Stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus) by Jon Sommer
Summary
Sex is the raison d’être for many of life’s strange contortions, and fungi are no exception. The visible mushroom exists solely as a sexual organ: disseminating the spores of the next generation. But that’s only the beginning of the weird world of mushroom courtship. Join us in the nitty gritty, and reflect on what mushrooms can teach us about the nature of sex and gender.
This is an excerpt from episode 6 of our Patreon-exclusive series: “Meet Your Fungal Associates”.
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Clitoria ternatea by Ton Rulkens
Schizophyllum commune by Alexey Sergeev
Hyphal Sensing illustration by Carmen Elisabeth, from DIY Mushroom Cultivation
Orchis italica by Luis Nunes Alberto
Clamp connection microscopy by CureCat
Show notes
Featured on this episode is Willoughby Arevalo, author of DIY Mushroom Cultivation: Growing Mushrooms at Home for Food, Medicine, and Soil.
Thanks as always to Kmathz for the kick-butt theme song for this series. Other music in this episode was produced by Latashá, Underbelly, Jack Hertz, Joey Pecoraro, and Joanna Rose.
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Sources for this episode are:
Casselton, L. Mate recognition in fungi. Heredity, 88, 142–147 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.hdy.6800035
This episode of Future Ecologies was recorded on the unceded territories of the Musqueam (xwməθkwəy̓əm) Squamish (Skwxwú7mesh), and Tsleil-Waututh (Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh) Nations - otherwise known as Vancouver, British Columbia.