The Penguin’s new designer drug is based on a real, strange mushroom

In this week’s episode of “The Penguin,” a new drug was introduced to Gotham – something that surpasses the drug everyone was taking in “The Batman,” and was used by its users, who were known as “Drop-Heads.” “Drops” was called. The penguin introduced us to Bliss, a red crystalline drug. However, its source has a fascinating, if not exactly euphoric, real-world origin.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Penguin, Episode 3, which aired October 6.

Oz “The Penguin” Cobb sees a chance to make it big in Gotham. Carmine Falcone is dead and the late mafia boss’s family is in turmoil as they figure out how to deal with it, with the fallout from the Riddler’s bombing only adding to the confusion. We’ve heard about a breakthrough drug and now we can finally see it.

Sofia Falcone takes Oz to visit the warehouse where the drug is manufactured and the growing room where the entire process begins. There we see hanging garbage bags covered in mushrooms – white mushrooms covered in a glittering, viscous, crimson liquid. It looks dangerous, as you would expect in a movie where characters visit alien planets.

However, aside from the gritty urban setting and fictional criminals, it’s not the most unrealistic sight. Both the method and the mushroom itself are very real things.

The fungus is referred to as the “Bleeding Tooth Fungus” in the series, and in real life it is also called this: “Bleeding Tooth” or “Devil’s Tooth Fungus”. Hydnellum peckii is the scientific name.

Bleeding tooth is a particularly striking fungus due to the contrast between the pink-white cap and the bright purple fluid it excretes. However, this is where fiction and reality separate. Although the bleeding tooth is not known to be poisonous, it is said to have a particularly bitter taste. While the liquid is not known to be psychoactive, the reality is just as interesting. The liquid has anticoagulant properties, which means it has a blood-thinning effect and behaves similarly to the common blood-thinning drug heparin. That’s right – it’s a blood thinner looks like blood.

The growth method is also based on reality. Real mycologists (both aspiring and otherwise) often grow mushrooms on the sides of hanging bags to maximize the limited area.

We don’t recommend going into the forest and popping any mushrooms in your mouth, but the team behind The Penguin chose a particularly interesting species of mushroom from which to create their fictional drug. Just don’t try to get high with it, and Please Don’t eat random wild mushrooms.

Image source: Getty Images/DEA/P. PUCCINELLI