Strange-looking Cordyceps sinensis
Cordyceps sinensis, also known as "early grass", belongs to ascomycetes and ergotaceae, which are mostly produced in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu, Qinghai, Tibet and other places in China, and are precious medicinal materials in traditional Chinese medicine. Cordyceps sinensis, just like its strange name, has a strange shape: it is an animal, its roots are deeply rooted in the soil, and there is a grass on its head; It is like a plant, and its root is a bug, with a head and mouth, and eight pairs of neat feet. How did this strange thing, Cordyceps sinensis, form? Is it a plant or an animal? Why do you have such a strange appearance? There is an insect called "Batmoth". When spring comes, it lays its eggs in the soil and then dies quietly. The egg hatched in the soil for 1 month, and a white and fat larva broke out of the soil. There is a fungus, that is, the grasshopper, which has been waiting here for a long time. As soon as it meets this white, fat and delicious larva, it drills into the larva, and then sucks the nutrition in the worm and lives a carefree parasitic life. In winter, the larvae hide in the soil. Because of the proliferation of parasitic bacteria in the body, the worm died before climbing out of the ground. When the climate is warm, the fungus will break out of the ground and grow a rod about 10 cm long at the head of the larva shell, and the top is ellipsoid. Therefore, it has grown into such a strange appearance as both a worm and a grass. People gave it a strange name "Cordyceps sinensis" according to this strange look. Cordyceps sinensis, although it looks strange, is of great use in medicine. It is very effective in tonifying lung and kidney, and treating cough, blood in phlegm, asthma, lumbago and other diseases.
How did the fungus get into the larva's body, and how did it finally grow a grass from the insect's mouth after being parasitic in the larva for so long? It is still a mystery so far.