Latrobe uni students fund overseas trip by selling campus grown mushrooms

[Zen Peddler]

http://www.rabelais.org.au/content/mushroom-clouds-campus-culture

Sorry to double post, but this is a shocker I reckon. Years ago this campus was renknowned for subs in particular pine bark areas and up the back in the wildlife area. Some of these patches were taken care of by local students to improve their yields. years later others just come along and capitalise on it all.

[J Smith]

My favourite part of this story...

"these spores have been around for centuries and it is all part of nature."

Edited March 28, 2010 by madhouses visites

[SunChaser]

It would actually be really interesting to know where subs originated and how they came to be so common in the suburbs of melbourne. Doubt there native, but did they start in the forest and move in to the suburbs, or was it the other way around. Anyway, I wouldn't have thought they could have been growing in Melbourne gardens like they do now for that long, if they were you'd expect a lot more reports of people being poisoned by them over the years.

Oh well, there here now, guess that's the important thing.

[Zen Peddler]

Johnson and Buchanan concluded that it was possible Ps.subaeruginosa and Ps.cyanescens are synonymous. They are more similar microscopically than you'd expect.

However subs grow on wood debrus that Ps.cyanescens rejects like eucalypta mulch. Im nor sure whether Ps.cyanescens grows on pinus radiata mulch or needles either.

Certainly prefers disturbed habitats but many Psilocybes do I guess.

[reshroomED]

It would actually be really interesting to know where subs originated and how they came to be so common in the suburbs of melbourne. Doubt there native, but did they start in the forest and move in to the suburbs, or was it the other way around. Anyway, I wouldn't have thought they could have been growing in Melbourne gardens like they do now for that long, if they were you'd expect a lot more reports of people being poisoned by them over the years.

Oh well, there here now, guess that's the important thing.

 

I ask this question most years around this time but am yet to receive a reply.

When I first discovered P. subaeruginosa (nearly thirty years ago) I was living in Melbourne's Western suburbs, and had to travel to the Vic high country, the Otway ranges, Mt Macedon, or some paddocks out Donnybrook way.

It's hard to believe that they were growing rampantly in suburbia, yet I was missing them.

On this basis I'd suggest theat the migration was from forest to garden, and has occurred in the last twenty years or so.

Anyone else picking subs 20+ years ago and finding them in inner-city garden-beds?

ed

[obtuse]

I dont know about melbourne,

but about 16 years ago i used to find them in a suburban landscaped location in Hobart.

given this was in Sandy Bay which is a lot closer to bush land than say suburban melbourne,

but i figured that it was still far enough away from their usual known habitats in hobart to be of note.

I have found that they are highly adaptive, and will piggyback their way into what ever location they can when they can.

just gotta keep your eyes open.

cheers, Ob.

[QuantumReality]

Years ago this campus was renknowned for subs in particular pine bark areas and up the back in the wildlife area. Some of these patches were taken care of by local students to improve their yields. years later others just come along and capitalise on it all.

True! Unbelievable, but true

Im nor sure whether Ps.cyanescens grows on pinus radiata mulch or needles either.

they usually grow in coniferous mulch

Anyway, I wouldn't have thought they could have been growing in Melbourne gardens like they do now for that long

Its mostly from all the mulch, looged from trees outa melb id say that are smothered in spore.

[Zen Peddler]

I lived in the inner west for five years, and they were very rare around that area, but up in the north eastern suburbs they and trees and rain were more plentiful as they are in the east. Maybe its just that the east and north has more gardens/parks and remnant vegetation areas.

20 years ago re-shroomed! 11 years for me.

[Lord Mayonnaise]

how they came to be so common in the suburbs of melbourne

I ask this question most years around this time but am yet to receive a reply

Perhaps the use of woodchips in garden landscaping gained it's popularity in the 70's and since then established the thriving habitats we see today.

[divinersage]

haha wow mayo thats weird as! i came to the exact same conclusion on the train whilst pondering the question!

[reshroomED]

20 years ago re-shroomed! 11 years for me.

 

11years? You young whippersnapper:wink:

Just redid my maths and it's very close to thirty (first experienced when about 14yo and I turn 44 in a few months).

Comin' camping this year?

Perhaps the use of woodchips in garden landscaping gained it's popularity in the 70's and since then established the thriving habitats we see today.

 

That's been my theory too, but would like some confirmation.

Makes plenty of sense, the NE and E suburbs have always been far more expensive land/house-wise, so would attract people who'd be more likely to landscape etc. Plus their distance from forests is far less than in the W.

ed

[Zen Peddler]

I say im gonna come very year dont i? LOL. Ill be moving house then so unfortunately Im out. But i want some awesome photos.

[Silosighbin]

Wow. This is news to me! I go to a La Trobe Uni and hadn't heard of this. I guess they want to keep it hush hush.

This is my first post btw! I'm so glad I found this site. A place where other people have the same interests as me (Mushies) (Although I'm relatively new to it), and are from generally the same area as me, Victoria/Australia.

[HipoCracY]

They definitely do grow there, I used to go to Latrobe as well. One day i was walking up to one of the colleges to collect a friend for a hunt in the outer suburbs and they were growing outside his window! I think some grow near the moat as well. I think there is pretty stiff competition to pick them up there though, but I've never looked in the wildlife reserve. As far as i know it's fenced off so youd have to know someone who works there to get in?