Mushroom Sprouting Out of a Living Frog

Anyone interesting in gardening may also be interested in no-dig gardening and permaculture which help preserve the microbiology (including fungi) in the soil.

Says this type of fungus is saprotrophic. Hard to imagine anything but a parasitic relationship from the frog's perspective.

But the fungus is mature enough to fruit and the frog is still living??? That is one hearty frog. I wonder if it had a mutation

(tl;dr image analysis seems to suggest the images haven't been doctored, mycologists like Alan Rockefeller believe it's most likely been dislodged and stuck to the frog's skin somehow, mycena mycelium would not colonise a frog flesh substrate)

The main issue, assuming the temperature is right, that stunts plant growth just anywhere is that usually there is not enough consistent water, and then eventually the lack of nutrients once the the plant uses its reserves from a seed.

The reason we use soil is because as a substrate, it holds water and nutrients just at the right amount where you don’t have to go out and water it every 5 minutes.

But if you find any pocket made of any material, even a fold of your skin, threw a seed in, and kept it moist by hand, you could grow cherry tomatoes.

A policeman walks into a doctor's surgery with a pig on his head.

The doctor says "errr... I think I can see the problem".

The pig says "yes, I've got this thing growing on my foot".

As the skin looks healthy around the area without almost no color or texture response

...and the mushroom is displaced from a normal up-down position,

...and the frog is alive and didn't tried to remove it...

...and that we know that this genus of fungus is saprophytic and live on dead plants. Frog skin evolved to have a complex cocktail of chemicals, totally different than dead wood cellulose so, what is this mushroom eating exactly?.

my bet would be that the Mycena is growing on a wood splint in the frog body. This is the safer explanation at this moment with this data.

Mycena grow often on indoor pots at the extreme of sticks when the compost is cheap. Plant owners always are alarmed and ask about it.

I'm not against changing the paradigm but would require much more solid data than this.

Gotta book mark the article as it's an interesting take on how the world runs. From the article:

"Is There Any Meaning to This Shit Show?

Optimists generally feel a strong need to believe in a benevolent universe. Hey, I get it. The idea that we live in a universe that is pitiless and meaningless [...] is a bitter pill to swallow. It would be so much nicer to believe that we live in a benevolent universe, looking out for us and helping us along. But how can one believe in a benevolent universe that contains such extreme, pervasive, gratuitous violence, predation, and suffering?"

Someone should try.. You know, for science!