Stalk Forrest Group

The new batch of Cordyline tequila* was tasty but these are not what we expected to find floating in the bottle.

As any fule kno they are the Ophiocordyceps robertsii fungus that has consumed caterpillars of the Porina moth while keeping their shape. And is the Porina moth closely related to the agave moth? Is it bogroll.



Old Entomologist head barmaid Evangeline van Holsterin called our attention to the phylogenetic wall-chart tacked up beside the dartboard, to show that O. robertsii is closely related to Ophiocordyceps sinensis. Then she talked persuasively about the role of O. sinensis in Chinese traditional medicine "as an aphrodisiac and as a treatment for a variety of ailments from fatigue to cancer". This is all very well, sez I, but the sentient fungi from Mi-Go at the next table do not seem well-pleased by the sight. But Evangeline reckoned that sentient fungi spend all night nursing a single bowl of hyphae and they never tip so she does not give a tinker's.

So it turns out that the supply of O. sinensis is endangered by massive over-harvesting on the plateau of Leng Tibet (oddly enough known there as aweto, the Māori name for O. robertsii), Chinese herbalism being one of these traditional medicines where the popularity of an ingredient is determined neither by tradition nor by clinical effect but by its market price. Prices have reached US$60000 / kg.** If Gerry Brownlie finds out he will see the potential for a lucrative though short-lived export trade, and before we know it our national-park forest floors will be ploughed up for fungi for China.

Another close relative: The ant-zombifying fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis.

Then there is Cordyceps bassiana, though for some reason this species doesn't grow spore heads in NZ so it is known here as the sugar-icing fungus Beauveria bassiana. Here it has parasitised a cicada:
The camera didn't record the unearly colour of the fungal growth, an indescribable phosphorescent colour not of this world, and has simply shown it as white.

In retrospect it may have been a mistake to touch the meteorite.

* Note for foragers: The cabbage tree or Cordyline australis is widely grown in the US as street trees, particularly in San Francisco. The growing tips as well as the rootstock are edible, just saying.

** Organised crime!

Police say two men entered the Tung Yun Tang Herbal Company on the 4600-block of No. 3 Road at 4:30 p.m. and sprayed an employee with bear spray. They then stole three jars of a Chinese fungus with the scientific name Cordyceps valued at $38,000 and two jars of bird's nests valued at $8,000.

Presumably the herbal warehouse employs ursine guards whom bear spray serves to disable or repel.