What a blob mutation is
A blob mutation is a cubensis fruit body that never finishes taking shape. Instead of a cap, a stem and a set of gills, it stays a lumpy, folded mass that vendors compare to a brain, a cauliflower or a geode. Gills are where spores form, so a true blob drops no spores at all. That is why there are no spore prints or spore syringes of these lines: vendors on Culture Cave list them as liquid culture and agar plates, living culture that carries the mutation forward without spores.
The best known is Enigma, and the usual account ties it to Tidal Wave. Sonoran, which lists Enigma as a 10mL liquid culture, says it "originally came about as a mutation during the Tidal Wave cross" and was then stabilised as a line of its own. The name, the vendor says, comes from its "mystifying and inexplicable growth formations".
Where Enigma comes from
Tidal Wave is listed as a cross of B+ and Penis Envy. Sporeworks describes it as "an unstable cross developed by Doma" with "a tendency to present mutant fruitbodies", and calls it "the progenitor of the sterile, cauliflower-like Brainiac and Enigma strains". Fungus Frequency gives the same pairing as B+ crossed with Sporeworks PE. None of this is written down outside the hobby, so treat it as the common account rather than a documented pedigree.
Tidal Wave itself still drops spores and is sold as isolated syringes, swabs, liquid culture and plates. It is also the parent of Toque, the stacked-cap isolation covered in the Toque post, which shows how one unstable cross can throw very different forms. Toque kept its gills; Enigma lost them.
Dino Spores adds a useful detail on one of its listings, where it calls Enigma "a non spore producing dikaryon". In plain words, Enigma is a mated culture, with two compatible nuclei in each cell, that forms tissue but never completes the gill stage. The only way to pass it on is as living tissue.
Blob, brain and geode: what the words mean
The three words describe one family of shapes, and vendors use them loosely. Blob is the general term. Brain points to a folded, convoluted surface. Geode suggests a heavier, rock-like lump. A blob line is usually kept as a clone of one such growth, so the culture carries the trait rather than a print.
A word in a name is not proof, though. Shakti Blue Brain is listed by Dino Spores as a swab set, which means it drops spores, and the vendor describes it only as an isolation from Shakti Blue Mutant. In this post a line is called a blob only where its own vendor uses the word.
The blob lines vendors list
Lines the vendor calls a blob
- Enigma. Sonoran's liquid culture, the Tidal Wave mutation described above.
- Shockwave Blob. Fungus Frequency calls it a blob isolation from a cross of Shakti and Lightwave, which it lists as Tidal Wave x AA+. Sold as liquid culture and research plates.
- Chocolate Krinkle Brain. A blob isolation by Dave Wombat out of Chocolate Krinkle, sold by Fungus Frequency as liquid culture and plates.
- Ghidorah's Brains. Fungus Frequency's own blob/mutant isolation of Ghidorah, a line from Sporeworks PE. The parent makes "dark spores and random blobs as well"; the isolation, the vendor says, "consistently produces just the mutations".
- Omni. A blob isolation from the Melmak OG lineage, sold by Fungus Frequency as a research plate. The Mak and Melmak post covers that family.
- Nimbus Omni Geode. Dino Spores describes Omni as a mutation from the Melmak/Homestead PE lineage, and this as a blob isolation shared with Yoshi by Turtle Hermit, known for "large, very odd, fruit structures, fins, and brainy blobs". The listing also carries the name Big Melty, which the vendor calls a reseller's rename; Geode is the name Turtle Hermit gave it.
- Jabba and Tattoo. Two more Fungus Frequency research plates, each described as a blob isolation from an older line.
Names that suggest a blob
Poofball Enigma is a Kaiju isolated syringe with no description beyond the name. The name ties it to Enigma, but the listing does not say whether it is a blob, so ask Kaiju what the syringe holds before assuming either way.
Brain Slugs is a Fungus Frequency research plate described as a mutant from a Dave Wombat lineage, isolated by Wade Wilson. Brain in the name, mutant on the label, and no mention of a blob.
What "revert" means
A revert is a line that has gone back towards the ordinary form after a mutation. For a blob, that means a culture that forms gills and drops spores again. Fungus Frequency puts it exactly that way for Omni Revert: "a revert from the blob isolation back to a spore producing fruit". Once a line makes spores again it can be printed, studied and crossed in the usual way, which is why reverts matter to breeders.
Fungus Frequency's Volomni is the next step: a cross of SV-10 and Omni (Revert), described as "an albino phenotype that's very dense with a blue hue to the cap". Bloberry Revert, from Black Forest Cultures, has a shorter note: a mutated SNAPE, reverted. The name hints at a blob, but the listing does not use the word, so all it tells you is that this is a mutant SNAPE line that has come back towards normal.
Revert is not only a blob word. Sonoran describes Melmak Revert as a form that has lost the Penis Envy shape of its parent and "looks like a normal Cubensis mushroom". Which trait reverted depends on the line, so read the description.
How breeders cross a line with no spores
A blob cannot be crossed by mixing spores, because it has none. Breeders work with cultures instead, and two routes turn up in listings.
The first is to break the blob back into its halves. Dino Spores' Nutcracker x TW2 is described as a mon-mon cross whose TW2 half was recovered by dedikaryotisation, a way of splitting a non-spore-producing dikaryon such as Enigma or TW2 into its original monokaryotic components. A monokaryon is the single-nucleus type of culture that normally grows from one spore, so once recovered it can be paired with a partner like any other.
The second is to pair the blob's dikaryon directly with another line's monokaryon. Fungus Frequency's Secret Shocker pairs an Albino Mystery monokaryon with a dikaryon from a Shockwave Blob isolate. Either way, blob genetics end up inside lines that make spores. The Jack Frost post explains mon-mon and di-mon crosses in more detail.
What you can study from a blob culture
Because there are no spores, a blob line is a culture product, found under liquid cultures and agar plates. Under the microscope a culture shows hyphae, the fine threads the fungus is built from, rather than spores, and mated cubensis hyphae carry small clamp connections at their cross walls, which are worth looking for. The spore syringe vs liquid culture guide explains the difference between the two formats.
If a listing of a blob line says syringe, read it as culture rather than a spore suspension. Dino Spores sells Nimbus Omni Geode as an isolated syringe; since a blob drops no spores, a syringe of one holds living culture, so check the description for what you are getting. For the other words on these labels, such as iso, mutant and F-numbers, see how to read a strain name.
Psilocybe and Panaeolus spores and cultures on Culture Cave are sold for microscopy and taxonomy use only, and buyers must know their local law before they order; the US legality guide is a starting point for American buyers.