Category:Fungi - Revision history

MDElliottMD: Category:Fungi: restore present-tense skin copy (fungi skin now deployed)

2026-05-22T07:44:41Z

Category:Fungi: restore present-tense skin copy (fungi skin now deployed)

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:44, 22 May 2026
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	== About these pages ==		== About these pages ==
	A fungi ~~sub-~~skin, a variant of the ~~wiki's~~ [[:Category:Plants\|plants]] skin for the fungal medicines~~, is planned for the pages that carry this category~~. ~~Its~~ resolver ~~will read~~ the Category:Fungi tag directly from each page, which is why the tag is applied to ~~each~~ page itself rather than reached through the category tree.		A page that carries Category:Fungi is rendered in the wiki's fungi skin, a variant of the [[:Category:Plants\|plants]] skin developed for the fungal medicines. The skin resolver reads the Category:Fungi tag directly from each page, which is why the tag is applied to the page itself rather than reached through the category tree.

	This is one of the wiki's MedCategory overview pages; it carries the [[:Category:MedCategory\|MedCategory]] marker tag. It sits beneath [[:Category:Plants\|Plants]], within the wiki's natural-origin root.		This is one of the wiki's MedCategory overview pages; it carries the [[:Category:MedCategory\|MedCategory]] marker tag. It sits beneath [[:Category:Plants\|Plants]], within the wiki's natural-origin root.

MDElliottMD: Category:Fungi post-ship fact-check: cite Wasson 1968 and Grienke 2014; soften skin copy to planned tense

2026-05-22T07:30:13Z

Category:Fungi post-ship fact-check: cite Wasson 1968 and Grienke 2014; soften skin copy to planned tense

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:30, 22 May 2026
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	When a man's frozen body was recovered from a melting glacier high in the [[Ötztal Alps]] in 1991, having lain there since about 3300 BCE, [[Ötzi\|the Iceman]] was found to have carried with him pieces of two fungi. One, a tinder fungus, served for carrying fire. The other, the [[birch polypore]] (Fomitopsis betulina), is neither food nor tinder, and the explanation most widely accepted for its presence is medicinal: the birch polypore is purgative and acts against intestinal parasites, and the Iceman is known to have carried a whipworm infection.<ref name="peintner1998">Peintner U, Pöder R, Pümpel T. The Iceman's fungi. Mycological Research. 1998;102(10):1153-1162.</ref> On that reading it is among the oldest direct evidence of a person carrying a medicine, and the medicine is a fungus.		When a man's frozen body was recovered from a melting glacier high in the [[Ötztal Alps]] in 1991, having lain there since about 3300 BCE, [[Ötzi\|the Iceman]] was found to have carried with him pieces of two fungi. One, a tinder fungus, served for carrying fire. The other, the [[birch polypore]] (Fomitopsis betulina), is neither food nor tinder, and the explanation most widely accepted for its presence is medicinal: the birch polypore is purgative and acts against intestinal parasites, and the Iceman is known to have carried a whipworm infection.<ref name="peintner1998">Peintner U, Pöder R, Pümpel T. The Iceman's fungi. Mycological Research. 1998;102(10):1153-1162.</ref><ref name="grienke2014">Grienke U, Zoll M, Peintner U, Rollinger JM. European medicinal polypores: a modern view on traditional uses. Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 2014;154(3):564-583. PMID: 24786572.</ref> On that reading it is among the oldest direct evidence of a person carrying a medicine, and the medicine is a fungus.

	Fungi have been medicine, and poison, and intoxicant, for as long as the human record reaches. The [[Amanita muscaria\|fly agaric]], the scarlet mushroom of folklore, is among the most ancient of the intoxicating fungi, and ~~has been~~ proposed as the soma of the [[Vedas\|Vedic]] hymns.~~[citation needed]~~ The [[Psilocybin mushrooms\|psilocybin mushrooms]] were known to the peoples of [[Mesoamerica]] as teonanácatl, the flesh of the gods. The [[ergot]] fungus, growing on rye, poisoned medieval Europe in recurring epidemics of [[ergotism]], the burning affliction known as Saint Anthony's fire, and was later turned to use in [[obstetrics]]. The antibiotic [[penicillin]], the foundation of the modern antibiotic era, was drawn from a fungus of the genus Penicillium, isolated after [[Alexander Fleming]] observed in 1928 that a mold had killed the bacteria growing around it.<ref name="fleming1929">Fleming A. On the antibacterial action of cultures of a penicillium, with special reference to their use in the isolation of B. influenzae. British Journal of Experimental Pathology. 1929;10(3):226-236.</ref> In the medical traditions of [[traditional Chinese medicine\|East Asia]], tonic fungi such as [[reishi]] and [[lion's mane]] have been used as medicines for many centuries.[citation needed]		Fungi have been medicine, and poison, and intoxicant, for as long as the human record reaches. The [[Amanita muscaria\|fly agaric]], the scarlet mushroom of folklore, is among the most ancient of the intoxicating fungi, and was proposed, controversially, by [[R. Gordon Wasson]] as the soma of the [[Vedas\|Vedic]] hymns.<ref name="wasson1968">Wasson RG. ''Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality''. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World; 1968.</ref> The [[Psilocybin mushrooms\|psilocybin mushrooms]] were known to the peoples of [[Mesoamerica]] as teonanácatl, the flesh of the gods. The [[ergot]] fungus, growing on rye, poisoned medieval Europe in recurring epidemics of [[ergotism]], the burning affliction known as Saint Anthony's fire, and was later turned to use in [[obstetrics]]. The antibiotic [[penicillin]], the foundation of the modern antibiotic era, was drawn from a fungus of the genus Penicillium, isolated after [[Alexander Fleming]] observed in 1928 that a mold had killed the bacteria growing around it.<ref name="fleming1929">Fleming A. On the antibacterial action of cultures of a penicillium, with special reference to their use in the isolation of B. influenzae. British Journal of Experimental Pathology. 1929;10(3):226-236.</ref> In the medical traditions of [[traditional Chinese medicine\|East Asia]], tonic fungi such as [[reishi]] and [[lion's mane]] have been used as medicines for many centuries.[citation needed]

	This category, Category:Fungi, is a kingdom-level category. It collects the wiki's medicine pages whose subject is a fungus, or a medicine drawn from one. Fungi are not plants; they are a kingdom of life in their own right. The wiki nonetheless files them, by pharmacological lineage rather than by biological taxonomy, within the [[:Category:Plants\|Plant]]-origin root, and Category:Fungi sits beneath [[:Category:Plants\|Plants]] as the marker of the fungal medicines within it.		This category, Category:Fungi, is a kingdom-level category. It collects the wiki's medicine pages whose subject is a fungus, or a medicine drawn from one. Fungi are not plants; they are a kingdom of life in their own right. The wiki nonetheless files them, by pharmacological lineage rather than by biological taxonomy, within the [[:Category:Plants\|Plant]]-origin root, and Category:Fungi sits beneath [[:Category:Plants\|Plants]] as the marker of the fungal medicines within it.
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	== About these pages ==		== About these pages ==
	A ~~page that carries Category:Fungi is rendered in the wiki's~~ fungi skin, a variant of the [[:Category:Plants\|plants]] skin ~~developed~~ for the fungal medicines. ~~The skin~~ resolver ~~reads~~ the Category:Fungi tag directly from each page, which is why the tag is applied to ~~the~~ page itself rather than reached through the category tree.		A fungi sub-skin, a variant of the wiki's [[:Category:Plants\|plants]] skin for the fungal medicines, is planned for the pages that carry this category. Its resolver will read the Category:Fungi tag directly from each page, which is why the tag is applied to each page itself rather than reached through the category tree.

	This is one of the wiki's MedCategory overview pages; it carries the [[:Category:MedCategory\|MedCategory]] marker tag. It sits beneath [[:Category:Plants\|Plants]], within the wiki's natural-origin root.		This is one of the wiki's MedCategory overview pages; it carries the [[:Category:MedCategory\|MedCategory]] marker tag. It sits beneath [[:Category:Plants\|Plants]], within the wiki's natural-origin root.

MDElliottMD: Create Category:Fungi (kingdom category)

2026-05-22T07:09:40Z

Create Category:Fungi (kingdom category)

New page

When a man's frozen body was recovered from a melting glacier high in the [[Ötztal Alps]] in 1991, having lain there since about 3300 BCE, [[Ötzi|the Iceman]] was found to have carried with him pieces of two fungi. One, a tinder fungus, served for carrying fire. The other, the [[birch polypore]] (Fomitopsis betulina), is neither food nor tinder, and the explanation most widely accepted for its presence is medicinal: the birch polypore is purgative and acts against intestinal parasites, and the Iceman is known to have carried a whipworm infection.<ref name="peintner1998">Peintner U, Pöder R, Pümpel T. The Iceman's fungi. Mycological Research. 1998;102(10):1153-1162.</ref> On that reading it is among the oldest direct evidence of a person carrying a medicine, and the medicine is a fungus.

Fungi have been medicine, and poison, and intoxicant, for as long as the human record reaches. The [[Amanita muscaria|fly agaric]], the scarlet mushroom of folklore, is among the most ancient of the intoxicating fungi, and has been proposed as the soma of the [[Vedas|Vedic]] hymns.[citation needed] The [[Psilocybin mushrooms|psilocybin mushrooms]] were known to the peoples of [[Mesoamerica]] as teonanácatl, the flesh of the gods. The [[ergot]] fungus, growing on rye, poisoned medieval Europe in recurring epidemics of [[ergotism]], the burning affliction known as Saint Anthony's fire, and was later turned to use in [[obstetrics]]. The antibiotic [[penicillin]], the foundation of the modern antibiotic era, was drawn from a fungus of the genus Penicillium, isolated after [[Alexander Fleming]] observed in 1928 that a mold had killed the bacteria growing around it.<ref name="fleming1929">Fleming A. On the antibacterial action of cultures of a penicillium, with special reference to their use in the isolation of B. influenzae. British Journal of Experimental Pathology. 1929;10(3):226-236.</ref> In the medical traditions of [[traditional Chinese medicine|East Asia]], tonic fungi such as [[reishi]] and [[lion's mane]] have been used as medicines for many centuries.[citation needed]

This category, Category:Fungi, is a kingdom-level category. It collects the wiki's medicine pages whose subject is a fungus, or a medicine drawn from one. Fungi are not plants; they are a kingdom of life in their own right. The wiki nonetheless files them, by pharmacological lineage rather than by biological taxonomy, within the [[:Category:Plants|Plant]]-origin root, and Category:Fungi sits beneath [[:Category:Plants|Plants]] as the marker of the fungal medicines within it.

== A kingdom apart ==
Fungi were classified as plants through most of the history of biology, grouped with them because they are rooted, still, and grow from the ground. Modern biology places them in a kingdom of their own, the kingdom Fungi; the molecular evidence shows this kingdom shares a more recent common ancestor with the animals than with the plants. Fungi do not photosynthesize; like animals, they live by consuming organic matter already made. Their chemistry is their own, and the medicines and poisons they yield, the [[psilocybin]] of the [[Psilocybe]] mushrooms, the [[muscimol]] and [[ibotenic acid]] of the fly agaric, the ergot alkaloids, the penicillins, belong to no plant.

The wiki's origin scheme, set out at [[:Category:Plants|Category:Plants]], sorts every medicine into one of two roots, plant or pharmaceutical. The plant root is, more exactly, the natural-origin root: it collects the medicines whose active material is a natural product of a living thing and which entered use through tradition, whether that living thing is a plant, a fungus, or an animal. Category:Fungi does not alter that scheme. It is a kingdom tag, not an origin tag. A fungal medicine page carries its single origin tag, [[:Category:Plants|Plants]], and carries Category:Fungi in addition, marking which kingdom of the natural-origin world the medicine came from.

== Members indexed ==
This category collects the wiki's fungal medicine pages. At present they are the medicines of two intoxicating mushrooms, together with the compounds drawn from them:
* [[Amanita muscaria]], the fly agaric, with its active compounds [[muscimol]] and [[ibotenic acid]].
* [[Psilocybin mushrooms]], with [[psilocybin]], the tryptamine they produce.

The wider medicinal-fungi estate, the tonic mushrooms of East Asian medicine ([[reishi]], [[lion's mane]], [[cordyceps]], [[turkey tail]]) and the [[ergot]] fungus, is not yet built out on the wiki. As those pages are written they will be indexed here.

== Notes on scope ==
A medicine page carries Category:Fungi when its subject is a fungus, or a medicine whose source is a fungus. The tag is applied directly to each such page; it is not inherited through the category tree.

Category:Fungi is additive. It sits alongside, and never instead of, a page's origin tag: every fungal medicine page on the wiki carries [[:Category:Plants|Plants]] as its origin tag and Category:Fungi as its kingdom tag, with no conflict, because origin and kingdom are different things. Because the category sits within the natural-origin root and drives a variant of the wiki's plants skin, it marks the fungal medicines of that root. A fungal-derived medicine that reached use through scientific discovery rather than tradition, such as a manufactured antibiotic, belongs to the [[:Category:Pharmaceutical|Pharmaceutical]] root and is not marked here.

== About these pages ==
A page that carries Category:Fungi is rendered in the wiki's fungi skin, a variant of the [[:Category:Plants|plants]] skin developed for the fungal medicines. The skin resolver reads the Category:Fungi tag directly from each page, which is why the tag is applied to the page itself rather than reached through the category tree.

This is one of the wiki's MedCategory overview pages; it carries the [[:Category:MedCategory|MedCategory]] marker tag. It sits beneath [[:Category:Plants|Plants]], within the wiki's natural-origin root.

== References ==
<references/>

[[Category:Plants]]
[[Category:MedCategory]]