Deep Look

Field Notes: 🍄The Cage Fungus🍄

Added 2022-02-26 18:31:00 +0000 UTC

Hi Deep Look fans! Have you seen our NEW delightfully disgusting video: This Mushroom Tricks Flies By Faking Its Own Death all about the cage fungus?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd6RESaCxc4

Wondering how we found these unusual mushrooms and got all that gooey action filmed?🎥 Read on to find out.

For this episode of Deep Look, producer/cinematographer Josh Cassidy worked with naturalist Damon Tighe to track down some seriously stinky mushrooms.

Naturalist Damon Tighe estimates the size of the underground network of threads called the mycelium that produced the cage fungus “egg” by his feet. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)

The pair searched in parks and campuses in San Francisco and Berkeley, California for red cage fungus. When the conditions are right, the fungus produces a spongy lattice that looks and smells an awful lot like a dead animal.

To film the lattice emerging in time-lapse video, Josh brought a few of the cage fungus “eggs” back to KQED’s newly-remodeled producers’ studio to film under controlled conditions over 12 hours.

“I already thought cage fungus smelled bad,” Josh said. “But it was way worse having them inside a confined space for that long!” (That’s Josh filming cage fungus at KQED in the first photo of this post.)

The last step was for Josh to film the flies indulging on the putrid gleba. For that, Josh brought some cage fungus to his backyard and waited for hungry flies to find it.

Filming cage fungus and the flies that love it in the backyard. (Josh Cassidy/KQED)

You could say that Josh took one for the team for this shoot so you all can watch the transformation of the cage fungus without the stinky smell. Thanks, Josh!

Have YOU come across cage fungi 🍄🍄 in your backyard or neighborhood park? Tell us all your smelly stories!