El Micelio — The Simbiosis Blog

Historia y Etnomicología
Fungal Rock Art: What Tassili and Selva Pascuala Really Prove
Two prehistoric murals—one in the Algerian Sahara, the other in Cuenca, Spain—could depict sacred fungi, but only one has robust scientific evidence. Read more...
Historia y Etnomicología
Amanita muscaria and Vedic Soma: The Enigma Wasson Never Fully Solved
Robert Gordon Wasson proposed that the sacred soma of the Rigveda was in fact Amanita muscaria — a hypothesis that remains debated more than five decades later. Read more...
Historia y Etnomicología
María Sabina and Huautla: the all-night vigil that made it into Life magazine
In 1955, Mazatec healer María Sabina shared her sacred ritual with an American banker — and the publication of their encounter in Life magazine transformed her life and the town of Huautla forever. Read more...
Historia y Etnomicología
Teonanácatl and the Codices: The Sacred Mushroom Sahagún Couldn't Name
Sahagún documented a sacred Nahuatl mushroom in the 16th century that science took four centuries to begin to identify correctly—and whose exact identity is still debated. Read more...
Historia y Etnomicología
Ötzi and Tinder: The Fungal Baggage of a 5,000-Year-Old Man
The Iceman of the Alps carried two species of fungi with him five thousand years ago: one for lighting fires, the other possibly as medicine. Read more...
FungiFacts
Wood Wide Web: What Science Really Knows About Mycorrhizal Networks
The mycorrhizal network under the forest is real — but recent science seriously questions the popular myth of the mother tree and tree communication. Read more...
FungiFacts
Ophiocordyceps: the fungus that turns ants into puppets
How Ophiocordyceps unilateralis controls the nervous system of carpenter ants and forces them to bite with surgical precision before dying. Read more...
FungiFacts
Radiotrophy: Fungi That Feed on Radiation
Melanized fungi growing towards the radiation in Chernobyl—and now being cultivated on the International Space Station as a potential radiation shield. Read more...
Ciencia de los Hongos
King oyster mushroom and ergothioneine: the longevity antioxidant
The meatiest of the oyster mushrooms and one of the richest sources of ergothioneine, the antioxidant that science associates with longevity. Read more...
Ciencia de los Hongos
Wood ear: the gelatinous fungus that protects the heart
The gelatinous mushroom in Chinese cuisine, packed with soluble fiber and polysaccharides that science is studying for their cardiovascular affinity. Read more...
Ciencia de los Hongos
Phellinus linteus (Sanghuang): Two Millennia of Fungal Medicine
The yellow fungus that grew on mulberry trees for two thousand years of Asian medicine and is now being reviewed by modern science. Read more...
Ciencia de los Hongos
Antrodia cinnamomea: Taiwan's Endemic Liver-Protecting Mushroom
The fungus that only grows inside a tree endemic to Taiwan and is being researched by science for its affinity with the liver. Read more...