Every time I scroll through a cottagecore Tumblr or Instagram, I see at least one mushroom photo or work of art. They are always filled with faeries/fairies (I will just refer to them as the fae), and look adorable but I found myself wondering, why are mushrooms so gay? I couldn’t find any answers at first, but then I saw something about fairy rings pop up, so I searched “mushroom folklore” and got a ton of answers which is why you are reading this blog post now.
To begin, a small bit of scientific information to warm up your appetite. Mushrooms are in the order of Agaricales (order of fungi), part of the Agaricaceae family, and in the division of Basidiomycota. Now I will be transparent with you: I don’t really have any idea what this means but I still wanted to include it because I have always been fascinated by the Latin names of plants (which I now recognize as one of the signs that led me to become interested in witchcraft).
Nutritional content: no cholesterol, contain essential amino acids and B vitamins. “more than 90 percent water, less than 3 percent protein, less than 5 percent carbohydrate, less than 1 percent fat, and about 1 percent mineral salts and vitamins.” There’s even an entire branch study dedicated to fungi! It’s called Mycology. One thing I find interesting is that mushrooms are classified as plants but do not contain chlorophyll (green color that plants produce from photosynthesis), as most plants do.
“A fairy ring starts when the mycelium (spawn) of a mushroom falls in a favourable spot and sends out a subterranean network of fine, tubular threads called hyphae. The hyphae grow out from the spore evenly in all directions, forming a circular mat of underground hyphal threads. The mushrooms that grow up from this circular underground mat form a similar pattern above ground. Gradually the underground mycelium at the centre of the circle dies out. Its living outer edges, however, keep growing year by year, and hence the diameter of the ring gradually increases. Over time the ring’s underground segments die out, until the ring form on the surface can no longer be discerned.”
Encyclopedia Britannica
Fairy rings are a naturally occurring ring of mushrooms. Rings of field mushrooms ( Agaricus campestris) can reach up to 2 meters (6 ft) in diameter while the typical fairy ring mushroom (Marasmius oreades) may reach up to 365 meters (1200 ft) in diameter. Belfort, France is the home of the largest fairy ring, which is about 600 meters (2000 ft) and is over 700 years old. The best time to spot fairy rings is late summer to early fall in woodland or grassy areas because heavy rainfall in the preceding months produces new and rapid growth.
There are all sorts of different beliefs and folklore from different countries and cultures. Fairy rings are believed to be portals to other realms, dinner tables for fairies, houses of fairies, a sign of good luck and that there’s a fairy village underground in various different cultures. In other folklore stories it is believed that one may become invisible or trapped forever if they step into a fairy ring. In Celtic and English folklore, fairy rings are caused by fairies, pixies, etc. dancing in a circle. If humans were to join the dance, they would be forced to keep going until they pass out or die of exhaustion. A Northumberland myth requires a person to run around the fairy ring nine times under the full moon if they wanted to investigate the fairy ring. If they were to accidentally run around it a tenth time, then “evil would befall the runner.” In a Welsh legend called Llewellyn and Rhys, time in the fairy realm moves much quicker than ours; a person could dance for a few minutes in a ring and come back to discover that it has been days or weeks. Fairy rings were called Hexenringe in Germany, which meant “Witches Rings” and the belief was that witches danced there to celebrate Walpurgis Night, a festival that welcomes the beginning of spring.
So back to the original question, why are mushrooms so gay? We now know that mushrooms can turn into fairy rings, which are a natural phenomenon. Fairy rings belong to many cultures and versions of folklore that include the existence of the fae which leads to the next point: the fae are generally known to be queer, hence why we see a lot of mushroom photos and art within the queer digital space.
Check out my RedBubble shop
Get 2 months free on skillshare
Support me on Patreon
Support me on PayPal
Fine-tuned inspo on Tumblr
See what inspires me on Pinterest
Follow me on Instagram
My YouTube channel
Didi Aphra 
Hi, I love all the folklore you shared—that’s rad!! I wanted to tell you about a few science things that were off in this post.
1) Mushrooms are definitely not plants—fungi are their own biological kingdom same as plants, animals, Protozoa, etc. Super cool fun fact, DNA analysis has shown that fungi are actually evolutionarily closer to animals than they are to plants!!
2) There are far more mushrooms than those that fall into the family Agaricacae, order Agaricales, or even the phylum Basidiomycota! Some of the mushrooms pictured are not in Agaricacae or even Agaricales (the first one is a Russula (genus) in the family Russulacae. If you’ve ever heard of a Morel, that’s one popular culinary mushroom in the phylum Ascomycota—I like to think of that phylum as the “weird mushroom” phylum because it contains way more fascinating spore dispersal methods than dropping them from gills or pores on the underside.
3. A mushroom is really the fruiting body (aka reproductive organ) of any fungus! They can look like little shelves, gelatinous brackets, big white balls, a classic cap & stem, or so much more!
4. Mushrooms themselves don’t have a sex, but there are hundreds of different sexes of fungal spores! (Mushrooms are SO gay!!)
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wow, I appreciate this comment SO much! Thank you for sharing this fascinating information with me, Jules! I think it’s so cool that fungi are actually evolutionarily closer to animals than to plants! Thank you again!
LikeLike