Welcome back, travelers, to another episode of Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms! Today I’ll be continuing where I left off in chapter 2. Last week I briefly mentioned mycorrhizal mushrooms, so today I’ll begin with parasitic mushrooms and finish off the chapter with Saprophytic Mushrooms. I’ll be keeping it brief and giving the more important bits of information since I don’t want to waste your time, but if you want to know more you can always purchase the book here to go deeper in the mycological universe.
Parasitic Mushrooms
Parasitic mushrooms have a bad reputation for endangering its host plant, and because of that, the amount of research on its importance to a forest’s ecosystem is quite limited. Armillaria mellea AKA the Honey fungus is the most popular edible parasitic mushroom. Of the genus Armillaria, the species A. gallica made national headlines when scientists discovered a single colony that was ~1,500 years old covering 37 acres and weighing over 220,000 pounds! Another species, A. ostoyae, was found in Washington State at around 2,400 years of age, covering 2,200 acres. This fungus is the largest known living organism on the planet!
Another parasitic mushroom, Bridgeoporus (Oxyporus) nobilissimus, appears in the pacific northwest, can weigh hundreds of pounds, and lives for hundreds of years! It’s the first ever mushroom to be listed as an endangered species, with less than a dozen specimens collected (as of 2000). Stamets says that because of its ability to survive for such a long time from its anti-rotting properties, antibiotics, or other compounds, it may have medicinal use if more research is done.
As research on parasitic mushrooms develops, scientists are able to make incredible discoveries from the neglected group of fungi. Montana State University had discovered that Taxomyces andreanae produces minute quantities of Taxol, a potent anticarcinogen proven to treat breast cancer. Another fungus in the Congo was found to duplicate the effects of insulin if ingested. There is an estimate of 1,500,000 species of fungi with only about 70,000 identified, and of those, only 10,000 are mushrooms. The research done on fungi has barely scratched the surface, yet fungi’s role in our ecosystem is of absolute necessity.
Saprophytic Mushrooms
Saprophytic mushrooms are the primary decomposers of nature, and they also compose of most of the gourmet mushrooms. Saprophytic mushrooms secrete enzymes and acids to break down cell walls of plants, degrading them from large molecular complexes into simpler compounds that other life forms, like plants, insects, bacteria, and other microscopic life.
Saprophytic mushrooms are broken down into three main categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary decomposers. Primary decomposers digest plant tissue, wood for the most part. Secondary decomposers break down the product from the primary ones, and tertiary further decomposes what the primary and secondary decomposers produce.
Alright folks, that’ll be it for today. I hope these blog posts are as helpful to you as they have been to me. I’ve been doing these not only to reinforce our mission to educate our little community we have going but also for my own self development and improvement, which I hope will positively impact those around me as well. As always, safe journeys everyone, and we’ll see you next week!