El Micelio — Science Writing on the Fungal Kingdom
Simbiosis · Mycological science writing
El Micelio
The blog where the science, history, art and culture of the fungal kingdom are woven together. A network of stories with verifiable backing, written for the fungivore who wants to understand mushrooms —not merely consume them.
Beneath every text runs a thread of evidence
Just as the mycelium connects trees, nutrients and memory beneath the forest, El Micelio connects four lines of science writing that feed one another. Each article grows from a specific fascination —a species, an active compound, a tradition, a person— and rests on cultural and scientific sources you can trace back to their origin.
45
Articles published
17
Species in depth
12
FungiFacts editions
4
Thematic lines
01The four lines of the mycelium
Each line is a different way into the fungal kingdom. Choose one and follow that theme alone, or drift from one to the next along the hyphae that connect them.
The science of mushrooms
The species, from within
In-depth profiles of seventeen functional species: reishi (Ganoderma), lion's mane (Hericium), cordyceps, shiitake (Lentinula), maitake (Grifola), turkey tail (Trametes), chaga (Inonotus), tremella, enoki, oyster mushroom, poria and agarikon, among others. Each with its active compound —lentinan, D-fraction, NGF, PSK— and the research that studies it.
17 articles · one species per profile · active compound + evidence
Explore the scienceHistory and ethnomycology
The mushroom as civilisation
From the Hongosto season in Mexican forests to the ethnomycology of Gordon Wasson; from fungal syncretism across cultures to how yeasts, ferments and penicillin helped build the modern world. The mushroom as medicine, as food, as threshold.
16 articles · from ancestral tradition to modern civilisation
Walk through the historyLight reading
FungiFacts
Quick, surprising facts about the fungal kingdom and its relationship with the human body. The ideal way in if you want to be astonished before you go deep.
12 editions published
See the FungiFacts →Art and collaborators
The people of the mycelium
Profiles of those who make Simbiosis possible: César Kevin Pérez Pacheco —designer, artist, biologist and mycologist—; and Francisca Quiroz Olvera, artisan and nanacatera from Omitlán de Juárez, Hidalgo.
2 profiles · art and community knowledge
Meet the collaborators →02Where to begin
If this is your first time in the mycelium, these three articles are good points of germination —one for each depth.
Start light
15 facts that reconfigure how you see mushrooms
The first FungiFacts: fifteen brief, forceful facts that explain why the fungal kingdom deserves a kingdom of its own.
Read FungiFacts #1 →Go deep on one species
Lion's Mane: the mushroom that stimulates neuronal growth
What NGF is, why Hericium erinaceus awakens it, and what the research actually says about cognition and memory.
Read the profile →Understand the context
Hongosto: the season that turns forests into marketplaces
The Mexican rainy season, traditional foraging and the living economy of the fungal forest, told from the territory itself.
Read the story →03Follow the hyphae
El Micelio does not live in isolation: each line of the blog connects to a deeper learning page. If a theme caught you, it continues here.
Applied science
Mushrooms and Medicine
The species profiles connect to the role of fungi in modern pharmacology: from penicillin to beta-glucans, what the fungal kingdom contributes to contemporary medicine and what the evidence says.
Explore Mushrooms and MedicineLiving history
Fermentation
The historical line of the mycelium —yeasts, ferments, penicillin— finds its practical continuation here: how fungi and microorganisms transform food, culture and health through fermentation.
Explore FermentationLetter from the mycelium
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Science, history, seasonal species and the fungidencias that flower around the fungal kingdom. No noise —only the writing a fungivore wants to read.
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Knowledge, like the mycelium, grows by being shared
Is there a species, a tradition or a question you would like to see on the blog? El Micelio feeds on the curiosity of those who read it. Write to us and propose the next thread in the network.
Read El Micelio Explore the Fungal Kingdom