Scientists at the University of Utah have identified a rare wild mushroom named Lanmaoa asiatica as the cause of decade-spanning visions of tiny human figures.
Using DNA sequencing, researchers traced reported hallucinations across Southwest China, the northern Philippines, and Papua New Guinea to the single rare mushroom. The team confirmed that the fungus contains a hallucinogenic compound entirely unknown to science.
The innocuous-looking mushroom, named Lanmaoa asiatica, is a wild member of the bolete family. While residents widely eat the mushroom in parts of China's Yunnan province, locals warn that undercooked specimens trigger extremely vivid hallucinations.
Colin Domnauer, co-author of the study identifying the mushroom, said: "People pretty much always report seeing dozens or hundreds of little people, about 3 to 30 centimetres tall, in incredible detail, like they're actually there."
Domnauer added: "About 90 per cent of people describe them as little elves or clowns or other fairy-like figures dressed in colourful clothes."
The University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City, is a public research institution known for its programs in genetics, biology, and chemistry. The bolete family of fungi, known scientifically as Boletaceae, is characterized by pore-bearing caps rather than traditional gills, encompassing hundreds of edible and toxic species worldwide.
These visions are known as "Lilliputian hallucinations", named after the small people who inhabit the fictional island of Lilliput in Jonathan Swift's 1726 satirical novel Gulliver's Travels. What makes the visions unusual is how consistent people's reports tend to be, with almost everyone describing the same tiny figures.
Yunnan province is home to more than 40 per cent of the world's edible fungi. Local hospitals treat hundreds of cases every single year, with patients all describing dozens of elf-like creatures marching over tables and climbing under doors.
Domnauer said: "What's fascinating is they interact with the physical world using the laws of physics that govern us."
He noted: "They're not walking through walls or anything. They're falling off the edge of tables, walking around objects."
Domnauer recalled: "One person told me that while they were eating soup, the little people were jumping off their spoon into the bowl and swimming around. As they scooped a bite, the little people remained in their mouth."
Historical Reports of Mushroom Madness
The first reports of these psychological effects date back to 1934, when Christian missionaries in Papua New Guinea brought back accounts of people hallucinating tiny humans after eating wild mushrooms, a state they called "mushroom madness." Papua New Guinea is an island nation in the southwestern Pacific Ocean known for its dense rainforests and rich cultural diversity.
In the 1950s and 1960s, anthropologists travelled to Papua New Guinea and collected samples of the wild mushrooms. However, scientists could not find a single known psychoactive compound, even after sending samples to Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann. Hofmann had famously synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide, known as LSD, in 1938 and later isolated psilocybin from magic mushrooms in 1958.
Domnauer said: "Eventually, they concluded that maybe these mushrooms weren't bioactive at all - maybe this was all just a sociocultural phenomenon."
In the 1990s, scientists in Yunnan started describing similar hallucinations in people who ate bolete mushrooms. Mycologists suggested that the mushroom in question could be Lanmaoa asiatica, which had only recently been discovered.
In 2024, Domnauer started hearing accounts from an indigenous community in the remote Northern Cordillera region of the Philippines, a mountainous area in northern Luzon. People who consumed a wild mushroom known locally as Sedesdem would occasionally see visions of little people.
Domnauer travelled to China and the Philippines to speak with locals and collect samples of Lanmaoa asiatica alongside as many specimens in the Lanmaoa genus as possible.
DNA Analysis Identifies Unique Psychoactive Compound
Laboratory DNA analysis revealed that the Philippine mushroom Sedesdem and the Chinese fungus Jian Shou Qing are the exact same species, Lanmaoa asiatica.
Domnauer said: "Now, three completely independent cultures have reported the same specific type of hallucination, and two cases are attributed to the same DNA-verified mushroom species."
He added: "That indicates that these bizarre psychological effects aren't cultural manifestations or coincidences - they must have a shared underlying chemical and neurological basis."
Researchers then tested the mushroom samples for any trace of a known psychoactive compound, but nothing could be found. This means the mushrooms must contain an unknown hallucinogen uniquely capable of producing Lilliputian hallucinations.
Lilliputian hallucinations are not unique to this mushroom and have been linked to alcohol withdrawal, dementia, macular degeneration, and other neurological conditions. Until now, scientists have not understood the mechanisms behind the visions, meaning there is no way to treat them.
Domnauer said that if Lanmaoa asiatica can reliably induce Lilliputian hallucinations, it could serve as "a very powerful tool" for future scientific research.
Parallel Discoveries in Psilocybin Biosynthesis
In parallel research into fungal biochemistry, studies over recent decades suggest that the compound psilocybin may have therapeutic benefits, with potential to help treat anxiety, depression, and addiction. Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic molecule found in over 200 species of fungi.
Until recently, the chemical recipe mushrooms use to synthesize psilocybin remained a mystery. In a new study, scientists characterized the four enzymes mushrooms use to make the compound for the first time, setting the stage for pharmaceutical production of the drug.
A research team from Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany developed the first enzymatic synthesis of psilocybin, as reported in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), a publication of the American Chemical Society. Friedrich Schiller University Jena is a historic public research university founded in 1558.
To determine the synthetic pathway, the Jena team sequenced the genomes of two mushroom species. They then used engineered bacteria and fungi to confirm gene activity and the order of the synthetic steps.
Their research revealed four key enzymes: PsiD, which strips carbon dioxide from tryptophan; a hydroxylating enzyme that adds a hydroxyl group of oxygen and hydrogen; PsiK, which acts as a catalyst for phosphotransfer; and PsiM, which catalyzes the transfer of methyl groups.
Based on their discovery, the researchers developed a "one-pot reaction" to create psilocybin from 4-hydroxy-L-tryptophan using three of the enzymes: PsiD, PsiK, and PsiM. According to the team, the findings could lay the foundation for the pharmaceutical production of mushroom-derived drugs.
