[@BREEP.]

Such an awesome episode. Thank you as always!!! ❤️

[@Frank-dv4zu]

love Alan, he is the best

[@d0onut]

When Alan cut the weraroa, a tiny mite went straight for the gills lol

[@z1z2z3z]

"c'mon, don't be shy, WHERE ARE YOU GOIN'?!"

[@DiscretionaryLobotomy]

Someone oughtta buy you a burrito for these fantastic videos

[@frankbrake7689]

Secidiod fungi looks like those lil cell phones they got in the pin. My uncle Rick used to say his son has one ,but he doesn't ask him where he keeps it.

[@elijahrevell8549]

been loving these videos, cool to see some local content on our natives. will be keeping an eye out, went for a forage yesterday after seeing this. am keen to find some weraroa have def found the cross breed one in the other vid but back when i thought they were all just gold tops. now i know a few types i mainly find Psilocybe azurescens and Psilocybe cyanescens

[@foreverjim5240]

I love these mushroom videos. If y'all see any of the ones that can kill you, i would like to see more about them. Are there any good ways to tell what mushrooms are dangerous?

[@supremehcourt]

The "common wood-pigeon" at 29:56 is actually a kererū or New Zealand pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae)! And they are actually heavier than a standard size 7 basketball.

[@DrowSkinned]

Those giant ferns and mosses are terrifying

[@katiekane5247]

Do our favorite guys a solid & let the ads play. Where else you gonna find content like this? Awesome stuff again, loving this series.

[@floorskin1]

Be careful not to take clavogaster virescens thinking they are P Weraroa Very similar in appearance. Could end up taking a trip, to the hospital.

[@ditlee6071]

Great friggin vid dere Stoked for your travels Tanks for sharing

[@murockey]

That pigeon at 30:00 is Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae

[@HANKthebastrd]

awesome series!! i hope you keep coming south!!

[@End0morphin]

Awesome Pukatea …..contains pukateine , dopaminergic compound, can be good for pain, not a direct a direct opioid agonist like some early conjecture , but my conjecture def poss indirect or biphasic opioidergic activity given the close nature of opiate/ dopamine ( ventral tegmental mesolimbic ) the bark extract has a pleasant aroma, very potent bioactivity when internally tested, topical application helped my wife through a nasty painful rash of unknown cause fascinating conversations and information fellas! Brilliant actually

[@matthewfulghum1438]

Evolutionary selection... nice

[@Hemigoblin]

I just listened tonight to one of your latest podcasts, and you said that you got into botany mainly through internet in conifers, and branched out from there. That made it click for me how in so many videos you talk about “Doug Fir” like he’s an old friend of yours. Because he is.

[@cmpe43]

Thanks Joey!

[@robrod7120]

Cant help myself from thinking about swollen ticks when seeing p. weraroa

[@timwhiting6721]

I had wood lovers paralysis, iiterally was getting sucked underground, and i was able to communicate with the trees and the grass . It was scary , but once it went away , it was quite enoyable and it squashed my build up of everyday b.s.

[@timwhiting6721]

Hey ma' , the meatloaf ; where's the meatloaf ?

[@apemancommeth8087]

Is he paid to do this or is he just living life to the fullest! There’s nothing more enjoyable than to explore a new habitat and seeing all sorts of weird and unusual forms of life!

[@inefffable]

Psychedelic snails 🐌 Very cool video:)

[@timway6839]

I must have missed that bit

[@gd2234_]

I visited family a month after the cyclone that wrecked the north island. All the places I wanted to go were restricted to locals (enforced), couldn’t be reached cause the roads collapsed, were closed temporarily, or closed permanently due to Covid. Hope you didn’t run into those issues, shit was wild for a while

[@slocoast5]

Another awesome video.

[@End0morphin]

Awesome centimeter ruler dude

[@Misterfox444]

Alan colabs are #1.

[@VCheesey]

If there are a million people watching these weraroa videos, I am one of them. If there is one, I am that one. If nobody is, I am dead. If the world is against all these videos, I am against the world.

[@DRChupacabrah]

very cool specimen at 9:20, nice pluck job haha

[@NewZealandWild]

How strange to see Psilocybe weraroa or Clavogaster virescens growing from wood. Tree fern stumps often decompose to humus near the base so I can get seeing them there, but I've only ever seen them growing from soil.

[@herbbirdsfoot]

Some ferns similar to that Pyrrosia species have leaves that are iridescent blue (structural color), like the blue you see on the wings of morpho butterfly (maybe not quite as intense as a morpho, but still very cool!). Not sure if there are such species in NZ but … maybe?

[@diegop2311]

Thanks for the knowledge

[@josephprimavera2545]

Love your videos.

[@detritic]

"How many would you need to get st- eh, to feel anything"

[@greatestytcommentator]

10:00 Looks for all my knowledge like 2 Cubensis pins on the same lump... Wow...just WOW

[@PureCoKayne]

If you're still in the area, there's a geothermal tourist spot somewhere along that 14(?)km volcanic crack made by the tarawera ranges. Has a lake you can look at which changes colour. I can't remember the time of year I went, but it was the exact same blue as those mushrooms. Wish I was interested in fungi back then, I would have kept an eye out. woah waoh woah wait up a minute, the bloody plants are lighting up too? jesus christ i've been playing spotlight wrong

[@jedmoser]

It’s called wood lovers paralysis, but I’ve experienced this from azurescens grown in sand at the beach

[@PaulG.x]

The pustules of the forest floor!

[@GeraldBlack1]

Better start with 1/2 of that one and wait an hour 😂

[@greatestytcommentator]

Within 24 hours of landing in NZ, I was chewing up a big Blue Meanie (Weraroa) with a gorgeous Cheese and Ham Pie.. Best mushroo, experience ever

[@TheWatching11]

That chonky kereru (wood pigeon)! I hope you made it down to south island/west coast.

[@Ressurrectinn]

You've come during the wettest time I can ever remember, so far this year my area has received over 4 meters (13ft). We are now entering our normally wettest period... what the fuck

[@karlashdown5228]

So glad as someone who has watched this channel for some time to see my country being recognised for it's unique Flora & Fungi shame my Maori ancestors hunted the Moa Birds to near extinction for food & my European ancestors,(Who didn't arrive in Aotearoa until well after extinction), Hunted them to total extinction to farm sheep or destroy habitats wholesale for industry as there are oral reports & many not put to writing of Moa still being around in the 19th century & shot out of fear probably last of species very sad.

[@checkeredcheese]

That pigeon is an amazing specimen. Compare that to what you find in London, it's hilarious.

[@_c_y_p_3]

Beautiful little fellas, I have seen corvids pickup just about anything and everything and drop it in strange places. I could absolutely see a magpie pick that up, not sure how the corvids act there but here in Sweden they carry everything everywhere compulsively.

[@frankmacleod2565]

Excellent

[@cmur078]

I know you're mostly interested in the small stuff, but if that was the biggest rimu you'd seen you should go to Whirinaki. The trees there are insane. Never logged I believe. Went on a tramp there with my mum at the beginning of the year, and I'm really more of a bird guy, don't know a lot about plants (went down for the whio mostly), but the trees were so great. Just standing under stuff that size was impressive. Also got stung by an ongaonga for the first time, and could still clearly feel it like two days later, so that's an interesting plant. Wouldn't have wanted to get much more contact with that one...

[@Kimberly-g2w6m]

Reminds me a lot of corn smut!

[@vampsprite69]

the habitats in Aotearoa are absolutely stunning and i really appreciate being able to see the details of the life there :)

[@cacogenicist]

Yeah, now I'm entirely convinced that the WLP is a genetic variant-thing in section Cyan/Sub. Maybe a SNP. Don't think it's a substrate thing. We just need to compare full genomes I reckon -- frequent WLP-producing patches vs non.

[@infared54321]

Alan is the best

[@ShunNiikura]

Wow! Dawsonia superba! 😍 More bryophytes pls!

[@matthewwagner47]

They look realy strong. Could you eat them raw or should you dry them first.

[@thomasdantas]

I’d love to hear Allen talk about the interaction between Cryptosporus and bark beetles

[@samwhitney9049]

You should come down to Wellington 🍄

[@ClarkAfterDark1111]

filmy ferns all over the forest floor

[@locke6531]

🙌

[@GregoryMcBride-qf7hx]

4-ho-tmt (tmt means trimethyltyptamine) or 4-po-tmt is almost certainly responsible for the paralysis

[@greatestytcommentator]

I just asked the other day if you were heading these ways.. Spooky Place.. Weraroa there? Nice.

[@adambaxter2294]

Metrosideros robusta action how good

[@infowarriorone]

Psilocybes make nicer people, nice.

[@Grimm-Gaming]

No wonder Kiwis don't fly.. there trippin balls.

[@RAM1500_NatureLuvr]

What's with the video quality/resolution options? No 1440p or 4k resolution available? A "1080p enhanced bitrate" option that requires KZbin Premium? The 1080p also looks noticeably worse than previous videos. Did something happen to the upload or camera that you used compared to the other NZ videos, or is this KZbin degrading in front of my eyes?

[@swayback7375]

Early viewers don’t get full quality content, rewatch it now and see if it’s better

[@RAM1500_NatureLuvr]

@@swayback7375 It's still the same for me sadly.

[@gandalfandferg280]

P. weraroa also grows out of Melicytus ramiflorus. I think that's what you're seeing.

[@dawie4853]

No idea if it will work, but am about to sprinkle some psilosyben spores on a piece of decomposing wood feom the Newlands forest - walking sistance from here. I have a keep spot for it so lets see if i can pull this stunt off.

[@Mynameismudd67]

I have wondered if the wood lovers paralysis is caused by a bacteria. My experience with it on home grown cyanescens has been only with older mushrooms that when dried smell differently.

[@bruhmomente7324]

Hi!. Is it possible that grayanotoxin or something from the trees and mycorrhizal system could be leaching into the mushrooms?. Monotropa uniflora contains grayanotoxin like metabolites but acts as an analgesic & nervine, as opposed to something like Nepalese honey which is inebriating & used as a tonic.

[@MrSharps02]

you gotta bring a bird guy with you on these trips! might be easier to just find a particularly tolerant one and follow them around though

[@gesus44]

IMO, Whereroa is not really any fun, yeah it might get you tripped out but the only fun part is knowing that you are not dead...

[@jakeupton7906]

my money in on some type of anti-cholinergic effects leading to "wood lovers paralysis". Iv experienced it myself, only after chronic use, "multiple day in a row". Never as an acute effect after a single dose, although i'v never taken a dramatically large singular dose. Almost as if whatever causes it needs to reach an Average Steady-State Concentration, be it a metabolite of/or something produced endogenously or accumulated by the "mushroom" that produces the effects or after ingestion and our own metabolism of something produced or accumulated by the "mushroom".

[@cacogenicist]

So are we in agreement now that wood-lover's paralysis has _something_ to do with substrate? Maybe not everything, because to my knowledge it is not reported in wood-eating _Psilocybe_ that are not in section cyanescens/subaeruginosa. For example, I don't think there are reports of wood-lover's paralysis from _Psilocybe ovoidiocystidiata._ It's interesting how _Ps. weraroa_ pins look very similar to _Ps. subaeruginosa_ pins, whereas the mature fruits look _so_ different, even though they are very closely related.

[@Joseph843]

9:38 it does look like Toad from Mario :)

[@cgriggsiv]

What UV did you use I just purchased a UV flashlight which is 395nm And it is not turning foliage into red Also I did purchase a 850nm red infrared light

[@tv-pp]

What a cool and hardy invasive plant in northeast ct that i can dig up and put in a pot inside my apartment?

[@offthewall9988]

i didnt hear a bird or cricket! is it too cold?

[@amanitaocreata4401]

Maybe WLP has to do with tannins? Home Mycology has a substrate recipe for specifically inducing WLP.

[@greatestytcommentator]

Weraroa. The ACTUAL Blue Meanie!

[@JamesGalipeau-h7i]

At 14:06 Blechnum novae zelandia. I am going to mess this up, but it looks like that fern evolved a proto flower. Also, the way Alan put that razor blade in his wallet. I feel bad for anyone that would try to mug him.

[@anaritamartinho1340]

When i think in birds eating fruits, i image they eating in the branchs of the tree...well the fruit also falls down, and there are some birds that don t fly, can be that this birds also eat the mushrooms, and the "psychedelic substance" have an effect in birds?...thank you for this videos, iam starting to understand a little bitte more about funghy🙂...Metrosideros robusta😮 and Dawsonia superba😮

[@murockey]

There are many flightless bird species on New Zealand.

[@dasja9966]

I've seen many flying birds eat fruit/seeds/bugs on the ground too. If birds are spreading the spores that makes for even better chances for the mushroom to have it's spores spread.

[@armywhammer-dc9qk]

Was this in ngongotaha? 😂

[@allonesame6467]

Shaun Overton/DUSTUPS on youtube is trying to re-green the Texas Desert. Doesn't know plants! Yikes.

[@CrimePaysButBotanyDoesnt]

I saw that. The deserts not supposed to be green. This project will make an ecologist/native plant enthusiast out of him. If it doesn't, he's not learning anything.

[@paimon8280]

You have to eat one hermano. Let us know how it goes!!!

[@MycoDogs]

sack

[@chrischibnall593]

These are presumably what are called "Truffles" in the psychoactive fungus growing fraternity?

[@allrad4911]

Nah, truffles are the actual mycorhyzza trying to fruit but being unable to do so and instead of growing mushrooms they grow truffles. These are the actual mushrooms of P. werarora.