Today I Learned: Eating This Mushroom Could Make You See Tiny People
A similar mushroom species named Sedesdem could be found in the northern part of the Philippines.
Published on Nov 1, 2026
Leaping Lilliputians, Batman!
That's the sort of exclamation someone might make after eating a particular mushroom with hallucinogenic properties. While "magic mushrooms" are nothing new, this species produces an unusual effect: those who consume it may see dozens or even hundreds of tiny people leaping about.
What’s more, while the mushroom’s effects were apparently first reported in Yunnan province in China, the plant could also be found here in the Philippines.
For a bit of background, people had been going to doctors in Yunnan each year reporting symptoms of seeing little fairy- or elf-like little creatures crawling under the doors and going all over the room and furniture. The apparent cause was consumption of a certain mushroom called Jian Shou Qing. This interesting observation had been noted in studies since the 1990s. But it was only in 2015 when the said mushroom was given a name: Lanmaoa Asiatica (or L. Asiatica).
The mushroom species gained wider public attention after a US government official unknowingly ate it during a trip to China. In 2023, then-US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen was on official business in China when she dined at a restaurant in Yunnan and ate a dish containing the mushrooms. It was only afterward that she learned what she had eaten.
“I went with this large group of people, and the person who’d arranged our dinner did the ordering. There was a delicious mushroom dish. I was not aware that these mushrooms had hallucinogenic properties. I learned that later,” she told CNN. She did not, however, experience any ill effects.
In 2024, Colin Domnauer, a doctoral student at the University of Utah, heard about the mushroom from a mycology professor. The phenomenon it causes is known as “mushroom madness” or “Lilliputian madness,” a reference to the tiny inhabitants of Lilliput in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.
"It sounded so bizarre that there could be a mushroom out there causing fairytale-like visions reported across cultures and time… I was perplexed and driven by curiosity to find out more," he told BBC.
After perusing accounts and studies of the said mushroom and its effects, Domnauer took along a colleague, mycologist Bryn Dentinger, to China to acquire some samples. Then they heard that a similar mushroom named Sedesdem could be found in the northern part of the Philippines, with similar reports of “little people” hallucinations. So they came here to get samples of those.
After running all samples through laboratory tests, they concluded that the mushrooms from both countries, despite having some apparent differences such as color, were pretty much the same species.
Apparently, people had been aware of the mushroom as early as the 1930s. Missionaries visiting Papua New Guinea wrote about locals who became delirious after consuming it. No less than the very people who popularized psilocybin in the western world, banking executive and ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson and French botanist Roger Heim, had come across these reports and became interested. They sent samples to the chemist who discovered the infamous substance LSD, Albert Hoffmann. However, Hoffmann found nothing of interest and dismissed the reports as the result of subjective cultural influences. It was probably because of this that western science gave L. Asiatica the cold shoulder before the renewed interest this year.
Psilocybin was mentioned above, but what is that? It is a naturally occurring compound found in various mushroom species that produces hallucinogenic effects. However, here's the surprise: L. asiatica contains no psilocybin at all. The substance responsible for its unusual effects remains unidentified, as Domnauer and his team continue testing samples in an effort to demystify the mystery behind its hallucinogenic properties.
He himself has not tried the mushroom. He also clarifies that the mushroom is consumed mainly as food, as it bears a delicious umami flavor. “At a mushroom hot pot restaurant there, the server set a timer for 15 minutes and warned us, 'don't eat it until the timer goes off or you might see little people,'” Domnauer said. Perhaps this is why Yellen did not suffer from any of the ill effects. But now that the mushroom has received press, more people will be coming to China or even the Philippines to try it out for themselves.
While the mushroom sounds like it could become a novelty attraction for curious tourists, it's worth remembering that it's a psychedelic and that anti-narcotics authorities are likely to clamp down on its acquisition.
Sources:
Domnauer, C., & Dentinger, B. (2026). Phylogenomic systematics of Lanmaoa (Boletaceae) reveals cryptic diversity, resolves global evolutionary relationships, and suggests a novel psychoactive lineage. Mycologia, 118(4), 732.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260121-the-mysterious-mushroom-that-makes-you-see-tiny-people
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/10/261024222021.htm
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