Fungus on used tea leaves

[warrains]

I put used tea leaves in a rubbish bin with a plastic liner. A strange looking orange growth appeard on the leaves. See photo. Strangely, when I put used tea leaves in a bin with a white plastic liner, snow white blooms of what appeard to be fungus grew on it, similar to the orange blooms but much more prolific. My great concern is whether there is something in the tea that may be harmful. Appreciate thoughts please.

[techhydra]

Fungus grows on organic material once spores have been transmitted on it. Spores can be transfered by air, water or by traveling on animals (organisms or insects). Unless you see fungal growth on the tea leaves before you make tea I wouldn't be concerned about something being in the tea. Its unlikely that the fungus is coming from water as you are heating it in order to make the tea which should in theory kill any spores if they were present.

 

Most likely the spores that create this fungus are transfered through the air which eventually find their way on your wet tea leaves giving them an ideal place to grow with lots of nutrients. Alternatively this may be caused by spore residue in your trash can, however I think it's more likely that they are probably being transfered from a source outside your house.

If you notice fungal growth in an other areas of your house, such as under the sink, bathroom, etc you may want to have someone check out the place and make sure you don't have issues with mold in your walls which could result in structural damage.

[Shinigami4]

Good point "techhydra" but just a question to "warrains" : How much time did it take to become like in the picture?

[warrains]

Good point "techhydra" but just a question to "warrains" : How much time did it take to become like in the picture?

About 5 days.

[iRNAblogger]

So long as the tea leaves do not look like that when you first ingest them, I think you should be fine. We accidentally ingest all sorts of fungi and fungal spores throughout a normal day, so unless there is a particularly high number of fungal cells on the tea when you drink it, it should be safe. If you are worried about it, you could take the tea leaves, spread them on a cookie sheet and bake them in the oven briefly just to kill everything (this may cause the tea to taste weird, I've never tried it before)