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Elusive LSD Fungus Finally Discovered on Flower
Science Alert ^ | June 05, 2025 | Staff

Posted on 06/05/2025 1:18:11 PM PDT by Red Badger

An elusive fungus capable of generating quantities of a compound used to synthesize the hallucinogen LSD has finally been discovered on the morning glory vine after decades of searching.

Almost a century ago, the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman hypothesized the whimsical plant might harbor a species that belongs to a family of ergot-generating fungi.

As the man who discovered and was first to synthesize LSD ( lysergic acid diethylamide) from the ergot alkaloid, Hoffman had been keen to expand our understanding of the biology and chemistry of organisms that produced it.

While biochemical data hinted that a commonly cultivated morning glory from Mexico called Ipomoea tricolor may host just such a fungus, the symbiotic species itself has never been detected.

That is, until Corinne Hazel, an environmental microbiologist from West Virginia University, noticed a telltale layer of fuzz on the outer layer of her Ipomoea tricolor seeds.

She was investigating the way the plants transmit the evasive fungus's ergot alkaloids through their root systems.

This psychedelic byproduct of fungal symbiosis has already been detected in a quarter of the 200 morning glory species sampled from herbarium collections. Biologists had all the evidence they needed to know the fungus was there in this particular plant – except for the fungus itself.

"People have been looking for this fungus for years, and one day, I look in the right place, and there it is," Hazel says.

"We had a ton of plants lying around and they had these tiny little seed coats. We noticed a little bit of fuzz in the seed coat. That was our fungus."

series of photos showing the white fuzzy mycelium growing on a brown seed coat, then growing on a clear gel medium.

The fungus was found growing on the seed coat of morning glory plants. (Hazel & Panaccione, Mycologia, 2025)

========================================================================

After microscope and genetic analysis, Hazel and her collaborator, botanist Daniel Panaccione, concluded the fungus was new to science, and have named it Periglandula clandestina.

With biochemical analysis of the fungus suggesting it's capable of producing high amounts of the alkaloid, genetic studies might yet reveal insights into its evolution and even ways to steal its secrets for the production of pharmaceuticals.

"Morning glories contain high concentrations of similar lysergic acid derivatives that give them their psychedelic activities," Panaccione says.

"Many things are toxic. But if you administer them in the right dosage or modify them, they can be useful pharmaceuticals. By studying them, we may be able to figure out ways to bypass the side effects. These are big issues for medicine and agriculture."

The research is published in Mycologia.


TOPICS: Agriculture; Health/Medicine; History; Outdoors
KEYWORDS: ergot; godsgravesglyphs; lsd

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1 posted on 06/05/2025 1:18:11 PM PDT by Red Badger
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To: Fungi

Ping!..............


2 posted on 06/05/2025 1:18:29 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Fungi

So...it was you all along...


3 posted on 06/05/2025 1:20:07 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; 31R1O; ...

4 posted on 06/05/2025 1:23:05 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The best thing about a muzzie civil war is, everyone wins.)
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To: Red Badger

Groovy


5 posted on 06/05/2025 1:23:26 PM PDT by Skooz (Gabba Gabba accept you we accept you one of us Gabba Gabba we accept you we accept you one of us )
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To: Red Badger

The bright elusive butterfly of fungus.


6 posted on 06/05/2025 1:24:40 PM PDT by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is opinion or satire. Or both.)
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To: Billthedrill

It was widely known back in the Haight-Ashbury flower power days of the ‘60s that morning glory seeds were a path to a trip.
I recall that it was a plot mechanism in one of Gilbert Sheldon’s comics about the “Furry Freak Brothers”.


7 posted on 06/05/2025 1:25:08 PM PDT by pingman ("Step right up! Get your free helicopter ride, courtesy of Pinochet Air!")
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To: BenLurkin; Skooz

Morning Glory Fields forever.................


8 posted on 06/05/2025 1:26:47 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

“Turn on, tune in, drop out.”
—Timothy Leary(’s dead).

No one is outside, looking in.


9 posted on 06/05/2025 1:27:16 PM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Repeal the Patriot Act; Abolish the DHS; reform FBI top to bottom!)
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To: SunkenCiv

Just wait, Moring Glory Seeds will now be a ‘Controlled Substance’!....................


10 posted on 06/05/2025 1:27:52 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Red Badger

LSD and Morning Glories, these are two of my favorite things.


11 posted on 06/05/2025 1:30:50 PM PDT by Jolla
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To: Red Badger

Interesting.

Hofmann of course studied the ergot fungus that grows on rye. He isolated and modified a lot of ergoloid compounds from it.

It makes since he’d realize the ergot compounds in morning glory seeds are most likely to come from a similar plant fungus, not the plant itself.


12 posted on 06/05/2025 1:31:37 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Red Badger

They finally found some after looking for decades.

I will keep making mine in the bathtub.


13 posted on 06/05/2025 1:32:32 PM PDT by algore
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To: Red Badger

Uh-oh, I’m having a Turtles flashback...


14 posted on 06/05/2025 1:33:32 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (The best thing about a muzzie civil war is, everyone wins.)
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To: Red Badger

15 posted on 06/05/2025 1:34:02 PM PDT by Tom Tetroxide (Psalm 146:3 "Do not trust in princes, in the Son of Man, who has no salvation.")
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To: Tom Tetroxide

16 posted on 06/05/2025 1:35:35 PM PDT by Tom Tetroxide (Psalm 146:3 "Do not trust in princes, in the Son of Man, who has no salvation.")
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To: Red Badger

First on a flower... But pretty sure not the first on a plant. From what I understand Rye grain was the first known instances of Ergot.


17 posted on 06/05/2025 1:43:13 PM PDT by Openurmind (AI - An Illusion for Aptitude Intrusion to Alter Intellect. )
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To: Red Badger

“ Just wait, Moring Glory Seeds will now be a ‘Controlled Substance’!....................”

They were.

They were sold with some sort of treatment to keep people from ingesting them.


18 posted on 06/05/2025 1:43:20 PM PDT by ifinnegan (Democrats kill babies and harvest their organs to sell)
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To: Red Badger

New!


19 posted on 06/05/2025 1:45:10 PM PDT by Honorary Serb (Kosovo is Serbia! Free Srpska! Abolish ICTY!)
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To: ifinnegan
...the ergot fungus that grows on rye.

Speculated as one of the causes of behaviors in Salem, Massachusetts that led to the witch trials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claviceps_purpurea

20 posted on 06/05/2025 1:53:21 PM PDT by T.B. Yoits
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