25/09/2025
🌸 A Student Cracks a 100-Year-Old Mystery Behind Morning Glory’s Psychedelic Secret
For nearly a century, scientists puzzled over where the psychedelic power of Heavenly Blue morning glories truly came from. Now, a breakthrough has solved the mystery — and it wasn’t by a senior researcher, but by a student.
Corinne Hazel, an environmental microbiology student at West Virginia University, has identified the hidden culprit: a newly discovered fungus named Periglandula clandestina. Living inside the seed coat, this fungus produces ergot alkaloids — the same class of compounds used to synthesize L*D.
The discovery confirms what Albert Hofmann, the chemist who first created L*D in the 1930s, long suspected: that morning glories harbor a fungal partner similar to the rye-infecting Claviceps purpurea.
This revelation not only explains how these garden flowers gained their hallucinogenic properties but also deepens our understanding of plant–fungus symbiosis. For Mesoamerican cultures, morning glories held spiritual significance in rituals, and now science shows why.
Beyond cultural history, the findings have modern promise: ergot alkaloids are being studied for treating migraines, dementia, and neurodegenerative diseases. By showing how these compounds arise naturally, Hazel’s work opens new doors for medicine, agriculture, and the exploration of hidden partnerships in nature.
🔬 Sometimes, the biggest scientific answers are hiding in the smallest details — even in the seeds of common garden plants.
Source: A new species of Periglandula symbiotic with the morning glory Ipomoea tricolor. Mycologia, April 22, 2025.
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