<![CDATA[Alden Dirks - 1001 Mushrooms]]>

<![CDATA[Alden Dirks - 1001 Mushrooms]]>Wed, 25 Mar 2026 11:57:08 -0400Weebly<![CDATA[#21 - Matsutake (Tricholoma magnivelare)]]>Fri, 05 Dec 2025 05:00:00 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/21-matsutake-tricholoma-magnivelareMycoBank Taxonomy: Fungi, Dikarya, Basidiomycota, Agaricomycotina, Agaricomycetes, Agaricales, Tricholomataceae, Tricholoma

Oh, matsutake:
The excitement before finding them.

–Yamaguchi Sodo (1642–1716)

Matsutake… the name alone evokes something special and nostalgic: a crisp walk in the woods, a seasonal treat, a festive time. In Japan, where matsutake enjoys unrivaled popularity (matsutake means “pine mushroom” in Japanese), almost 1000 tons are consumed annually, and a single mushroom can cost up to $100. To feed this demand, mushrooms are imported from around the world, especially from China, the Pacific Northwest, and Mexico (Ota et al., 2012; Murata et al., 2023). Matsutake provides nontimber value to forests that can exceed the lumber value of the trees, promoting forest conservation and rural wellbeing (Chapela & Garbelotto, 2004). So what makes matsutake so good?

Matsutake’s allure emanates from its aroma. It’s something unique and almost indescribable — the smell of matsutake — “once smelled, never forgotten”, “a taste of autumn from the old days” (Gulden et al., 2014; Yamanaka et al., 2020). I’d wager that one of the greatest pleasures in life is finding fresh matsutake emerging as mushrump masses in a duffed pine forest and getting on all fours to sniff them like a pig. Without smelling it for yourself, the best one can do is approximate it by comparing it to other, more familiar odors. Reminiscent of a warm spice like nutmeg, clove, or cinnamon, matsutake is most like the latter but categorically different and definitively funkier. David Arora famously described the smell as “a provocative compromise between ‘Red Hots’ and dirty socks” (Arora, 1986, p. 191). In the food science world, matsutake’s aroma is characterized as spicy with floral and citrus undertones, an alchemy created by the odorants 1-octen-3-one (mushroom quality), linalool (floral-citrus), hexanal (green), and ethyl (E)-3-phenylprop-2-enoate (cinnamon) (Murray et al., 2020). Like truffles, matsutake is all about the volatiles.

Matsutake does not refer to a single species but rather a complex of species in the taxonomic group Tricholoma section Matsutake, all highly valued in Japanese markets for their enticing aroma. While morphologically similar, these species have varying degrees of geographic overlap and endemicity across the Northern Hemisphere, roughly matching the distribution of coniferous genera (Chapela & Garbelotto, 2004; Trudell et al., 2017; Aoki et al., 2022; Murata et al., 2023; Ding et al., 2023). Tricholoma matsutake, the eponymous taxon, is found in Asia and Europe and features a reddish brown cap. Tricholoma magnivelare, the subject of this article, is closely related to T. matsutake but grows exclusively in Eastern North America and has a lighter tannish cap. In the Western United States, one finds T. murrillianum; in Mexico, T. mesoamericanum; and in Southern Europe, T. anatolicum. When shopping for matsutake of unknown origin, you could be eating any one or even an assortment of these five different species. Tricholoma section Matsutake also contains T. dulciolens, T. ilkkae, and other less studied odoriferous oddballs that apparently have a more perfumed or fruity aroma (Intini et al., 2003; Heilmann-Clausen et al., 2017; Zhao et al., 2022). Rounding out the section are T. bakamatsutake, T. caligatum, T. fulvocastaneum, and similar undescribed species, all associated with angiosperms. Colloquially called “false matsutake” or “fool’s matsutake”, these species look like matsutake and are edible, but they sometimes taste bitter and lack the compelling matsutake aroma (Chapela & Garbelotto, 2004; Bergo, 2018; Ding et al., 2023). Oh, the disappointment of the foolish matsutake forager!

Much more than an esoteric endeavor of biological classification, matsutake taxonomy is relevant to the chef and forager, too. From my experience eating Tricholoma magnivelare, I (and others) have noticed distinct smells that I have not heard associated with other matsutake species — specifically, something of a latex paint or freshly printed office paper smell. These notes become more pronounced the longer the mushroom has been out of the ground. Another notable difference is that T. magnivelaria primordia — young mushrooms whose caps have not yet expanded enough to break their partial veil — are nearly odorless. Instead, the mature, well expanded caps have the most potent and delicious smell. This contrasts with T. matsutake, whose primordia are premium grade and fetch the highest sums in Japanese markets due to their more pungent aroma. This observation has puzzled me and is something I’d like to investigate further. It’s exciting to think about sampling all the different matsutake species in one sitting to explore their nuances in taste and aroma!

Like most of the highly prized/priced mushrooms on the market, matsutake fungi are ectomycorrhizal, an ecological barrier to a robust supply. Attempts at cultivating matsutake have been met with limited success, and they must instead be foraged from the wild. Tricholoma magnivelare is partial to pines in low-nutrient, well draining soils, like those found in pine barren ecosystems. To find matsutake, you should look in areas with especially stunted trees and limited to no undergrowth. The reindeer lichen Cladonia rangiferina and the bleeding tooth mushrooms Hydnellum peckii are both good indicator species that you are in the right habitat. If you do find a matsutake patch, you can expect the mushrooms to come back in the same spot year after year. The mushrooms will likely be sandy and should be cleaned thoroughly in the field. Rinsing other mushrooms is usually OK, but matsutake should never be rinsed under the tap or bathed and swished as it loses a lot of its aroma when inundated.

My favorite preparation for matsutake is a rice dish called matsutake gohan, which translates to “pine mushroom rice”. This is the best way to capture matsutake’s beautiful aroma. To prepare matsutake gohan, you will need high-quality sushi rice, dashi broth, and lots of matsutake. I know — one of the core tenets of foraging is to never overindulge; anything can make you feel unwell if overconsumed. But I am such a shameless glutton when it comes to matsutake, and that has always been more than OK for me. Matsutake mushrooms are hefty and dense, so even a single mushroom can make a whole dish. After rinsing the rice, it can be cooked with the dashi broth in the usual way, with a little extra broth to account for the extra mass of the mushrooms. I add a bunch of thinly sliced matsutake pieces at the beginning and then again at the end for a light steaming, finally topped with some slivered scallions. Breaking another core tenet of foraging, I’ve always been OK eating matstuke raw or lightly steamed. Well cooked and lightly cooked matsutake together result in a rice well imbued with the volatiles and an unforgettable culinary experience.

What they don’t tell you is that matsutake is an excellent culinary mushroom outside of its aroma. Like truffles, a heavily cooked matsutake loses its volatiles, but the result is still great (much better than cooked truffle). Meaty and succulent, matsutake can also be prepared like any other mushroom with excellent results. I love baking matsutake in aluminum foil with loads of garlic for juicy, flavorful mushroom bites. If you have too much matsutake (is that even possible?), you can dehydrate and powderize the mushrooms. The flavor profile of matsutake powder is wholly different from that of fresh fruiting bodies — much more robust and mushroomy, nutty even — and is a great flavor spike in any savory dish.

The delicacy of matsutake has been commodified and globalized, touching rural residents and urban dwellers across much of the world. However, as Anna Tsing enlightens us in The Mushroom at the End of the World, there is something untamable in matsutake and the mushroom fever that afflicts those searching for it. Matsutake teaches us about the possibility of life in capitalist ruins and the joy and necessity of interspecies entanglements. They teach us about freedom and aliveness.

Specimen

ACD0587, iNaturalist #139443316; 17 October 2022; MA, USA; leg. Alden C. Dirks; GenBank OQ785316 (ITS), OQ785300 (LSU); MICH (not yet accessioned).

Online Resources

References

Aoki W, Bergius N, Kozlan S, Fukuzawa F, Okuda H, Murata H, Ishida TA, Vaario L-M, Kobayashi H, Kalmiş E, et al. 2022. New findings on the fungal species Tricholoma matsutake from Ukraine, and revision of its taxonomy and biogeography based on multilocus phylogenetic analyses. Mycoscience 63: 197–214.

Arora D. 1986. Mushrooms Demystified: A Comprehensive Guide to the Fleshy Fungi. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press.

Bergo A. 2018. Tricholoma caligatum: the false matsutake. Forager | Chef.

Chapela IH, Garbelotto M. 2004. Phylogeography and evolution in matsutake and close allies inferred by analyses of ITS sequences and AFLPs. Mycologia 96: 730–741.

Ding XX, Xu X, Cui YY, Kost G, Wang PM, Yang ZL. 2023. A fifty-locus phylogenetic analysis provides deep insights into the phylogeny of Tricholoma (Tricholomataceae, Agaricales). Persoonia 50: 1–26.

Gulden G, Trudell S, Frøslev T, Voitk A. 2014. Species of Tricholoma sect. Caligatum in Newfoundland and Labrador. Omphalina 5: 5–9.

Heilmann-Clausen J, Christensen M, Frøslev TG, Kjøller R. 2017. Taxonomy of Tricholoma in northern Europe based on ITS sequence data and morphological characters. Persoonia 38: 38–57.

Intini M, Dogan HH, Riva A. 2003. Tricholoma anatolicum spec. nov.: a new member of the matsutake group. Micologia e Vegetazione Mediterranea 18: 135–142.

Murata H, Yamada A, Ichida H, Nakamura N, Neda H. 2023. Biodiversity of Tricholoma matsutake (syn. T. nauseosum) and its related species based on repetitive DNA and genomics. Botany 101: 138–154.

Murray AF, Moore AJ, Munafo JPJr. 2020. Key odorants from the American matsutake, Tricholoma magnivelare. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 68: 9768–9775.

Ota Y, Yamanaka T, Murata H, Neda H, Ohta A, Kawai M, Yamada A, Konno M, Tanaka C. 2012. Phylogenetic relationship and species delimitation of matsutake and allied species based on multilocus phylogeny and haplotype analyses. Mycologia 104: 1369–1380.

Trudell SA, Xu J, Saar I, Justo A, Cifuentes J. 2017. North American matsutake: names clarified and a new species described. Mycologia 109: 379–390.

Yamanaka T, Yamada A, Furukawa H. 2020. Advances in the cultivation of the highly-prized ectomycorrhizal mushroom Tricholoma matsutake. Mycoscience 61: 49–57.

Zhao Z-X, Song J-G, Senanayake IC, Wu D-S, Wang G-Q, Xu B. 2022. Tricholoma tianshanense sp. nov., in Tricholoma sect. Caligata from Tianshan Mountains in China evidenced by morphological characters and phylogenetic analyses. Phytotaxa 549: 22–30.

]]><![CDATA[Creation of provisional species names for the jelly fungus genus Phaeotremella]]>Sat, 09 Aug 2025 01:19:51 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/creation-of-provisional-species-names-for-the-jelly-fungus-genus-phaeotremellaThis post is a part of a series outlining the rationale for the creation of provisional species names. For more information on provisional species names, see Stephen Russell's post here. To see other posts like this, check out the "Provisional Species Names" category in the sidebar.

Phaeotremella dejopia holotype

Phaeotremella is a genus of large, foliar jelly fungi and single-celled yeast forms. In 2023, I described a new species, Phaeotremella dejopia, perhaps the largest of the mushroom-forming Phaeotremella species and one with pale, wavy fronds. A reinvestigation of ITS sequence data suggests there are two more undescribed species from North America, which I give provisional species names here.

Phylogenetic tree of Phaeotremella ITS sequences from iNaturalist and GenBank. The sequences were aligned with MAFFT, trimmed with trimAl, analysed with IQ-TREE 3, midpoint rooted and printed with ggtree in R, and edited with Adobe Illustrator. Ultrafast bootstrap support values greater than 95% are shown.

Phaeotremella sp. 'MI01'

This species is sister to the rest of the Phaeotremella foliacea species complex. More collections are required to formally describe it. The reddish coloration is notable.

Phaeotremella sp. 'MI01' found by Huafang Su (iNat107151176)

Top section of the full Phaeotremella tree.

Phaoetremella sp. 'frondosa-WA01'

This species is sister to Phaeotremella frondosa. Collections from Montenegro and Sweden seem to be conspecific, but the ITS sequences are short.

Phaeotremella sp. 'frondosa-WA01' found by Yi-Min Wang (iNat172923698)

Bottom section of the full Phaeotremella tree.

Other systematics issues

I believe all the sequenced specimens in the middle portion of the tree may belong to yeast forms. There are a lot of unknown lineages showing up from Russia and China.

Middle section of the full Phaeotremella tree.

]]><![CDATA[Creation of provisional species name Xylobolus sp. 'frustulatus-MA01']]>Thu, 31 Jul 2025 17:34:58 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/creation-of-provisional-species-name-xylobolus-sp-frustulatus-ma01This post is a part of a series outlining the rationale for the creation of provisional species names. For more information on provisional species names, see Stephen Russell's post here. To see other posts like this, check out the "Provisional Species Names" category in the sidebar.

Xylobolus frustulatus is a common crust fungus that produces repeating tile-like, cracked fruiting bodies on hardwood logs. This is the reason behind the specific epithet "frustulatus", which derives from the Latin frustum or frustulum meaning "piece" or "part". Originally described as Thelephora frustulata by Christiaan Hendrik Persoon in 1801, the species was sanctioned by Elius Magnus Fries in 1821 and transferred to Xylobolus by Petter Adolf Karsten in 1881. European names are frequently applied to North American fungi, but DNA sequencing has shown time and again that they are often different species. This appears to be the case with Xylobolus frustulatus.

Phylogenetic tree of Xylobolus ITS sequences from iNaturalist and GenBank. The sequences were aligned with MAFFT, trimmed with trimAl, analysed with IQ-TREE 3, and midpoint rooted and printed with ggtree in R. Ultrafast bootstrap support values greater than 95% are shown.

The Xylobolus ITS tree above shows a phylogenetic separation between Euroasian and North American Xylobolus frustulatus specimens, and the distance matrix below shows a clear ITS barcode gap as well. Since Xylobolus frustulatus was first described from Europe, I'm creating a provisional species name to refer to the North American clade: Xylobolus sp. 'frustulatus-MA01'. The code "MA01" refers to Massachusetts based on the origin of the oldest sequenced specimen on iNaturalist, one that I collected and barcoded years ago (iNaturalist172276632). Other sequenced specimens belonging to Xylobolus sp. 'frustulatus-MA01' can be explored here. I expect this is an undescribed species, but a more thorough investigation of type material and previously published names that might apply to this clade are required.

Distance matrix and heatmap of ITS pairwise percent similarity in the Xylobolus frustulatus group.

]]><![CDATA[My take on The Telepathy Tapes]]>Tue, 06 May 2025 16:46:11 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/my-take-on-the-telepathy-tapesThe thesis of The Telepathy Tapes podcast is that consciousness is not an emergent property of the brain but rather the foundation of the universe, something that exists as a type of field, like gravity or electromagnetism. Neurotypical people have a “dissociative boundary” that insulates them from this collective consciousness. However, certain people with autism, particularly nonverbal or minimally verbal individuals, are more attuned to this field, allowing them to tap into it (receive it? channel it?) more readily. This facilitates all kinds of parapsychological phenomena like telepathy, clairvoyance, and seeing spirits. The collective consciousness might also be called a different realm, another dimension, or just heaven.

Maybe… I guess?

Our guide on this exploration of consciousness is filmmaker and podcaster Ky Dickens. The first few episodes build the case for a collective consciousness by exploring telepathy between individuals with autism and their parents, teachers, and caregivers with whom they share a close bond. These initial episodes feel like a painstaking attempt to convince a skeptical audience that telepathy is a real, measurable phenomenon. The podcast accelerates quickly in later episodes as they expound on their theory and its myriad implications. Like a geode, the narrative opens slowly, slowly, and then suddenly to reveal a sparkling, crystalline, incredible reality.

The primary issue I have with The Telepathy Tapes is that these initial episodes “proving” telepathy are wholly unbelievable to me, and thus everything afterwards feels like speculative fiction.

To convince the skeptics, Dickens records her telepathy tests and makes the videos available to the public on the show's website. Unfortunately, when you go to look at the videos you learn that they are behind a paywall… not a great start for peer review. But they can be found elsewhere, for example in this YouTube video. The videos of Akhil are particularly telling as he represents one of the most talented telepaths according to resident expert Dr. Diane Hennacy Powell. Here you can see Akhil typing the word “crocodile” via telepathy with his mom. The problem is she is sitting right next to him, practically touching his elbow at times, and her body sways to match the position of the keys on the keyboard, cueing Akhil on which key to press. If this video is representative of the podcast's scientific rigor, count me as unsold.

At the heart of the The Telepathy Tapes is a contentious technique called facilitated communication whose users are called “spellers”. This article explores this topic in detail and presents a cogent argument for its scientific invalidity as well as its dangers. Crucially, I learned that there are other communication techniques available to autistic individuals—it's not facilitated communication or no communication. The Telepathy Tapes, whose subjects appear to be entirely spellers, simplifies the debate by excluding mention of these other more accepted augmentative and alternative communication techniques.

The Telepathy Tapes frequently asserts the scientific validity of their theories all the while criticizing the mainstream scientific institution and its philosophy of materialism that rejects their ideas. Materialism posits that everything emerges from the fundamental properties of physics and the interaction of matter and energy, including consciousness. Anything real is measurable and observable (even if technology does not yet allow us to measure or observe something directly). There is much less of a dichotomy between materialism and their theory of collective consciousness than they portray. Even if consciousness were not an emergent property of the brain but rather something outside of ourselves as they claim, many features of their theory would still be measurable. Take telepathy — this should be a readily measurable phenomenon existing in the realm of materialism. They themselves are attempting to convince their audience of its validity by conducting "telepathy tests". There is no dichotomy between materialism and their theory of collective consciousness, just the inability to conduct scientifically sounds tests.

One positive feature of the show is its advocacy for disability justice and greater inclusion of autistic individuals in society. For periods of time, The Telepathy Tapes has been the most popular podcast in the United States, demonstrating a wide reach and potentially significant impact on the American collective consciousness. I wholly support these messages and much greater allocation of resources to support disabled people. However, there is danger in arguing for equity and access based on the exceptional abilities of a group of people. While not said explicitly, the show implies that autistic individuals are worthy due to their amazing psychic talents and wisdom. Of course, there should be no worthiness tests to equity, accessibility, and inclusion. This is meritocracy disguised as disability justice. I'm sure everybody in the show would agree with this, but I think that needs to be said explicitly. Whether or not their theories contain any truth, autistic people of all abilities (psychic or otherwise) are worthy of safe, comfortable, and happy lives.

At the end of the day, The Telepathy Tapes podcast was a thought-provoking reminder of the amazing faculties of the human brain and the great mysteries of life and death. Phenomena like synesthesia, savant syndrome, lucid dreaming, and near-death experiences show us that there is so much that we do not know about consciousness and existence. Personally, I believe that my consciousness is limited to my phsycial body, developed with it and through experiences I've had in it, and that when I die my consciousness will also die. This is admitedly scary to think about. There is something soothing to these ideas of a collective consciousness and a continued existence outside of the body. But when I really think about it, maybe death according to this nonspiritual perspective isn't so bad. Practically speaking, I am only aware of reality when I am conscious. When I am dead, I will no longer have consciousness. Therefore, I cannot be aware of no longer being alive. It's like dividing one by zero—an undefined state. All I will ever know is life, and that's not so bad.

]]><![CDATA[Walking the waterfall trails of Ricketts Glen State Park]]>Wed, 09 Apr 2025 17:49:05 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/walking-the-waterfall-trails-of-ricketts-glen-state-parkRicketts Glen State Park in northeast Pennsylvania stretches over 13,000 acres. Most famously, it contains the Glens Natural Area, a National Natural Landmark. Creeks flow through these mossy glens and cascade in a series of waterfalls, one after another. Hemlock and birch, some appearing quite old, create wondrous rootworks along the flagstone paths that carry you along the edge of the water. I visited these Conestoga Susquehannock lands in early April, 2025. It drizzled all weekend and the air was misty, but that was no problem and contributed to a calm ambiance and more solitary experience. The waterfalls had a true Rivendell vibe. These were some of my favorites:

In the misty spring air, the mosses and liverworts were looking particularly succulent and dewlicious on the waterfall-spritzed rocks.

I spotted many polypores, some bulbous formful ones all along the lengths of fallen conifer trunks. There was a beautiful Stereum and gelatinous Dacrymyces chrysospermus jelly fungus. I enjoyed observing geometric Porpidia on waterfall rocks, leafy Umbilicaria, and a cool spiky Cladonia.

But my favorite find was a gilled mushroom growing on a large, mossy hemlock log. It looked special to me when I saw it, and I knew it was the first time I was encountering this particular species. The serrated gill edges told me it belonged to Lentinus (Polyporales) or Neolentinus (Gloeophyllales). Soon, I was able to identify it to Neolentinus adhaerens. I was suprised to learn that there was only one other iNaturalist observation of this spring mushroom in all of northeastern United States. The first observation was made last year, also at Ricketts Glen (but further downstream). As is true for must fungi, more attention is required to determine if this species is rare (and perhaps a conservation concern) or just rarely reported.

In reality though, my favorite find was this legendary foam donut.

As I scrambled over stones and circuitous root masses, uncovering one stunning waterfall after another, I felt a familiar set of conflicting feelings, a simultaneous combination of awe-gratitude and solastalgia-sadness. On the one hand, what beauty and privilege to know this place. On the other, I could not help but contemplate the centuries of genocide, land theft, and ecological devastation that resulted in this state park. Who was Robert Bruce Ricketts, or anybody for that matter, to buy over 80,000 acres, acquire a fortune cutting down every tree possible—giant, towering, old-growth hemlocks—and then sell that devastated, denuded land to the state for more profit? The park now consists of a homogenous hardwood forest—short trees, close together, all around the same age. Only in the glens with their inaccessible inclines do you see the majesty of ancient trees creating a complex, breathtaking ecosystem. The genocide of indigenous Americans and total clearcutting of the Northeast's great forests weighs upon the soul as a tremendous, inexcusable moral failure.

]]><![CDATA[Lorchel taxonomy overhauled: synopsis of our Discinaceae phylogenomics publication]]>Wed, 08 Jan 2025 16:59:16 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/lorchel-taxonomy-overhauled-synopsis-of-our-discinaceae-phylogenomics-publicationIn investigating the genetics and evolution of gyromitrin, I sequenced 75 Discinaceae genomes representing all the known species-group clades in the family and conducted phylogenomic analyses. This means that instead of using a few genes to infer a phylogenetic tree, thousands of conserved genes are used to infer evolutionary relatedness. Why are more data better? A few genes may conflict with each other in the story they tell, but thousands of genes typically result in a much more robust inference of evolutionary history. It's basically statistical — the bigger the sample size the greater your power to infer the truth (up to a point). Indeed, our large dataset allowed us to resolve the ancestral relationships of the lorchel family, and the results were published in the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution (PDF). The lorchels are an amazing and diverse group of mushrooms whose taxonomy has been debated for centuries. With these genomes, we were able to not only infer a robust phylogenetic tree and make informed taxonomic revisions but also better understand lorchel ecology and reproduction based on their genomic properties. Check out a recorded presentation I gave for the North American Mycological Association winter webinar series if you'd like to learn more.

Figure 1. Morphological diversity of Discinaceae and related taxa. A–M. Species belonging to Discinaceae arranged according to their top-to-bottom order in Figure 2. N–O. Species belonging to familia incertae sedis. Tribe Discineae: A) Discina ancilis; B) Discina mcknightii; C) Neogyromitra brunnea; D) Neogyromitra martinii; E) Maublancomyces korfii; F) Maublancomyces sp. 2; G) Piscidiscina leucoxantha; H) Pseudodiscina melaleucoides. Tribe Gyromitreae: I) Hydnotrya sp. 3; J) Paragyromitra infula; K) Gyromitra venenata; L) Pseudorhizina californica; M) Pseudoverpa anthracobia. Familia incertae sedis: N) Marcelleina donadinii; O) Paradiscina melaleuca. Photo credits: Alden Dirks (A, C, K), Bernd Fellmann (D), Brittany Marcotte (M), Drew Henderson (B), Eric 175 Chandler (J), Garrett Taylor (E, G), Jacques Guinberteau (O), Jen Chandler (J), Matthew E. Smith (I), 176 Rubén Martínez Gil (N), Steve Ness (L), Vail Paterson (F), and Yi-Min Wang (H).

Taxonomic revisions

For most people, the greatest interest and biggest consequence of this work are the substantial taxonomic revisions facilitated by our robust phylogenomic tree.

As can be seen in Figure 2 below, the phylogenomic tree shows an early bifurcation resulting in two major clades that I am calling tribe Discineae and tribe Gyromitreae (tribe is a taxonomic rank below family and above genus). Each tribe consists of five genera. Of these twelve names (two tribes and ten genera), only one of them is newly erected: Piscidiscina, which means "fish cup", in reference to the scooped out, fishtail-like ascospore apiculi of the species in this genus (e.g., Piscidiscina leucoxantha and Piscidiscina persicula). Our taxonomic system aligns pretty well with ones proposed by some earlier mycologists based solely on morphology, which is why these names were already in existence. Each genus has a distinct combination of macro- and micromorphological traits that should allow for any mature specimen to be readily identified to genus with a microscope.

Figure 2. Phylogenomic tree of the lorchel family Discinaceae and closely related Pezizales families. The phylogenomic tree was inferred with 1542 concatenated BUSCO genes that were analyzed using an edge-linked proportional partition model and 1000 ultrafast bootstrap replicates in IQ-TREE2. Bootstrap support (not shown) was 100% across all branches, except for the shortest branch within the Gyromitra venenata clade (70%). Gene concordance factors (gCF) are listed on the branches, and values less than 50% are indicated in red. Families are colored according to the legend. Discinaceae tribes and genera are labeled, and the diversity of macromorphology present in each genus or outgroup family is represented by icons. Sequences derived from type specimens are in bold. The scale bar indicates the number of nucleotide substitutions per site.

Taxonomic change is jarring for users, especially when we have grown accustomed to calling everything Gyromitra. In the first iteration of this work, I did call everything in the family Gyromitra (including the Hydnotrya truffles). While this approach was an elegant act of lumping that satisfied many field mycologists, in the end it was not a viable approach. I encourage you to check out the publication, which includes a lengthy discussion on the pros and cons of various taxonomic proposals. I hope that the one presented here will result in a stable and useful system for communicating and classifying lorchel biodiversity for a long time to come.

Tribe Discineae

Discina - cup or discoid fungi with prominent pointed apiculi on their ascospores (Discina ancilis, Discina perlata, and related species); at least 15 species including a substantial number of undescribed species, and lots of old names that require revisionary taxonomic analysis.

Maublancomyces - discoid or stipitate fungi with single rounded apiculi on their ascospores (including Maublancomyces gigas, Maublancomyces korfii, and Maublancomyces montanus, among others); at least 18 species including some undescribed species still in the Maublancomyces gigas group; the discoid Maublancomyces are in need of taxonomic revision (see Miller et al. 2020 and Miller et al. 2022).
Neogyromitra - discoid or stipitate fungi with multiple apiculi on each end of their ascospores (Neogyromitra brunnea and Neogyromitra caroliniana are the most well known species); 6 species, perhaps one more undescribed species (see Miller et al. 2025).
Piscidiscina - discoid fungi with fishtail-like apiculi on their ascospores (Piscidiscina leucoxantha and related species); 3 species including one undescribed species known to occur in China.
Pseudodiscina - cup fungi with no apiculi (Pseudodiscina melaleucoides); 2 species.

Tribe Gyromitreae

Gyromitra - Gyromitra esculenta and related species recognizable by macromorphology; at least 5 species, many old names, in need of taxonomic revision.
Hydnotrya - truffles; at least 17 species, many undescribed species.
Paragyromitra - Paragyromitra infula and related species recognizable by macromorphology; at least 6 species, a few undescribed species
Pseudorhizina - Pseudorhizina californica and Pseudorhizina sphaerospora recognizable by macromorphology and ascospores; at least 2 species, maybe 4, in need of taxonomic revision to resolve potential synonymy.
Pseudoverpa - the Verpa-like Pseudoverpa anthracobia; at least 1 species, a potentially undescribed species occurs in the Pacific Northwest of North America.

Finally, we found that the species Paradiscina melaleuca, previously thought to be in Discinaceae, belongs to a separate, undescribed family-level lineage along with the species Marcelleina donadinii (Figure 2) . This group requires more sampling and further study.

Ecological assesments

Genomes can provide insight not only into evolutionary relatedness but also other properties of an organism such as trophic mode (ecological means of nutrient acquisition). A good indicator of a fungus's ecology is its enzymatic toolkit for carbohydrate degradation, deemed CAZymes (Carbohydrate-Active enZymes). Saprotrophic species (ones that eat dead organic matter) need lots of CAZymes to break down complex substrates like wood and leaves. On the other hand, mycorrhizal species tend to possess fewer CAZymes because they acquire most of their sugars from a living plant host in exchange for soilbound nutrients. I found that all Discinaceae genera possess enzymatic signatures of saprotrophy except for the genus Hydnotrya, the only truffle-producing clade in the family (Fig. 3). Hydnotrya has already been confirmed to be ectomycorrhizal in previous studies, and this is evident in their CAZyme repertoire, which is significantly reduced in lignocellulose-degrading enzymes. Interestingly, mycorrhizal truffles have evolved independently numerous times in the Pezizales. The reason for this "covariance" (the property of both being mycorrhizal and producing truffles) is a fascinating evolutionary question that requires further study.

By plotting gyromitrin production on the phylogenomic tree, I was also able to better understand its likely evolutionary history. Figure 3 shows that gyromitrin is absent from all genera except Gyromitra and Piscidiscina, distantly related genera in different tribes. It's feasible that gyromitrin evolved in the last common ancestor of Discinaceae and was then lost multiple times, resulting in this phylogenetically discontinuous distribution. However, more likely, gyromitrin was horizontally transferred between the two genera (the direction of transfer being unknown) or that gyromitrin production convergently evolved in Gyromitra and Piscidiscina. Research is ongoing to identify the genes responsible for gyromitrin biosynthesis, which will hopefully elucidate the reasons why gyromitrin has this peculiar distribution.

Figure 3. Discinaceae time divergence estimation, modeling of AA9 CAZyme family evolutionary history, gyromitrin status, and genome traits. Branches are colored according to the AA9 CAZyme family count inferred through time with CAFE5. The background color of the tips of the tree indicates gyromitrin status (red: tested positive; blue: gyromitrin not detected; no background color: not tested). Genome size, average GC content, total number of genes sized by number of transposable elements, number of CAZyme genes per class, and number of biosynthesis gene clusters predicted by antiSMASH are shown for each sample. The dotted vertical lines indicate mean values.

So what do we call them?

With these taxonomic changes, we are well positioned to articulate what to call Discinaceae fungi in terms of common names. Many people have soured to the name "false morel" given that it refers to not only Discinaceae fungi but also Verpa and even Helvella species. Also, it is nice to call something what it is rather than what it is not. I propose calling any stipitate Discinaceae species a lorchel. This word is Germanic in orgin and has been used to refer to this group no only in Europe but also by prominent North American mycologists like Nancy Smith Weber. Applying lorchel, we might have such common names as:

Maublancomyces americanigigas = American giant lorchel
Maublancomyces gigas = giant lorchel
Maublancomyces korfii = Korf's lorchel
Maublancomyces montanus = mountain lorchel
Neogyromitra brunnea = elephant ear lorchel
Neogyromitra caroliniana = beefsteak lorchel
Gyromitra esculenta = toxic lorchel
Gyromitra splendida = western toxic lorchel (in the context of North America)
Gyromitra venenata = eastern toxic lorchel (in the context of North America)
Paragyromitra infula = saddle-shaped lorchel
Pseudorhizina sphaerospora = ribbed lorchel
Pseudorhizina californica = Californian ribbed lorchel

The discoid species, nobody is eating them so maybe we don't bother with common names.

What do you think about these names? Do you have your own suggestions? Let me know in the comments!

References

Dirks AC, Methven AS, Miller AN, Orozco-Quime M, Maurice S, Bonito G, Wyk J, Ahrendt S, Kuo A, Andreopoulos W, Riley R, Lipzen A, Chovatia M, Savage E, Barry K, Grigoriev I, Bradshaw A, Martin F, Arnold A, James TY. 2025. Phylogenomic insights into the taxonomy, ecology, and mating systems of the lorchel family Discinaceae (Pezizales, Ascomycota). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. In press.

Miller AN, Yoon A, Gulden G, Stensholt Ø, Van Vooren N, Ohenoja E, Methven AS. 2020. Studies in Gyromitra I: the Gyromitra gigas species complex. Mycol Progress 19:1459–1473.

Miller AN, Dirks AC, Filippova N, Popov E, Methven AS. 2022. Studies in Gyromitra II: cryptic speciation in the Gyromitra gigas species complex; rediscovery of G. ussuriensis and G. americanigigas sp. nov. Mycol Progress 21:81.

Miller AN, Dirks AC, Van Vooren N, Methven AS. 2025. Studies in Gyromitra III: the Gyromitra brunnea lineage including G. japonica sp. nov. Mycol Progress. In press.

]]><![CDATA[#20 - Fuling (Wolfiporia hoelen)]]>Mon, 15 Jul 2024 03:22:34 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/20-fuling-wolfiporia-hoelenMycoBank Taxonomy: Fungi, Dikarya, Basidiomycota, Agaricomycotina, Agaricomycetes, Polyporales, Phaeolaceae, Wolfiporia

Wolfiporia (Polyporaceae, Basidiomycota) would be an unremarkable fungus—exciting only to specialists of resupinate polypores and other lovers of such crusty things—if not for its mega-sized, medicinal sclerotium. A sclerotium (plural: sclerotia) is a compact mass of hyphae, typically with a melanized rind, that serves as a “resting” structure for survival during periods of unfavorable conditions such as drought and fire. With a diameter sometimes exceeding two feet, a weight up to seven pounds, and a thick, bark-like husk, Wolfiporia sclerotia resemble a large, buried coconut. The genus name Wolfiporia honors Frederick Wolf, the first Western mycologist to publish the link between these mysterious underground mycelial masses and their inconspicuous mushrooms in 1922 (1). Called fuling (茯苓) in Chinese, Wolfiporia sclerotia have been revered in traditional Chinese medicine for over 2000 years as a treatment for vomiting, insomnia, and numerous other ailments (2). Previously classified as Wolfiporia cocos (or synonyms such as Poria cocos, Pachyma cocos, and W. extensa), recent studies have clarified that W. cocos is actually restricted to North America and the name W. hoelen best applies to the Chinese species (3–5). Common names in English include Indian bread and tuckahoe—an Anglicized Native American word appropriated by white botanists for Wolfiporia cocos (1). When researching and shopping for fuling, you’ll encounter all these different names, which can make things pretty confusing!

Fuling has been cultivated for more than a millennium. As a saprotroph and facultative parasite of pine roots, the earliest cultivation methods simply involved cutting down pine trees to provide a free lunch for the fungus. This progressed to the direct inoculation of pine roots with sclerotia. Nowadays, fuling is cultivated at large scales on sawdust blocks using sterile techniques in indoor grow rooms (6–8). Numerous studies have been conducted on its pharmacology, secondary metabolites, and genetics to explore the underpinnings of its purported medical properties (9–11). While I’m not qualified to analyze the modern pharmacological results, biochemists have identified over 100 terpenoid compounds and dozens of polysaccharides that are active areas of research, and fuling continues to be widely cultivated and consumed (2).

Clockwise from top left: Wolfiporia cf. cocos (iNaturalist #12615163) by Stephen Russell. Wolfiporia cocos sclerotia from Wolf's study linking the sclerotia to their mushrooms (Wolf 1922). Wolfiporia hoelen sclerotium from a cultivation operation in China. Sawdust bags inoculated with Wolfiporia hoelen (Wang et al. 2013).

I bought fuling from a grocery store in Philadelphia’s Chinatown as part of the North American Mycological Association’s (NAMA) Commercial Mushroom Mycoblitz. The sclerotium had been rendered into small cubes that were as white as marble and just about as hard. Converting the cubes into a powder almost destroyed my blender and would have destroyed my hearing, too, if I hadn’t used ear plugs. The powdered fuling had a dusty, oily, flour-like smell. There are two main sweet treat preparations for fuling (“sugar helps the medicine go down”): fuling jiabing (茯苓夹饼), a traditional pastry of Beijing (also called “tuckahoe pie”); and fuling gao (茯苓糕), a rice cake with a sweet sesame filling, typically translated as “poria cake”.

My partner and I cooked fuling gao together following this video. To make the filling, we first toasted 100 g of black sesame seeds, which we ground with a mortar and pestle and combined with 50 g of honey. To make the dough, we mixed 150 g of rice flour, 50 g of glutinous rice flour, and 25 g of fuling powder. We then dissolved 40 g of sugar into 120 mL of warm soy milk and slowly poured the liquid into the dry ingredients, stirring constantly to incorporate. The dough remained quite dry-looking and was just wet enough that when pressed together and tossed lightly in the hand it held its shape. We then passed the dough through a sieve, resulting in a fine powder. My partner had been gifted a beautiful, wooden, thrifted Chinese pastry mold, and we attempted to make the fuling gao with that. An open-faced metal mold or even just a bowl would work fine according to this other video, but with a thicker pastry the cooking time will need to be increased. We spooned the powdery dough into the mold, pressed the center with a spoon to form a cavity for the filling, added the toasted sesame seed-and-honey mix, and topped it off with more powder. After covering with a damp cheese cloth, we inverted the whole thing directly into a steam pot, carefully removed the mold, and steamed the pastry for 10 minutes.

The outcome was beautiful. The sesame-honey filling was as sweet and delicious as you’d expect. I was surprised by the flavor of the fuling dough. It possessed something of an almond essence, which was elevated by the garnish of dried osmanthus flowers. The dough itself was a little dry and “sandy” in the way of rice flour, and I think would have benefitted from some fat. I'm excited to try some store-bought “poria cake” or “tuckahoe pie” to see how our preparation and flavors compare.

As is true for most topics in mycology, I had no idea about the rich history and depth of knowledge that I would encounter in my research of these hard white cubes labeled “Indian bread”. Hopefully someday I’ll also have the opportunity to sample the sclerotium of the true Wolfiporia cocos of North America, which is actually a complex composed of multiple undescribed species (5). All told, Wolfiporia might be more than a singleton in my quest to eat 1001 mushrooms!

Specimen

ACD0737, iNaturalist #200481591; purchased February 25, 2024, from Asian Fresh Food Market in Philadelphia's Chinatown (Pennsylvania).

References

1. Wolf FA. 1922. The fruiting stage of the tuckahoe, Pachyma cocos. J Elisha Mitchell Sci Soc 38:127–137.

2. Li L, Zuo Z-T, Wang Y-Z. 2022. The traditional usages, chemical components and pharmacological activities of Wolfiporia cocos: a review. Am J Chin Med 50:389–440.

3. Papp V, Dai Y-C. 2022. What is the correct scientific name for “Fuling” medicinal mushroom? Mycology 13:207–211.

4. Stalpers JA, Redhead SA, May TW, Rossman AY, Crouch JA, Cubeta MA, Dai Y-C, Kirschner R, Langer GJ, Larsson K-H, Mack J, Norvell LL, Oberwinkler F, Papp V, Roberts P, Rajchenberg M, Seifert KA, Thorn RG. 2021. Competing sexual-asexual generic names in Agaricomycotina (Basidiomycota) with recommendations for use. IMA Fungus 12:22.

5. Wu F, Li S-J, Dong C-H, Dai Y-C, Papp V. 2020. The genus Pachyma (syn. Wolfiporia) reinstated and species clarification of the cultivated medicinal mushroom “Fuling” in china. Front Microbiol 11:590788.

6. Cao T, Jia S, Wang R. 2023. The technological progress of traditional cultivated mushroom species in China: Wolfiporia cocos. 4573037. SSRN Scholarly Paper. Rochester, NY https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4573037.

7. Wang Y-Z, Zhang J, Zhao Y-L, Li T, Shen T, Li J-Q, Li W-Y, Liu H-G. 2013. Mycology, cultivation, traditional uses, phytochemistry and pharmacology of Wolfiporia cocos (Schwein.) Ryvarden et Gilb.: a review. J Ethnopharmacol 147:265–276.

8. Jiang Y, Ren A, Sun X, Yang B, Peng H, Huang L. 2024. Fuling production areas in China: climate and distribution changes (A.D. 618–2100). Front Plant Sci 15:1289485.

9. Sun Q, Wei W, Zhao J, Song J, Peng F, Zhang S, Zheng Y, Chen P, Zhu W. 2015. An efficient PEG/CaCl2-mediated transformation approach for the medicinal fungus Wolfiporia cocos. J Microbiol Biotechnol 25:1528–1531.

10. Yang C, Xiao D, Jiang X, Li Y, Liu X, Lin H, Liu C, Ma L. 2024. Chromosome-scale genome assembly provides insights into fresh pine wood decay strategies of the Wolfiporia hoelen. 7. Horticulturae 10:703.

11. Li S, Meng G, Dong C. 2022. Homokaryotic high-quality genome assembly of medicinal fungi Wolfiporia hoelen reveals auto-regulation and high-temperature adaption of probable two-speed genome. 18. Int J Mol Sci 23:10484.

]]><![CDATA[Not all bad: synopsis of our publication on the distribution of gyromitrin in lorchels]]>Fri, 21 Apr 2023 16:48:12 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/not-all-bad-synopsis-of-our-publication-on-the-distribution-of-gyromitrin-in-discinaceaeBackground

Earlier this year, I published an article in the journal Mycologia entitled “Not all bad: gyromitrin has a limited distribution in the false morels as determined by a new ultra high-performance liquid chromatography method”, the findings of which are summarized here.

Gyromitrin is a mycotoxin found in some false morels, also known as lorchels (mushrooms in the genus Gyromitra), and is highly toxic. However, methods exist to process toxic lorchels (particularly Gyromitra esculenta) to rid the mushrooms of most of their gyromitrin, allowing them to be eaten without suffering acute illness. People rave about the taste of these mushrooms.

In North America, Gyromitra brunnea, Gyromitra caroliniana, Gyromitra korfii, and Gyromitra montana are commonly consumed without special preparation, but not without controversy. Some anecdotally regard these species to be free of gyromitrin and safe to consume after thorough cooking. Others caution against eating any lorchels for fear that they may contain gyromitrin. Before our publication, no systematic study had been conducted to evaluate the distribution of gyromitrin in lorchels or the lorchel family broadly (Discinaceae).

For more information on the chemistry of gyromitrin and a review of the relevant literature, please see the introduction in our paper, a PDF of which is available for free here.

Approach

We developed a new gyromitrin test. Our initial analyses were entirely qualitative (whether gyromitrin was present or absent), but later we developed a standard curve for quantitative analysis. Most samples in our paper were evaluated just for presence or absence of gyromitrin, but some were quantified. We sampled over 60 specimens (both mushrooms and mycelial cultures) from across Discinaceae, which besides Gyromitra includes truffles in the genus Hydnotrya and cup-shaped fungi in the genus Discina. Most samples came from North America. This study was largely conducted during the first two years of the Covid pandemic and our access to specimens from other parts of the world and funding was limited.

Three important caveats need to be mentioned:

We went for taxonomic breadth rather than depth since this paper is the foundation for evolutionary studies. These taxa of interst only had one or two specimens tested: Gyromitra americanigigas (1), Gyromitra brunnea (2), Gyromitra caroliniana (1), Gyromitra korfii (1), and Gyromitra montana (1). Gyromitra americanigigas was recently described from Northeastern North America and is morphologically indistinguishable from Gyromitra korfii and Gyromitra montana (Miller et al. 2022). No doubt it is misidentified as G. korfii and consumed as well.
Our test’s detection threshold for gyromitrin is 2 mg/kg dried fungal tissue. Specimens with less gyromitrin than this would show up as negative with our test.
Some data presented below are from tests conducted after our study was published.

Results

Gyromitrin was readily detected (around 100-3,000 mg/kg dried tissue) in all tested specimens of the Gyromitra esculenta group, which consists of the following species:

Gyromitra antarctica – South American species
Gyromitra esculenta – European species
Gyromitra splendida – primary species in Western North America, also present in Eastern North America and Europe
Gyromitra venenata – primary species in Eastern North America, also present in Western North America; also present in Europe and Asia although its relative abundance compared to other species is unknown

Surprisingly, gyromitrin could be detected in very old mushrooms, including a specimen of Gyromitra venenata from the 1800s.

Gyromitrin was also found in all tested specimens of a yellow cup fungus called Gyromitra leucoxantha, as well as a closely related, undescribed species from the Pacific Northwest (around 50-100 mg/kg dried tissue).

Gyromitrin was not detected in any other group.

According to our phylogenetic tree, the distribution of gyromitrin could be a product of horizontal gene transfer.

Discussion

Specimens that tested negative in our study might actually contain gyromitrin at low levels. A European study from 1980 tested three specimens of Gyromitra gigas (closely related to G. americanigigas, G. korfii, and G. montana) and found gyromitrin at concentrations of 1.0 and 14.7 mg/kg dried tissue in two specimens (for comparison, our threshold is 2 mg/kg); the third had undetectable levels at their threshold of 0.5 mg/kg, if it was present at all (Viernstein et al. 1980). A clinical toxicology conference abstract reported that Gyromitra caroliniana contained “minute” amounts of gyromitrin, but the data were never published and cannot be evaluted (Liang et al. 1998).

As the Gyromitra gigas data show, intraspecific variation in secondary metabolite production is a known phenomenon, meaning even if gyromitrin was absent from one specimen of a given species it could be present in another of that same species.

Regarding the edibility of lorchels:

The first thing to keep in mind is that gyromitrin is dangerous. Yes, methods exist to eat gyromitrin-containing lorchels without getting acutely sick, as is purportedly common in Scandinavia. If you decide to eat gyromitrin-containing lorchels you must be very careful. Personally, I'm not going to attempt to eat any Gyromitra esculenta group mushroom.
In my opinion, the best evidence for the edibilty of species like Gyromitra americanigigas, Gyromitra brunnea, Gyromitra caroliniana, Gyromitra korfii, and Gyromitra montana is the number of people who consume them without getting sick. They are presumably cooking them thoroughly and this is highly recommended for a safer (and undoubtably much tastier!) meal. There is no evidence of extraordinary poisoning from these mushrooms (most edible mushrooms, from chicken of the woods to morels to shiitake, have some reports of people getting sick to very sick [e.g., this mass morel poisoning event] due to misidentification, putrescent mushrooms, allergic responses, or perhaps unknown secondary metabolites).
For these five widely consumed species, we cannot definitively say that they do not produce gyromitrin, but rather there is no (strong) evidence that they produce gyromitrin (but see Liang et al. 1998). Given that Gyromitra gigas produces gyromitrin, I would bet that other Gyromitra gigas group species produce gyromitrin at low levels. We are going to test more specimens with heightened sensitivity.
The question that a prospective lorchel consumer must ask themself is, therefore, are they comfortable consuming species that might contain small amounts of gyromitrin? An answer either way is OK! Some things to consider: As a volatile substance, gyromitrin can be cooked away. Is it ever completely cooked away? Probably not. As a carcinogen and genotoxic substance, how much gyromitrin is too much gyromitrin? We don't know. Some studies suggest gyromitrin poisoning could be a factor in the development of neurodegenerative diseases (Lagrange et al. 2021). I expect as long as you don't get a large dose of gyromitrin you will be OK (I mean, not everyone in Finland who's eating well cooked Gyromitra esculenta group mushrooms has neurodegenerative disease?). But this is emerging research and is difficult to study. For the five species mentioned above that likely contain little to no gyromitrin, they might just deserve a California Proposition 65 carcinogen warning, a label that everything seems to have and nobody seems to care much about.
You must always positively identify the mushrooms you are consuming. "Gyromitra brunnea" is poisonous if you are actually eating Gyromitra venenata that you misidentified and have not prepared properly.
I guess the usual disclamers should be said – be safe, these thoughts are my opinions and I'm not responsible for your decisions, and I wish you well.

References

Dirks, A. C., Mohamed, O. G., Schultz, P. J., Miller, A. N., Tripathi, A., & James, T. Y. (2023). Not all bad: gyromitrin has a limited distribution in the false morels as determined by a new ultra high-performance liquid chromatography method. Mycologia, 115(1), 1–15.

Lagrange, E., Vernoux, J. P. P., Reis, J., Palmer, V., Camu, W., & Spencer, P. S. S. (2021). An amyotrophic lateral sclerosis hot spot in the French Alps associated with genotoxic fungi. Journal of the Neurological Sciences, 427(June), 1–8.

Liang, Y.-H., Eisenga, B. H., Trestrail, J. T. I., & Kuslikis, B. (1998). Gyromitra mushroom species and their monomethylhydrazine content. Platform Session 1: Part 2, Journal of Toxicology: Clinical Toxicology, 36(5), 527.

Miller, A. N., Dirks, A. C., Filippova, N., Popov, E., & Methven, A. S. (2022). Studies in Gyromitra II: Cryptic speciation in the Gyromitra gigas species complex; rediscovery of G. ussuriensis and G. americanigigas sp. nov. Mycological Progress, 21(81), 1–13.

Viernstein, H., Jurenitsch, J., & Kubelka, W. (1980). Vergleich des giftgehaltes der lorchelarten Gyromitra gigas, Gyromitra fastigiata und Gyromitra esculenta. Ernahrung/Nutrition, 4(9), 392–395.

]]><![CDATA[Genetics and evolution of gyromitrin – information for community scientists]]>Fri, 01 Apr 2022 16:52:02 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/genetics-and-evolution-of-gyromitrin-information-for-community-scientistsThe 2022 mushroom season is here! Yet again, I ask for your assistance in collecting lorchels and related mushrooms (Discina, Gyromitra, and Hydnotrya) to help determine the distribution, genetics, and evolution of gyromitrin. Gyromitrin is a mycotoxin produced most infamously by Gyromitra esculenta, a deadly poisonous mushroom that is consumed as a delicacy in Finland (after being properly prepared to remove most of the gyromitrin). We actually have no idea which genes make gyromitrin, how gyromitrin biosynthesis evolved in lorchels, or for that matter which species produce gyromitrin. I’m attempting to answer these questions for my PhD research! If you'd like to read more about the project, you can find a longer description in the research section of my website.

If you were able and willing, I’d greatly appreciate donations of any and all fungal specimens in the family Discinaceae (Gyromitra, Discina, and Hydnotrya). If you would like to donate any that you find for this project, a few things need to happen for the specimen to be usable:

The specimen needs to be documented with photographs in the field. The most valuable specimens are accompanied by complete metadata such as collection date, location, GPS coordinates, habitat, substrate, and morphological description. Please read more about best practices for photographing and collecting mushrooms at Fungal Diveristy Survey.
While not required, a spore print is highly desirable as it helps in trying to culture a fungus. We can use the dried hymenium for culturing but contamination is a much greater issue. Spore deposits allow for cleaner culturing. However, lorchels are notoriously finicky with spore prints. Here are some methods you can try (and let me know what works best for you!):
1. Normal method: You can try the normal method of acquiring a spore print by placing the hymenium face down on a piece of paper, alumin foil, or glass slide at home over night. For this method to work, it is important that high humidity is obtained. Make sure to place a cup over the mushroom but allow some airflow. A glass slide works well because you can place the cup over the mushroom on top of the slide, leaving a gap for some air movement.
2. Petri dish method in the field: A method that works well for Gyromitra and other Pezizales (any cup fungus, really) is placing the fresh mushroom or a portion of the hymenium while in the field into a small, sterile, plastic petri dish (or roll it up in aluminum foil, although I haven't tried this personally). If placing the hymenium in a petri dish, you can position it and hold it steady close to the lid with a base of leaves or moss. The humidity of the container facilitates spore release. Over time you will see a spore deposit being formed on the lid. You can aid in the process by opening the lid slightly and closing the lid abruptly to create some pressure that discharges the asci, or by blowing on the tissue and closing the lid quickly. Back at home, remove everything from the petri dish. You can vew the lid under a microscope to confirm the presence of a spore deposit. Circle the deposit with a Sharpie on the outside of the petri dish, wipe the bottom portion with an ethanol wipe, and let the ethonol evaporate and the spores dry out (which you can see happen under the microscope). Close the petri dish, seal it up, and preserve with the specimen. The spore deposit can be used months to years in the future in serial dilutions to generate single spore isolates in culture.
Your data need to be uploaded to either Mushroom Observer or iNaturalist. Instructions for doing so can be found here.
The specimens need to be completely dried, placed into a sealable bag, and labelled with the Mushroom Observer or iNaturalist number, along with whatever other information you’d like to physically include. More information on how to dry mushrooms for long term storage can be found here. A note on drying: this is a project focused on volatile mycotoxins, I highly recommend drying these mushrooms in a place with good ventilation!
Notify me that you are going to send me some specimens by filling out this form.
Pack your specimens in a box and send them to the following address: Alden Dirks, 4050 Biological Sciences Building, 1105 N. University Ave, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. I have received specimens in flat mailers and envelopes that arrive completely fragemented, so please make sure to use a noncrushable container.

For each specimen I receive I will attempt to sequence the ITS and LSU rDNA barcodes. I will share these data with you as well as my sequence-based identification. Some specimens may be selected for gyromitirn analysis, culturing, or whole genome sequencing.

Something important to note: your specimens are received as donations. Unfortunately I do not have access to fund to reimburse you for time or expenses related to your donation, including shipping costs, and the specimens cannot be returned to you. Rather, they will be accessioned at the University of Michigan fungarium for long-term safekeeping and storage. Make sure to make a “split” (keep a portion of the mushrooms for yourself) if you are interested in holding onto it for personal study. For this project I have been working with some fungarium specimens that are over 100 years old. Your donated specimens will live on as research subjects long in the future, perhaps for centuries to come.

Thank you for sharing your time, energy, and knowledge in the form of mushrooms donations. Your specimens have been invaluable so far and I am greatly appreciative of all your help!

]]><![CDATA[#19 - Velvet Polypore (Ischnoderma resinosum)]]>Thu, 21 Oct 2021 14:18:54 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/19-velvet-polypore-ischnoderma-resinosumMycoBank Taxonomy: Fungi, Dikarya, Basidiomycota, Agaricomycotina, Agaricomycetes, Polyporales, Fomitopsidaceae, Ischnoderma

The process by which a mushroom earns the badge of "edibility" is mysterious and fascinating to me, a product of time and place and culture. Ischnoderma resinosum, or the velvet polypore, is one that is generally regarded as inedible, and not for bad reason – the mature sporocarps are tough tough. But there seems to be a growing recognition that the young polypores are indeed edible, and not half bad at that. I myself was surprised when I first learned about somebody eating these, a Russian mushroom hunter in Madison, Wisconsin. Not only did he eat the velvet polypore, but he claimed it was his very favorite mushroom of all. I first sampled Ischnoderma resinosum with my older sibling in Toronto. After explaining to them that this mushroom was safe to eat because a knowledgeable Russian said so, and enjoying the meal with no health repurcussions, they now send me pictures excited to have found the "Russian polypore" again – a good example of the randomness and obscurity of the birthing of some common names.

Pretty much everyone is shocked when I mention that the velvet polypore is edible and good. I believe the word is being spread though, and in due time the consensus will shift. Ischnoderma resinosum's transformation in the cultural consciousness from tough polypore to tasty treat has no doubt been facilitated by Alan Bergo who explored the edibility of Ischnoderma resinosum in a 2014 blog post. I can't find any sources reporting on its culinary qualities before that. To my surprise, Charles McIlvaine doesn't even mention this species in One Thousand American Fungi.

Fortunately, Ischnoderma resinosum is an easily recognized species. Fresh brackets exude colorful moisture droplets called guttation (not to be confused with guttules, the lipid bodies inside spores). The cap consists of varying shades and gradients of reddish brown with a whitish growing edge. The pore surface is whitish and quickly bruises brown, becoming pale brown in maturity. Young mushrooms are deliciously thick and soft, like a steamed bun, but soon become astonishingly tough. As a result, they often possess textural complexity that needs to be navigated during harvest. Only very soft pieces should be taken, and often times this is just the first two inches or so of the growing edge of the polypore. To top it off, the interior flesh is beautifully marbled.

Ischnoderma resinosum can be found in the fall growing on dead hardwood logs (in my experience, almost exclusively on birch). The related species Ischnoderma benzoinum grows on conifer logs and is darker, but is otherwise very similar looking such that the two species are sometimes regarded as synonyms. This is another great example of a taxonomic mystery the could be solved with the help of community scientists. By collecting and vouchering Ischnoderma species, noting their substrate, and having them DNA barcoded, we could finally settle whether these two species are distinct (check out Fungal Diverisy Survey for more information on how to get involved)!

The pictures above show the harvested mushrooms (bruised) along with the marbling of the flesh and their changing of appearance while being sauteed. The sauteed mushrooms were strangely similar to chunks of portobello, a little firm and mushroomy, with a slightly bitter aftertaste. They were a great addition to toast with garlicky sauteed cherry tomatoes. Next time, I'll have to try them according to Alan Bergo's recipe, who mentions that they really shine when stewed followed by a reduction of the cooking liquid and caramalization. Luke Smithson also does a great job exploring their culinary qualities at the Cry of the Bolete where he recommends that they be roasted and marinated in what looks like another delicious recipe.

Specimen

ACD0474, iNaturalist #98841313; 20 October 2021; Berks Co., PA, USA; leg. Taylor Tai, det. Taylor Tai & Alden C. Dirks; GenBank ON364100 (ITS), ON369553 (LSU); MICH (not yet accessioned).

Online Resources

]]><![CDATA[#18 - Pig Ears (Gomphus ludovicianus)]]>Sun, 23 Aug 2020 18:29:07 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/18-pig-ears-gomphus-ludovicianusMycoBank Taxonomy: Fungi, Dikarya, Basidiomycota, Agaricomycotina, Agaricomycetes, Phallomycetidae, Gomphales, Gomphaceae, Gomphus

Photo by Huafang Su, iNaturalist #108731084

Now and again, a supportive fan of the 1001 Mushroom Project will offer up some of their mushrooms for me to eat and blog about. Because I want to go through the whole process myself (finding, identifying, preparing, and eating a new species), I almost always decline their generous donations, But when a mushroom hunter shared with me photos of these gorgeous lilac "chanterelles", Gomphus ludovicianus, and asked if I'd like them for eating – they'd collected them before but weren't a big fan, or eating any mushroom for that matter – how could I say no?

We originally identified these mushrooms as Gomphus clavatus, which never felt like a perfect fit due to inconsistencies in ecology. G. clavatus is reported as predominately associated with conifers (Smith & Morse 1947, Kuo 2021), but these mushrooms were found over multiple years growing with hardwoods. Only after sequencing the ITS ribosomal DNA barcode did the situation clarify. The ITS DNA sequence is identical to the holotype of Gomphus ludovicianus, described from Louisiana and Texas (Petersen et al. 2014). This is essentially the first report of G. ludovicianus outside of the southeast United States, along with Steve Russell's observation in northern Indiana from 2021. Given that Alex Smith was very active collecting and describing cantherelloid and gomphoid mushrooms from Michigan during the middle of the 20th century, it is surprising that he did not document a hardwood-associated Gomphus like this one. Perhaps we are just observing G. ludovicianus now because of an expansion in its range as a result of climate change?

Gomphus ludovicianus and G. clavatus look like chanterelles, given their well developed false gills, but are actually in a different taxonomic order, the Gomphales. Pseudocraterellus pseudoclavatus is a nearly identical (but apparently quite rare) lookalike that is a "true" chanterelle, in the order Cantharellales. It's really a stunning case of convergent evolution considering how similar these mushrooms are despite their distant relatedness. The best way to distinguish species from these two orders is under the microscope. Gomphus mushrooms have roughened spores and clamp connections whereas P. pseudoclavatus has smooth spores and hyphae with simple septa (Smith & Morse 1947).

Roughened spores of Gomphus ludovicianus

Clamp connection

When it comes to eating pig ears, fresh mushrooms are key because larvae inhabitants can be a problem. After removing the buggy bits, I chopped the pig ears into chunks, sauteed them, and then tore them into smaller bits. The cooked mushrooms smelled strangely like pancakes and their texture was bizarrely meaty. Inspired by Forager Chef, I decided to make pig ear tacos. My rendition consisted of Japanese mayo, spicy collard greens, pulled pig ears, and scallions. To my surprise, given their distinct appearance, the pig ears tasted mild, maybe a little nutty, but with a bitter finish. For that reason, I rank this mushroom as "good" but not "great" or choice. However, for those of you who enjoy bitter flavor, this might be an all-star mushroom. Besides taste, their texture was fantastic. Pig ears have a real meaty firmness, almost a crunch, that is very satisfying. Gomphus ludovicianus is a unique, bold, and special mushroom whose culinary possibilites I am excited to continue exploring.

Specimen

ACD0321, 22 August 2020; Lapeer Co., MI, USA; leg. Huafang Su, det. Alden C. Dirks, GenBank OM009270 (ITS rDNA), MICH352273.

References

Kuo, M. (2021, August). Gomphus clavatus. Retrieved from the MushroomExpert.Com Web site: http://www.mushroomexpert.com/gomphus_clavatus.html

Petersen, R. H., Hughes, K. W., Justice, J., & Lewis, D. P. (2014). A new species of Gomphus from southeastern United States. North American Fungi, 9(9), 1–13.

Smith, A. H., & Morse, E. E. (1947). The genus Cantharellus in the western United States. Mycologia, 39(5), 497–534. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/3755192

Online Resources

Forager Chef

]]><![CDATA[Change the Name of the Games]]>Tue, 23 Jun 2020 15:31:38 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/change-the-name-of-the-gamesACTION ITEM: Sign a petition in support of students who want to change the name of the Entomological Society of America's annual competition, the Linnaean Games, and read their open letter to the ESA board on why it is necessary to do so. The text below offers further encouragment and background information, which is certainly relevant to mycologists as well.

Carl Linnaeus is one of many white historical figures whose legacy has been warped over time to hide away problematic aspects. We learn about Linnaeus at a very early age as the inventor of Latin binomials, a system of naming living organisms that is now highly encoded and regulated process for all life forms, including fungi. But what we don't learn about in school is his deeply racist beliefs of white supremacy, which were preserved in his scientific writings as an ordination of human races and ascription of pejorative moral and behavioral qualities to non-white people. It's awful stuff. As Linnaeus is the father of taxonomy, he is equally the father of scientific racism.

In light of people's renewed reckoning of racism due to the recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and too many other Black Americans by White police officers, people are reevaluating longstanding names and imagery to root out racist legacies. As is the case with Confederate statues and flags, we simply cannot turn a blind eye or reinvent history to make the racist legacies of white people and institutions of racism go away. They must be understood and reckoned with in a historical and educational context, but not celebrated or memorialized.

Each year at their annual gathering, the Entomological Society of America (ESA) challenges each other to bug-themed trivia in an event called the Linnaean Games. For a few years now, a group of graduate students have been endeavoring to change the name of the games (the Bug Bowl is a crowd favorite and is also much easier to spell and a catchier, less racist hashtag). Students of color have been outspoken in their discomfort around the celebration of Linneaus at the society's annual meeting. The name is just another reminder of their feelings of exclusion and the disproportionate whiteness of ESA. It seems like a no-brainer that a professional society working in the interests of all its members would listen and recognize the painful and harmful legacy of Linnaeus and change the name of the competition. Furthermore, changing the name seems like an easy and necessary first step towards deeper structural change to further promote diversity, equity, and inclusion. Yet, ESA leadership has resisted this effort with tremendous energy, most recently in the silencing of an opinion piece in a scientific journal. Students of color and allies of the effort need your help. Read the students' full letter to the ESA board and sign a petition showing your support.

I am moved to spread the word as an act of solidarity with close friends and loved ones working to change the name of the Linnaean Games, as well as in support of diveristy, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in other fields of natural science. However, I am also driven by legitimate fear and concern. Yes, I have grown very wary of the leadership of the Entomological Society of America, a major professional scientific organization in the United States. Apathy is, unfortunately, the status quo. But when apathy becomes obstinance, and obstinances morphs into resistance, and then resistance mounts into censorship and repression, I become concerned that agents of that resistance harbor deeply racist beliefs. Nothing short can explain the intense pushback and lack of concern for students of color. In making a mountain of a molehill, what will they make of true mountains when deeper structural racism in ESA is addressed?

]]><![CDATA[#17 - Umbrella Polypore or Zhu Ling (Polyporus umbellatus)]]>Fri, 12 Jun 2020 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/17-umbrella-polypore-or-zhu-ling-polyporus-umbellatusMycoBank Taxonomy: Fungi, Dikarya, Basidiomycota, Agaricomycotina, Agaricomycetes, Polyporales, Polyporaceae, Polyporus

This magnificent and exceptionally delicious mushroom is universally regarded as rare. While mushroom hunters may never see Polyporus umbellatus, if you do find it, you will be able to come back year after year to the same location for a new harvest. P. umbellatus grows from the ground as a parasite and saprobe of the roots of hardwood trees. It appears from May to October (spring and fall, but typically not summer) across North America, growing as a fractal rosette of umbrella-shaped fronds. For some people, the mushroom has less appeal than what is going on in the soil. Over many years perhaps, P. umbellatus forms a large subterranean mass called a sclerotioum. Sclerotia are hard resting structures capable of longterm dormancy for survival in drought and cold. Some sclerotia are small like seeds and others are as big as basketballs. In the case of P. umbellatus, the sclerotia can be enormous, more than a foot in diameter, with a solid, corky interior and black rind. In traditional Chinese medicine, the sclerotium of P. umbellatus goes by the name Zhu Ling and is taken for a number of purposes, in particular as a diuretic (to stimulate urination).

I noticed that Polyporus umbellatus has bugginess problems more so than other foraged polypores. Chicken of the woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) is often home to plump fungus beetles, but they scramble out of the mushroom and fall like rain on old leaves when you turn the mushroom sideways. With the umbrella polypore, burrowing fly larvae appear to be the primary inhabitants, so make sure to cut some fronds and do not harvest those with lots of maggot action.

I cooked one of the best dishes yet with these mushrooms. Substituting umbrella polypore for maitake (hen of the woods), I made "Maitake Tikka Masala" from the cookbook Shroom by Becky Selengut. The rich and tangy curry was elevated by a lovely smokiness, which was achieved by dribbling oil on hot coals and then covering the pot with a lid to entrap the silky, billowing smoke. Yes, that is an onion holding the coals. I read somewhere online about this trick if you don't have a small, heatproof dish. It results in the extra benefit of having smoky onions to be used in future meals. Polyporus umbellatus now definitely ranks among my top favorite edibles.

A few months later, I returned to the trail where I first found umbrella polypore and came across an old fruiting body. Remembering that sclerotia rested underground, I excavated below the mushroom and unearthed a real treasure. I marveled at the lumpy tissue, hard but a little squishy, and suprisingly light. Back at home, I used a toothbrush to scrub away dirt and debris from the exterior. There were lots of crevices and crags that required a good amont of maneuvering to clean out. Nothing's worse than a gritty mushroom! The tough structure held up perfectly fine to its vigorous bath. I cut the corky sclerotia into thin chips and dried them in a dehydrator until they were as stiff and hard as wood.

It seems like a decoction is the standard way of taking Zhu Ling, which means that the sclerotium is boiled in water for a long time and the infused liquid is drunk. I boiled 10 g of dried sclerotia chips for about 45 minutes. The resulting decoction was light in color and had a nice mushroomy smell. The taste was mild and pleasant; certainly mushroomy, but also just faintly sweet, like Throat Coat Tea. That night, I peed four times. It worked! But I was so dehydrated, and so tired from waking up so many times. If you try this stuff, I recommend drinking it early in the day so you are not up all night peeing and to drink a lot of water so that you aren't dehydrated from peeing so much (which of course will make you pee more – you will urinate a lot)! After writing this post, I was informed that it is unusual in Chinese medicine to take a single herb (or mushroom), Zhu Ling included, rather than a mix of ingredients tailored to a specific person and their specific condition (as stated in this source: "A characteristic of Chinese herbal medicines is their use as formulas rather than single herbs..."). If you are intersted in exploring Zhu Ling or other medicinal mushrooms, it is definitely best to consult a knowledgable professional to guide your decisions and decoctions (or concoctions)!

I am generally skeptical of claims that a given mushroom has medicinal properties. That's not because I don't think mushrooms are incapable of doing things to the human body – deadly mushrooms can clearly kill you, psychedelic mushrooms have mind-altering properties, many clinically proven and widely used drugs are isolated from fungi, and umbrella polypore makes you pee a lot. No, I am skeptical because along the way from a mushroom being used by those who first discovered some beneficial property to me learning about its putative medicinal benefits, information has likely been stretched, exaggerated, or even outright fabricated. Fraud becomes rampant when human health is on the line and entrepeneurs stand ready to profit from people's anxieties with little accountability or oversight. This was taken to an absurd extreme with the fabricated claim that Hawaiian stinkhorns could induce instantaneous orgasms in women (a myth invented and propagated by John Holliday, founder of Aloha Medicinals). Justifications for such an elaborate and sustained hoax are unimaginable to me. Most unsettling, the authors made up Hawaiian mythology to support their lie. Such unscrupulous peddling is common in the medicinal mushroom marketplace, in my opinion.

There is plenty of bad or biased "science" out there to make the question of distinguishing fact from falsehoods challenging even in the realm of "peer-reviewed" literature. This is complicated further because medical literature is usually highly technical and full of complex biochemistry and physiology, only really understandable to experts. Another thing to keep in mind is that studies are often conducted with non-human animal models, the results of which may be enticing but not necessarily applicable to Homo sapiens. So, while I feel unequipped to evaluate the published research on the medicinal benefits of Polyporus umbellatus, especially when it comes to complex topics such as cancer and immune systems, the diuretic property of the sclerotium is undeniable and could be beneficial depending on circumstances. Zhao et al. (2009) found that a chemical named ergosta-4,6,8(14),22-tetraen-3-one was one of a few powerful diuretic compounds in P. umbellatus. A follow up study found that this same chemical was helpful in preventing a certain type of kidney disease in mice (Zhao et al. 2011). This same author published a review in Journal of Ethnopharmacology, which seems to be a great starting point for anybody interested in learning more about the uses and bioactivity of this mushroom (Zhao 2013).

Given that Polyporus umbellatus is cultivated for its sclerotia, which can be purchased cheaply online (a lot cheaper than the time and energy it took me to harvest and clean this one)*, I highly recommend you NOT dig up wild sclerotia for personal consumption or sale. Doing so means that mushrooms will no longer fruit seasonally from that spot and populations could become extirpated. Apparently, some regions of China are suffering from growth loss due to overharvest (Xing et al. 2020). To be clear, harvesting a subset of the mushrooms is probably OK because they are ephemeral structures and their removal probably does little harm to the belowground mycelium. In this particular area, I found multiple prolific patches of P. umbellatus. I figured that harvesting one sclerotium would have a negligible impact on the population and there would be plenty of fruiting bodies in following years for spore dispersal and consumption. If more people were to dig up the sclerotia from this area, however, the population could be quickly wiped out with substantial damage to the surrounding ecosystem. Remember, P. umbellatus is considered rare so sustainable consumption of sclerotia requires cultivation, not wild harvesting. Support mushroom farmers!

*Case in point, this sclerotium came out to less than 50 g dry weight, which is about 5 preparations according to a dosage of 6-15 g. One pound (> 450 g) of dried sclerotia can be bought online for $66 (here and here), which means I harvested less than $7 worth – a paltry sum given that it took me quite a few hours to harvest it, clean it, and dehydrate it. There are other forms of Zhu Ling you can buy, like liquid extracts and capsules, that might be more or less costly or effective depending on your needs. Since Polyporus umbellatus mushrooms are one of 22 different types that are allowed to be harvested and sold by professional mushroom foragers in Michigan, one last reason to solely harvest the fruiting bodies is that they will fetch a much greater price than the sclerotia and that in contrast to the sclerotia (which can only be harvested once), the mushrooms can be harvested year after year. Michael Kuo says he has found them in the same location every year for 12 years in a row!

The cultivation of Polyporus umbellatus is in and of itself a fascinating topic. P. umbellatus sclerotia form in intimate association with Armillaria spp., or honey mushrooms, whose rhizomorphs are found in "infection cavities" inside the sclerotia. However, it may be that the umbrella polypore is digesting the rhizomorphs, rather than the other way around, but ultimately sclerotial quality seems to be a function of the nutrients in the soil (Xing et al. 2020). More information on nutritional sources and environmental conditions most favorable for the co-cultivation of Polyporus umbellatus and Armillaria are detailed by Lee et al. (2013).

Specimen

ACD0305; 12 June 2020; Washtenaw Co., MI, USA; leg. Alden C. Dirks, det. Alden C. Dirks; GenBank #MZ919232 (ITS rDNA), MICH 352266.

References

Lee, M. W., Chang, K. C., Shin, D. Bin, Lee, K. R., Im, K. H., Jin, G.-H., … Lee, T. S. (2013). The culture conditions for mycelial growth and sclerotial formation of Polyporus umbellatus. Journal of Mushroom, 11(4), 194–200. DOI

Xing, X., Men, J., Song, L., & Guo, S. (2020). Do the main components of the sclerotia of umbrella polypore mushroom, polyporus umbellatus (Agaricomycetes), correlate with Armillaria associates? International Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms, 22(5), 479–488. DOI

Zhao YY, Xie RM, Chao X, Zhang Y, Lin RC, Sun WJ. 2009. Bioactivity-directed isolation, identification of diuretic compounds from Polyporus umbellatus. J Ethnopharmacol 126:184–187.

Zhao YY, Zhang L, Mao JR, Cheng XH, Lin RC, Zhang Y, Sun WJ. 2011. Ergosta-4,6,8(14),22-tetraen-3-one isolated from Polyporus umbellatus prevents early renal injury in aristolochic acid-induced nephropathy rats. J Pharm Pharmacol 63:1581–1586.

Zhao YY. 2013. Traditional uses, phytochemistry, pharmacology, pharmacokinetics and quality control of Polyporus umbellatus (Pers.) Fries: A review. J Ethnopharmacol 149:35–48.

Resources

Fungus Fact Friday

Global Fungal Red List

Messiah College

Midwest American Mycological Information

Mushroom Expert

Weird and Wonderful Mushrooms

Wikipedia

]]><![CDATA[#16 - Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus)]]>Sat, 23 May 2020 04:00:00 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/16-chicken-of-the-woods-laetiporus-sulphureusMycoBank Taxonomy: Fungi, Dikarya, Basidiomycota, Agaricomycotina, Agaricomycetes, Polyporales, Fomitopsidaceae, Laetiporus

Laetiporus sulphureus is a magnificent mushroom, easily identifiable by its bright yellow pore surface and overlapping, shelf-like growth on the standing or fallen trunks of hardwoods. It might just be my all-time favorite mushroom. The young mushrooms check all the boxes of a great wild edible:

Easy to identify (no poisonous lookalikes, beginner-friendly)
Impressive appearance
Fantastic taste, versatile, and wonderful texture (like chicken, lobster, or crab)
Often found in large to enormous quantities
Typically easy to clean
Reappears in the same spot year after year
Money maker

That's right, if you find a mega flush, there will likely be more chicken than you can eat yourself and others will be eager to buy it from you. In Ann Arbor, chicken of the woods fetches about $16 a pound. The flush documented here, which I found when the mushrooms were just starting to bubble out of a large downed trunk, yielded about 50 pounds of tender chicken over the span of a week.

Unless you find chicken of the woods when it is nothing more than an extremely young marshmallow, it is best to harvest right away. The pictures above show chicken of the woods in its ideal state: not at all tough, but also enlarged into substantially sized fruiting bodies. The picture below shows the mushrooms later in the week, still good to eat but already diminished in quality. If I had left them for a later, even larger harvest, they would have lost their sublime texture and become a just-so-so mushroom, or even too tough to really enjoy. Chicken of the woods will persist through the year, becoming increasingly unrecognizable, until it is nothing more than a hard, brittle, bleached, soggy piece of sytrofoam. If you find these old chickens, note the location so that you can return later for fresh ones.

I transformed this royal harvest into five meals. First, I made a wild mushroom coconut curry recipe from Madhur Jaffrey's Vegetarian India: creamy, succulent mushrooms, explosive flavor, delicious. Next, I made beer-battered chicken of the woods tenders and a potato hash. The hash was tasty, a bit dry though; the deep-fried tenders slayed me. I also grilled some fronds and ate them on tempeh slathered with Frank's RedHot sauce, which was enough to satisfy anybody's craving for a spicy chicken sandwich. There is no shortage of creative and delicious preparations for chicken of the woods – recipes abound on the internet.

Laetiporus sulphureus is one of six species of Laetiporus that grow in North America. Laetiporus cincinnatus is another excellent edible that looks similar except it has a white pore surface and grows from the base of trees or from the ground (as a butt rot fungus, as opposed to Laetiporus sulphureus, which is a heart rotting species). According to Michael Kuo, there is a rare variety of Laetiporus sulphureus with a white pore surface, so the combination of pore color and ecology are necessary to separate the two species. Laetiporus huroniensis, which I've never found, grows on conifers east of the Rockies. West of the Rockies, one can find Laetiporus conifericola. Down south in the states bordering the Gulf of Mexico and in the Caribbean, Laetioporus gilbertsonii and Laetiporus persicinus are present.

A word of caution: when you read that you should try a little bit of a mushroom the first time you eat it, even when it is a well regarded edible, that's largely because of chicken of the woods. Apparently this species is more responsible than most for allergic reactions. However, it seems like allergic reactions are still relatively rare and don't seem to get too much worse than tingly lips. Folks at MSU Extension say that it might be a matter of substrate – conifers and locusts being the culprits – which would suggest that Laetiporus huroniensis is actually the principal offender.

Specimen

ACD0289, iNaturalist #47428074; 23 May 2020; Washtenaw Co., MI, USA; leg. Alden C. Dirks, det. Alden C. Dirks; GenBank #MZ919222 (ITS rDNA), MICH 352252.

Online Resources

]]><![CDATA[#15 - Hexagonal-Pored Polypore (Neofavolus americanus)]]>Wed, 20 May 2020 23:49:14 GMThttps://www.aldendirks.com/1001-mushrooms/15-hexagonal-pored-polypore-neofavolus-americanusMycoBank Taxonomy: Fungi, Dikarya, Basidiomycota, Agaricomycotina, Agaricomycetes, Polyporales, Polyporaceae, Noefavolus

Mushrooms referred to as the hexagonal-pored polypore, or Neofavolus alveolaris, are common and widespread across eastern North America in the spring. They can persist through the summer, fall, and even into the winter, becoming hardened and bleached over time. Despite the common name, the pores are rarely perfectly hexagonal, instead usually vaguely and irregularly polygonal. Regardless, the hairy/scaly orange cap and large, elongated pores make this mushroom easily recognizable — that is, if we actually knew what we were identifying. Neofavolus alveolaris represents a number of cryptic species, which may not be all that suprising given that name has been applied to similar mushrooms occurring in temperate and boreal areas across the entire Northern Hemisphere (Sotome et al. 2013).

In fact, it seems like Neofavolus alveolaris may not even exist in the United States (Sathiya Seelan et al. 2015). Only two or three sequences of North American mushrooms that resemble Neofavolus alveolaris have been used in phylogenetic studies but they consistently show one or more distinct North American clades represented by Neovafolus sp. 'SAV10' from Savoy Mountain, Massachusetts and Neofavolus sp. 'ADD5' from the Adirondacks, New York, perhaps among others. Recently, Xing et al. (2020) described a new species of Neofavolus from Connecticut, Neofavolus americanus. The mushrooms eaten here turned out to be 99.8% identical in terms of ITS DNA sequence to the type specimen, or the specimen that was used as the reference in creating our concept of N. americanus (when describing a new species, you can't study the morphology or sequence the DNA of all the mushrooms in the population all over the world – you have to select one or more representatives).

Unable to leave this matter alone, I made a phylogeny of ITS sequences from GenBank (Figure 1). It seems like there are three sympatric clades of Neofavolus alveolaris-like mushrooms in eastern North America. Neofavolus americanus, previously described, has an ITS sequence that is 100% similar to Neofavolus sp. 'MA672'. This species has been collected from Connecticut, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, and Arkansas. Then there is the poorly sampled clade represented by Neofavolus sp. 'SAV10'. This clade shares about 98.3% similarity with Neofavolus americanus and has been collected in Massachusetts and Wisconsin. Finally, the Neofavolus sp. 'ADD5' clade has a similar broad distribution across eastern North America, having been collected in the Northeast, East, Southeast, and Midwest. This clade is only about 94-95% identical to Neofavolus americanus and Neofavolus sp. 'SAV10'. These results confirm the unique lineages of North American Neofavolus species reported by Sotome et al. (2013) and positions Neofavolus americanus relative to those lineages, which was absent from Xing et al. (2020).

Figure 1. Phylogenetic tree of Neofavolus alveolaris-group ITS sequences from GenBank.

More research is needed to figure this situation out. For one, there appear to be no sequences of European Neofavolus alveolaris. Since the species was presumably described from France (Flore française by De Candolle in 1815), European specimens will have to anchor our species concepts. While eastern Asian specimens have been treated as Neofavolus alveolaris in phylogentic studies, it is not a given that this clade and not North American clades, or any of these clades for that matter, represent the true Neofavolus alveolaris. Furthermore, morphological analyses and mating studies will need to be carried out to determine whether Neofavolus sp. 'SAV10' and Neofavolus americanus represent distinct species. Finally, more genes need to sequenced in order to create a more robust phylogeny.

Oh, you came here to learn about the edibility of the hexagonal-pored polypore? The taste was fine but even though I searched for the most tender mushrooms the texture was uneven and some overly tough bits never softened. I'm willing to give them another go next year using the somewhat-controversial-but-actually-very-reasonable boiling method described here. Other people seem to like them, like the folks at The Richest Fare.

Specimen

ACD0276, iNaturalist #46683944; 20 May 2020; Washtenaw Co., MI, USA; leg. Alden C. Dirks, det. Alden C. Dirks; GenBank MZ919218 (ITS rDNA), MICH352247.

References

Sathiya Seelan JS, Justo A, Nagy LG, Grand EA, Redhead SA, Hibbett D. 2015. Phylogenetic relationships and morphological evolution in Lentinus, Polyporellus and Neofavolus, emphasizing southeastern Asian taxa. Mycologia 107:460–474.

Sotome K, Akagi Y, Lee SS, Ishikawa NK, Hattori T. 2013. Taxonomic study of Favolus and Neofavolus gen. nov. segregated from Polyporus (Basidiomycota, Polyporales). Fungal Divers 58:245–266.

Xing J-H, Zhou J-L, Cui B-K. 2020. Two new species of Neofavolus (Polyporales, Basidiomycota) based on morphological characters and molecular evidence. Mycol Prog 19:471–480.

Online Resources

Messiah College

Mushroom Expert

The Richest Fare

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