Panellus stipticus (Bitter oyster) Bioluminescent mushroom culture
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Gifted to us by our mate Lorin von Longo-Liebenstein (rad name) at All Things Fungi Festival this culture is SUPER GLOWY.
Allow your eyes to adjust in pitch black and you'll see it glowing slightly, for best results take a photo with 10 second exposure.
£10 from each sale goes towards our Free DNA sequencing project.
This is a non native fungus, so we've included some best practices below. Interestingly the native Panellus stipticus doesn't bioluminescence in the UK (the same as some of the North America species).
If you are into etymology Panellus potentially comes from the word Panus (which could be "piece of bread" from the Latin, or "millet" from the Greek word Panos.
Stipticus from the word stiptic, which is apparently something to do with stopping bleeding, so maybe there are coagulants in this fungi?
Responsible cultivation
With all non native species we have a duty of care to ensure it doesn't end up escaping into our local woodlands and adversely effecting biodiversity. Ideally you would cultivate mycelium and not bother with fruiting bodies. The mycelium glows really well in jars on hydrated and sterilised hardwood sawdust with a 10% bran supplementation.
If you are producing fruiting bodies, considering doing it in a sealed vivarium or something, dispose of fruiting bodies / substrate by crumbling onto an oven tray and cooking at 100c for 30 mins and then compost.
If you are going to sell products using this culture, please include the instructions on disposal!
