{"id":365,"date":"2024-03-24T13:40:33","date_gmt":"2024-03-24T13:40:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zerofrontiertravel.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/24\/new-zealands-blue-mushroom-the-world-is-obsessed-with\/"},"modified":"2024-03-24T13:40:33","modified_gmt":"2024-03-24T13:40:33","slug":"new-zealands-blue-mushroom-the-world-is-obsessed-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zerofrontiertravel.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/24\/new-zealands-blue-mushroom-the-world-is-obsessed-with\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand\u2019s blue mushroom the world is obsessed with"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Is it just me, or are mushrooms having a moment?<\/p>\n

Nowadays, I feel like everywhere I look, I see mushrooms. From decorating cushions to foraging with friends to microdosing, mushrooms have been in fashion for a while now. Trendy and cool fungi are having a real renaissance, and I\u2019m here for it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So, what has inspired the world to wake up to how cool mushrooms can be? I think the popularity of books like Merlin Sheldrake\u2019s Entangled Life<\/em>, which gives us plebs a glimpse into their complex world combined with the \u201cdiscovery\u201d of their superpowers, has rocketed mushrooms into a bit of a cultural zeitgeist. A friend of mine here in New Zealand even wrote about it: Fungi of Aotearoa<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

I mean, I get it. Mushrooms are amazing. From their positive health benefits to interest in psychedelics again, mushrooms are just pretty cool to look at, not to mention how tasty some can be. Some can even glow in the dark. Others will kill you. Talk about enigmatic. Mushrooms are a real vibe in 2024.<\/p>\n

And none more so than New Zealand\u2019s endemic neon blue mushroom \u2013 werewere-k\u014dkako or Entoloma hochstetteri.<\/em><\/p>\n

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When autumn rolls around, it\u2019s usually exciting to see large red and white toadstools pop up along our favorite walks. If you\u2019re a food forager, head out to your secret spots for porcini mushrooms. But there\u2019s a new celebrity in town: the werewere-k\u014dkako.<\/p>\n

Well, this guy has been around forever, but only recently has he been blowing up online. In fact, New Zealand\u2019s blue mushroom adorns our $50 bill; we also hold the honor of being the only country with a mushroom on a banknote. Now that we live in a visual world obsessed with sharable content online, there\u2019s nothing quote so cool as a mushroom so blue it looks like it was drawn with a crayon. It\u2019s so Instagrammable.<\/p>\n

Also, we\u2019re not used to seeing neon blue as a natural color. It\u2019s weird. It definitely screams, \u201cDo not eat me!\u201d Though I did meet someone recently who said they had tried the werewere-k\u014dkako and was ok; I\u2019m skeptical.<\/p>\n

Current studies show that these guys aren\u2019t magic mushrooms; they don\u2019t contain any psilocybin.<\/p>\n

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New Zealand\u2019s blue mushroom gets its M\u0101ori name, werewere-k\u014dkako, from the color of the blue waddle on the endangered North Island k\u014dkako<\/a>, a native wattlebird. In one tradition, the k\u014dkako brushed its cheek against the mushroom, giving its wattle the iconic blue color.<\/p>\n

The kind of blue your mouth turns after you\u2019ve wolfed down a 7-Eleven slurpee, the werewere-k\u014dkako really does need to be seen to be believed. I\u2019ve found the best time to spot them is in the autumn, in damp areas like the West Coast<\/a> or Rakiura\/Stewart Island. Remember, autumn down under is April through June-ish. I\u2019ve only seen them in the temperate rainforests, popping up amongst moss or leaf litter beneath native trees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One thing I love about mushroom hunting<\/a> is that you have to slow down and be present. You\u2019ll probably miss them if you tramp really quickly in New Zealand. They\u2019re not that big, maybe up to four centimeters. Often, we saw them somewhat clustered together in pairs, with quite a few in the same area. Once you know what to look for, they become much easier to spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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There is something really engaging about seeing a pop of neon blue in a forest full of deep greens and browns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While I\u2019ve seen New Zealand\u2019s blue mushroom here and there over the years from my time spent in the bush, I never really stopped to consider it until last autumn when I hiked the Rakiura Track<\/a> with friends over Easter. They were everywhere, along with many other types of mushrooms. It was an unexpected but super fun game of mushroom spotting while tramping through the bush.<\/p>\n

The werewere-k\u014dkako are striking. A pinkgill mushroom (Entoloma<\/em> genus), so far, no one has figured out what pigment makes these guys so blue. And this is actually a big deal because most blues we see in food, drinks, and even makeup come from synthetic blue dye. Most blues that appear in nature oxidize quickly, turning brown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Scientists here have been trying to isolate the genes that make the werewere-k\u014dkako so blue but have not had much luck. They\u2019ve also tried growing the mushrooms in labs and failed. But some believe that if we could figure it out, we could produce the world\u2019s first all-natural blue food dye.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And this is where it gets interesting. Werewere-k\u014dkako are taonga (treasured) species in New Zealand. M\u0101ori retain authority around genetics, and commercial work related to it must involve careful collaboration and partnership with iwi and hap\u016b.\u00a0<\/p>\n

So now is the time to search for New Zealand\u2019s blue mushroom. They\u2019re found all over the country (for the most part); you just have to start looking down. Don\u2019t be afraid to get your knees muddy, kneel on the ground, and look beneath ferns and amongst the mosses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The reward of a glimpse of a bright blue werewere-k\u014dkako is so worth it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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The post New Zealand\u2019s blue mushroom the world is obsessed with<\/a> appeared first on Young Adventuress<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it just me, or are mushrooms having a moment? Nowadays, I feel like everywhere I look, I see mushrooms. From decorating cushions to foraging with friends to microdosing, mushrooms have been in fashion for a while now. Trendy and cool fungi are having a real renaissance, and I\u2019m here for it.\u00a0 So, what has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zerofrontiertravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zerofrontiertravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zerofrontiertravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zerofrontiertravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zerofrontiertravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/zerofrontiertravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zerofrontiertravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zerofrontiertravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zerofrontiertravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zerofrontiertravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}