this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2024
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Science Memes

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[–] punkfungus@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 months ago

Fun fact about mushroom toxicity by contrast. Because the mushroom is only the reproductive organ of the organism, and you're basically doing it a favour by picking it and spreading its spores everywhere, theres no evolutionary pressure for it to evolve toxicity to humans. So the compounds in mushrooms that are toxic to us likely exist for other purposes, and are only toxic to us by coincidence.

For this reason the proportion of species of mushrooms that are safe vs. the number that are toxic is greater than with plants. Because plants have had selective pressure to evolve poisons that discourage or prevent herbivory. So if you walk into an unfamiliar forest and pick one plant and one mushroom to eat at random, it's more likely the plant is the bigger danger.

Of course I absolutely do not condone eating plants or fungi at random unless you intend to have a painful death.