ilovescience Posted July 17, 2021 Report Share Posted July 17, 2021 my friend has had this thing for like twenty years and it's just growing bigger an bigger, this is my friend in the pictures for size. he says that when he got it that i probably weighed like twenty pounds, and now probably weighs sixty pounds depending how much water it has absorbed. he said that he has never seen it produce spores. it has a very tough outer shell on the top and sides, but the bottom does not have that hard shell, and their is soft white stuff on the bottom that is probably where it absorbs food. the bottom is covered in like decaying grass and twigs that are kind of stuck on it, i'm guessing that is the food that it eats. he gave me a small sample of the white stuff from the bottom, and i put it in some water and it absorbed so much water that it expanded greatly in size and turned clear, like clear jelly. again, it does not seem to ever produce or release any kind of spores, it is at least twenty years old, and it survives heat and cold: hot summers and cold winters do not seem to affect it. so far, no one has seen anything like it before.... wondering if we have a new species here or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilovescience Posted July 17, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2021 received a sample of the white stuff, but it was dried out by the time he gave it to me, and this is how small it was, but then i started hydrating it with water, and it got so much bigger! i also put some on a microslide and stained it with some green food coloring: *microscope slide and the microscope was a pocket microscope, probably around 40x power Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rbenn Posted July 17, 2021 Report Share Posted July 17, 2021 I definitely haven't seen anything like that.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitog Posted July 17, 2021 Report Share Posted July 17, 2021 Is this the first time that it has been lifted off the ground? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svs Posted July 17, 2021 Report Share Posted July 17, 2021 Mushroom fruiting bodies usually have limited life span and either dry out or disintegrate after that. 20 years make me suspicious. May be it is something man made. Some kind of chemical compound, polymer, which can absorb moisture. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ilovescience Posted July 17, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 17, 2021 13 hours ago, vitog said: Is this the first time that it has been lifted off the ground? no, he has lifted it off the ground before: he has taken it camping with him even lol. sometimes he leaves it sitting in on the ground for months though. it seems to slowly eat decaying plant matter over the years. but it doesn't seem to release spores or anything. 7 hours ago, svs said: Mushroom fruiting bodies usually have limited life span and either dry out or disintegrate after that. 20 years make me suspicious. May be it is something man made. Some kind of chemical compound, polymer, which can absorb moisture. hi svs! this thing has stumped everyone! lol. but it is definitely biological. i've looked at some samples from the underneath of it under a scope, sometimes can definitely see organic biological looking features. and it is steadily growing over the years. most people think it is some kind of fungus, but it may be a fungus other than a mushroom. it doesn't have a stalk like a mushroom, nor does it have mycelium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svs Posted July 17, 2021 Report Share Posted July 17, 2021 May be, but to be honest I do not see anything on a slides conforming living nature of the item. Organic, why not, anything with carbon such as petroleum based products will qualify. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vitog Posted July 18, 2021 Report Share Posted July 18, 2021 If this is for real, he should contact someone at the nearest university with a mycology department and see if they are interested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foulhook Posted July 18, 2021 Report Share Posted July 18, 2021 This is some kind of man made polymers or elastomer IMO. If it actually something from the fungi kingdom I will be shocked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave W Posted July 19, 2021 Report Share Posted July 19, 2021 My guess is the large black thing is a man-made object. The white material may be a fungus that is attached to the large black object. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOHNY Posted July 19, 2021 Report Share Posted July 19, 2021 The pics of the white stuff and how it rehydrates looks exactly like a hydrogel polymer called Stockosorb. It is a synthetic soil amendment product designed to help water retention in dry soils or during drought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michele Posted July 20, 2021 Report Share Posted July 20, 2021 it looks like an italian pecorino block of cheese Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.