15 October: Mushroom Day

Today is Mushroom Day. So here are ten facts about mushrooms:

1. Nobody is sure where the word "mushroom" comes from but it may derive from French word "mousseron", meaning moss. Poisonous mushrooms are sometimes referred to as toadstools, and nobody is sure where that comes from, either, but it could be German folklore. Some mushrooms are said to attract flies, hence the idea of toads sitting on them and catching their dinner.
2. We think of mushrooms as being quite small, but scientists believe that before trees evolved, the Earth was covered in forests of giant mushrooms. The oldest known mushroom, a fossil found in 1859, was 420 million years old and nearly 30 feet tall.
3. Today, the largest living organism on the planet is a mushroom. A giant honey mushroom in Oregon covers 2,200 acres and is still growing.
4. Mushrooms are more closely related to humans than to plants.
5. Mushrooms produce vitamin D when in sunlight, just like we do - so are the only non-animal food source of this vitamin. They contain virtually no Salt, but are rich in Potassium (there is more potassium in a medium sized small mushroom than in a Banana) and selenium, which is good for the immune system. Mushrooms are composed of 90% water.
6. The spores of mushrooms are made of chitin, the hardest naturally-made substance on Earth. Therefore, they are pretty tough. Some mushrooms' spores can sit dormant for decades or even a century, and still grow. This has led to speculation that they could survive in space, and that mushrooms could actually have come here from outer space.
7. A person who studies mushrooms is called a mycologist, from the Greek word for fungus.
8. People have been eating mushrooms for centuries. The "Iceman" discovered in the Italian Alps in 1991, thought to have died 5,000 years ago) was carrying dried mushrooms. Ancient Egyptians believed that mushrooms grew by magic, because of the way they could appear overnight, and were a delicacy enjoyed by the Pharaohs.
9. Some mushrooms are hallucinogenic - so called "magic" mushrooms. Fly Agaric mushrooms contain a psychoactive chemical that can cause micropsia/macropsia, or the illusion that objects around you are larger or smaller than they actually are (Alice in Wonderland, anyone?). Reindeer go crazy for magic mushrooms, and not only eat the mushrooms themselves, but they'll also eat the "yellow snow" produced by other reindeer who've been eating them. Some say this is how the myth of Santa's flying reindeer came about.
10. It is thought Viking “Berserkers” would take hallucinogenic mushrooms to induce their battle rage. Greeks believed that mushrooms provided strength for warriors in battle. There could be a scientific basis for that. Modern studies have found that Mice dosed up with the active ingredient of magic mushrooms, psilocybin, didn't freeze in fear when they heard a noise they'd come to associate with a painful electric shock - so the stuff may actually remove fear.