The World's Most Expensive Fungus

The priciest fungus in the world is a parasite that grows from a caterpillar’s head.
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NPR—Caterpillar Fungus: The Viagra of the Himalayas:

National Geographic—Caterpillar Fungus Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties:

Cochrane—Cordyceps sinensis (a Chinese medicinal herb) for treating chronic kidney disease:

Science Alert—The parasitic fungus is worth more than its weight in gold:

Nature—Asian medicine: A Fungus in decline:

7th International Medicinal Mushroom Conference—Steps towards Sustainable Harvest of Yartsa Gunbu (Caterpillar Fungus, Ophiocordyceps sinensis):

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Host, Animator, Editor
Anna Rothschild

Writer
Elizabeth Preston

Camera, Sound
Seeta Joseph

Quirky Idea
Music Provided by APM

FOOTAGE AND IMAGES

Caterpillar Fungus 2
Filmographer:
Rdo rje don 'grub རྡོ་རྗེ་དོན་འགྲུབ།
(Duojieduanzhi)
Flickr/Koknor Koknor

Cordyceps sinensis in ground
Exposed 2008 and Bu Finding BarLa288
©Daniel Winkler

Weighing Caterpillar Fungus
Wikimedia Commons/Mario Biondi

Soup of Silkie Seahorse and Cordyceps
Wikimedia Commons/Kent Wang

Mountain yak penis, fungus as Chinese medicines
Wikimedia Commons/Angela Schmeidel Randall

Cordyceps Sinensis
Wikimedia Commons/Rafti Institute

Caterpillar Fungus Store, Central Lhasa
Flickr/Erik Törner

Duck Tales, Alice in Wonderland, Mario Gifs
Giphy

SFX

Cockroaches
Freesound/StateAardvark­
(used with permission from author)

Squeak Pack/squeak_10
Freesound/Corsica_S

Jawharp Boing
Freesound/plingactivator

Swish Unwrap Fast
Freesound/goldendiaphragm

RAM_Mouth Hawk_rev_v1
Freesound/Reidedo

Male drinking slurping aaaaaaaaaaah small belch
Freesound/Anton

Tape Pulling Off Surface
Freesound/Baryy

MouthPop
Freesound/HerbertBoland

Produced by WGBH for PBS Digital Studios

[TheV-Man]

wow no matter how much we try fly and mosquito population hasn't decreased but the damn expensive fungus goes extinct....

[ashikgurung]

It's yarsagumba found in Nepal, very expensive.

[newmenster]

Yartsa Gunbu means "Grass in summer, worm in winter" in Tibetan.

[Bzdm]

Yartsagunbu is the Tibetan name of this fungus. Yar (Summer) + tsa(grass) + gun(winter) + bu(bug), grass in summer and bug in winter. She used the Tibetan name because its found in Tibet. However, Tibet is not the only place where it grows. It grows in Nepal, Bhutan, and other Himalayan regions.

[meliodass]

in nepal, to collect yartsa gumba children as well as adult (even whole family) go in search of it leaving all their work and even school .... cause if u able to collect a few pounds .... ur whole year will passed easily .... damn worth a lot ...

[whatthefunction]

You have to get jimmy fallon to come on your show as his eeeewww character.

[Victorchaint]

it is available in Burma as well, it is located in icy northern part of Burma (Myanmar).

[mirajanestrauss]

it is called "yaarsagumba". you can find them in Nepal above the altitude of 5000m. It is very expensive and is a medicine. It is very helpful to cure diseases.

[debakidebaki]

In Nepal we call it Yarsagumba, every year many people climbs the himalays to get them for economy .

[WingN]

have always been curious exactly what it is since it's such a delicacy according to the older generations, but honestly, lots of people who consume it doesn't know it's a real Caterpillar that has been infected

[Storm-ciox]

Zombie mushrooms cure cancer. Yup, that sounds reasonable.

[aadarshasubedi]

90% of world market is occupied by Nepal for yarchagumba..

[Nothaut]

Why is rare, gross stuff always an aphrodisiac?

[ePuffer]

this thing is called 冬虫夏草, winter worm summer grass

[yihuiang]

My sister had to take this when she was a kid. Hence I had this at home when I was a kid. And hence I have held it before. I never knew I was holding a caterpillar carcass with a parasitic fungus growing out of its head. Omg. Back then, when I asked my parents what they were, they were unsure too. All they said was that it was something quite mysterious, that lives its youth in winter as an animal that moves and its adulthood as a plant in summer that doesn't move, hence the name literally translating to "winter worm summer grass". Argh...i held dead caterpillars in my hands as a kid...

[NatetheNerdy]

I was getting worried, it had been a long time since we had a video from you.

[oskargurung]

Actually, Yarsa Gumba is mostly found in Nepal.

[daan]

this is now actually grown by people to make it into a supplement, which is not even expensive. I take this pretty much everyday and honestly it´s amazing. it has a lot of pretty amazing benefits, but the most noticeable is that it increases your endurance and your overall energy level. It just makes you feel like an marathon runner.

[StudioOsEntertainment]

you have litte knowledge about Yarsagumba best place for yarsa found in himalayan region of Nepal even chinese people buy it from Nepal.

[rezuhchhetri]

i had studied about this stuff back in nepal when i was a kid. we call it cordyceps( yarchagumba). half plant and half animal. its found in himalayan region especially in NEPAL. they are useful in making medicines for heart diseases, brain diseases and so on.