Ophiocordyceps sobolifera
investiganda
f. cul.
Ophiocordyceps sobolifera investiganda
investiganda: Owed an investigation. The species is on the Needs Investigation table because a question stands on its published record that the Key cannot read a verdict from: a poisoning reported and no molecule found, a molecule found and no sourced route, a mark in a source list, a molecule known from this one species and not yet confirmed. The name is the stem of its recorded molecule, where the record names one and decides it, then investiganda, and nothing after it while the row is open. Where the record names no molecule the name is investiganda alone, and the gap is deliberate. The Key reads molecules: it puts a molecule in a name only when a record has placed that molecule in the mushroom. A poisoning report is not such a record; it says that harm occurred, not what caused it. The molecule may well exist, and the word states that it is to be found, not a guess at what it will be. The species is not innocuus, because innocuus means that the published record carries no link to a toxic molecule, and this species is on the table because the question of such a link is open; it would be innocuus only once the question is closed in that direction. The species leaves the table, and the word, by a ruling: its molecule registered and read, or its record found to carry no molecule after all. Latin, the gerundive of investigare: to be investigated.
On Needs Investigation, Medicinal Use, The Complete Table.
GBIF: photographs, names and where it has been found.
Sources
| Li et al. 2021 | 2 reports of eating without harm Li H, Tian Y, Menolli N Jr, Ye L, Karunarathna SC, Perez-Moreno J, Rahman MM, Rashid MH, Phengsintham P, Rizal L, Kasuya T, Lim YW, Dutta AK, Khalid AN, Huyen LT, Balolong MP, Baruah G, Madawala S, Thongklang N, Hyde KD, Kirk PM, Xu J, Sheng J, Boa E, Mortimer PE (2021). Reviewing the world's edible mushroom species: a new evidence-based classification system. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 20: 1982-2014. Supplementary Table S1. link |
| Wu et al. 2026 | ‘药用(有毒)’ medicinal, possibly poisonous — entry 120, 多座线虫草; marked 有毒: a lead, not a record Wu F, Liu SB, Wang XH, Zhang M, Yang ZL, Dai YC (2026). 中国食药用菌物种编目 [Species cataloging of edible and medicinal fungi in China]. 菌物学报 Mycosystema 45(1): 250237. link |
| Wu et al. 2019 | ‘Relieving fever; detoxification; treating diabetes’ — Wu et al. 2019, Table 1, p. 32, citing Dai et al. 2009 Wu F, Zhou L-W, Yang Z-L, Bau T, Li T-H, Dai Y-C (2019). Resource diversity of Chinese macrofungi: edible, medicinal and poisonous species. Fungal Diversity 98: 1-76. doi:10.1007/s13225-019-00432-7. Table 1, 'Medicinal fungi and their function(s)'. link |
Needs Investigation. Why it is here: Trakulsrichai et al. 2024 name this species in three market specimens, none linked to a patient; nothing ties the poisonings to it, and no molecule has been found in it (a published record). What would settle it: Obtain the two documents that would settle the Thai series: the Hong Kong Poison Information Centre Annual Report 2020 (the assay of eaten material) and the full text of Fitoterapia 188:107028 (myriocin, no concentration in the abstract).
Medicinal Use. Medicinal use: Relieving fever; detoxification; treating diabetes (Wu et al. 2019, Table 1, p. 32, citing Dai et al. 2009). Listed as medicinal: Wu et al. 2026, 药用(有毒) ‘medicinal, possibly poisonous’. Under investigation: see Needs Investigation.
Cite this pageRubel, William. 2026. “Ophiocordyceps sobolifera.” Taxonomy of Toxins. Last modified 24 October 2026. https://taxonomyoftoxins.com/species/ophiocordyceps-sobolifera/