Lichen manna

Circinaria esculenta

mushroom

A lichen in small grains, piled up by the wind in deserts, ground into flour and baked into flatbreads in famine years.

Origin

Steppes of Central Asia and the Middle East

Where to find it

In Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, its granules roll across the clay steppe; nobody makes flatbreads from it any more.

Season (United States)

all year round

Preparation

Famine food: it concentrates pollutants, and is eaten cooked, in small amounts.

Molecules

Mushroom beta-glucans

Did you know?

Some have seen in it the manna of the Bible, fallen from the sky in the desert.