Hemlock

[Geoff Dann]

One argument I've heard is that by picking and transporting mushrooms, you're actually helping them spread their spores around.

And there must be some truth to this, although I rather doubt there is enough truth to it to compensate for the damage caused by overpicking. Anyway...what I was actually refering to was the practice of "pick and hope" where you pick everything in an edible state and then expect somebody else to pick out the good edible ones. This specific practice would be disastrous, because it would mean people pick all sorts of things, including rare species like Amanita echinocephala which naturally produce very few fruiting bodies (that's why it is called "the solitary amanita"). What is gained by a short period of transportation is surely lost because the fruit body only produces a fraction of the number of spores it would have otherwised produced.

 

[Toddy]

I suspect one reason there's no obvious signs of chanterelles there is simply that everyone knows exactly what they are and how good they taste.
The fruiting body is just that. Don't most fungi spread quite happily using the mycellium anyway ?
Do those that infect trees through damaged bark or through insect attack only survive because of spore release ? Besides, no one takes all of those, chicken of the woods, beefsteak, oyster, jelly ears, whatever. There's always some left, and the commercial pickers are finding no shortages. Everything in it's season kind of thing.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Geoff Dann]

>> The fruiting body is just that. Don't most fungi spread quite happily using the mycellium anyway ?

No. Very few fungi do that. One notable exception is honey fungus, which spreads via underground "bootlaces".

>>Do those that infect trees through damaged bark or through insect attack only survive because of spore release ?

Yes.

And commercial pickers are beginning to notice shortages.

 

[Toddy]

http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/ethnobotany/ntfp/Mushrooms.htm

Apparantly for good money.

Good links for fungal foray groups

http://sites.google.com/site/scottishfungi/

http://www.fieldmycology.net/

http://www.abfg.org/about_us.php

Toddy

 

[Geoff Dann]

RE: http://www.abfg.org/about_us.php

I post on the ABFG board (a very small community at the moment), and this has somewhat heightened my awareness of the problems caused by irresponsible approaches to foraging.

 

[Toddy]

This is totally O.T.
What's the issue between the ABFG and the BMS ?

And what would you describe as irresponsible foraging ?

Genuinely curious; on this site there are an awful lot of us forage in season and you're the first person who has said they are associated with either of those two groups. The agenda/ issues/ reasons, would be interesting.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[Geoff Dann]

This is totally O.T.

Some of it is. Some of it isn't.

What's the issue between the ABFG and the BMS ?

I would like to know the answer to that question myself.

And what would you describe as irresponsible foraging ?

Example #1: Pick everything and then get some knowledgeable person to identify what is edible. Throw everything else in the bin.

Example #2: Pick all the edibles you find (find ten chanterelles growing in one place, pick all ten.)

The biggest problem is people picking rare species by mistake. This has already happened to me with clients. Somebody came up to me with a rather pale looking leccinum in their hand and asked me what it was. Turned out there was only one of them and it was the rare "ghost bolete" leccinum holopos. These get picked all the time by people who just take, for example, any non-red bolete.

Genuinely curious; on this site there are an awful lot of us forage in season and you're the first person who has said they are associated with either of those two groups. The agenda/ issues/ reasons, would be interesting.

I am not actually associated with the ABFG. I post there because I have a shared interest with them in mushrooms. Some of the people there do not like it that a forager has been allowed into the community, others see it as a valuable channel of communication with "the other side" and have at times defended me.

 

[Geoff Dann]

Toddy,

I perhaps should also say that part of the reason I ended up posting on the ABFG board was because I was banned from WildAboutBritain for continually talking about eating fungi. I need their knowledge, and because it is such a small community, it is an excellent place to learn.

Geoff

 

[xylaria]

>> The fruiting body is just that. Don't most fungi spread quite happily using the mycellium anyway ?

No. Very few fungi do that. One notable exception is honey fungus, which spreads via underground "bootlaces".

>>Do those that infect trees through damaged bark or through insect attack only survive because of spore release ?

Yes.

And commercial pickers are beginning to notice shortages.

A saprophite species such as hen of the woods will keep fruiting in the exactly the same place for a few years until it food source is exhausted. It does so because the mycellium lives for those years in that spot. Although very few fungi are known to produce mycellium of the magnitude of armillaria, some such as marasmius oreades can cover huge distances. Most woodland agaricomycetideae form mycorrhizal partnerships with trees, 80% of the life cycle and mass is spent in a hapliod state in this microscopic manner around tree roots. I too was a member of WAB i never got banned, but do a google scholar search on copraphilic reproduction of fungi, I am not one for arguing and I couldn't be bothered trying to go into why I think the fruit bodies are meant to eaten. Some fungi such as truffles have a 90% germination rate if the truffle is passed through a squirrel, some other species its badgers, or slugs or flys. I have eaten some chanterelles raw and eerrrrr deposted the incubated spore in an oak wood, i have never gone back to check if it worked. I use a wicker basket to collect as well.

It is important with bushcraft that things are done in harmony with nature, not as passive observers and greedy consumers. The balance comes from understanding your part in a cycle.

 

[Harvestman]

Geoff, just sent you a pm.