Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros. is undisputedly one the most iconic and successful video games ever made, with more than 58 million copies sold worldwide. Even if you’ve never played the original game or any of the hundreds of titles that span the expansive Mario Universe, you’ve undoubtedly seen Mario or his brother Luigi with their matching hats, dungarees, and mustaches, jumping up and breaking bricks to uncover fire flower or super mushroom power-ups along the way.
The game was first released in North America on October 18, 1985. Only five years later, it was said that more children in the United States were familiar with Mario than they were with Mickey Mouse. In response to those early comparisons to Disney, Shigeru Miyamoto, who produced and directed Super Mario Bros. for Nintendo, told The New Yorker that he admired, “the idea that a company could make these long-lasting symbols.”
Forty years later, there are plenty of reasons for Super Mario Bros’ long-lasting success, from popularizing the side-scrolling platform genre to its precise controls and unforgettable soundtrack. However, the super mushroom, a power-up similar to Pac-Man’s power pellets, is what really super-sized Mario and became one of the most iconic symbols of the entire franchise.
“Within the Super Mario universe, there’s very few items that have remained constant throughout its entirety–mushrooms are definitely one of them,” Javier Tabima Restrepo, a Fungal Evolutionary Biologist at Clark University, tells Popular Science.
But don’t just take a mycologist’s word. Their hearts are almost certainly full of mold!
“I might go a little bit further,” says Jim Norman, staff writer for popular Nintendo-centric website Nintendo Life. “Super mushrooms are one of the enduring symbols of gaming, full stop.”
Mario’s mushroom is very real
Miyamoto’s decision to include mushrooms in the game was inspired by the fungal realm’s long-established association with magical worlds akin to those created by author Lewis Carroll in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and by Walt Disney in Fantasia (1940).
In Super Mario Bros., touching a super mushroom not only transforms Mario into Super Mario, a form twice as tall as his regular form, but it also allows him to break bricks and take one hit from enemies or obstacles before returning to his original size. The super mushroom is the very first power-up you encounter in the entire game and that’s probably not by accident.
“Because it drops down and invites you to pick it up, I think it clues you in for how the rest of the game is going to work—these blocks might contain something useful so you should probably try hitting them. It’s a really smart bit of design,” says Norman.
The super mushroom in the game didn’t always look like the iconic red cap with white spots we immediately associate with Mario today. The original power-up appeared orange with red spots and a white stem in its debut release. Nearly every mushroom in Mario’s expansive world is modeled after the real-life mushroom Amanita muscaria. The popular mushroom is also commonly referred to as the fly agaric for its uncanny ability to attract and intoxicate flies.
“Amanita muscaria is instantly recognizable with its red cap and white spots” says Cat Adams, research mycologist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and an expert on Amanita mushrooms.
Outside of Mario’s world, Adams says that most people recognize it as the inspiration behind the first mushroom emoji, which debuted in 2015. Younger kids also likely recognize it from Minecraft, where it debuted in 2009. Despite widespread recognition, Adams shared that many of gamer friends were shocked to learn that Mario’s mushroom actually existed in real life, where it powers-up trees, not plumbers, by forming beneficial partnerships with the roots of numerous plant species.
“Touching a real-life Amanita muscaria won’t make you grow taller,” adds Adams, “but they might make the world look bigger.”
Amantia’s diversity… and edibility
The genus Amanita includes hundreds of species including both edible and poisonous mushrooms, the latter of which account for over 90 percent of all mushroom fatalities including the “murder-by-mushroom” conviction in Australia earlier this year. The common names of many of the poisonous Amanita mushrooms include foreboding monikers like death cap mushroom and destroying angel.
Many, but not all, Amanita mushrooms contain the iconic cap warts though most are white or yellow. The caps come in a range of colors including white, yellow, orange, red, and brown but not yellow with green spots like 1-Up mushrooms in Super Mario Bros. “There are definitely no green Amanita species,” says Adams.
Yet given the fact that a majority of fungi on this planet are still undescribed, Luigi’s mushroom may still be out there waiting to be discovered!
The edibility status of Amanita muscaria is complicated. Though rarely deadly, this species contains the psychoactive compounds ibotenic acid and muscimol. When consumed raw, they can cause delirium, visions, and/or nausea. However, unlike death cap mushrooms and destroying angels, many of the toxins found in Amanita muscaria are water-soluble and can be removed by parboiling them prior to cooking or by other means. In late 2024, the FDA warned that psychoactive edibles containing these ingredients were not authorized for use in food after linking them to numerous illnesses and a few suspected deaths.
Mario’s other mushrooms
Super mushrooms may dominate Mario’s Universe, but they are far from alone or the most exciting virtual mushrooms.
1-Up Mushrooms, with their yellow cap with green spots, are the only other mushrooms that appear, albeit rarely, in the original Super Mario Bros. and give the player an extra life. Over the years, other Mario games and spinoffs have introduced us to new mushrooms including mega mushrooms and mystery mushrooms. Some of the more beloved mushroom power-ups include the golden mushrooms and bee mushrooms.
Golden mushrooms are probably best known for giving a player an endless amount of speed boosts for a limited time in the Mario Kart series. The bee mushroom, which is hairy and striped like a bee, turns Mario into bee Mario, who can fly and climb on sticky honey walls. “It really blew my mind when I was playing Galaxy on the Wii for the first time,” Norman says.
So next time you spot an iconic red cap mushroom with white spots in the home décor section of your favorite box store, remember that Amanita muscaria are very real mushrooms and help trees persist in otherwise inhospitable places and environments. Mario may not have invented the mushroom or the power-up, but it was that modest mustached plumber, not a master mycologist, that helped elevate toadstools into something more.
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