Busting mushroom myths and misconceptions
Part 2
Mushrooms seem to be shrouded in mystery and myth. We often hear people say, “Tyo Chyau na chunu hai, poison huncha” (don’t touch that mushroom it could be poisonous) and other things like, “chyau ta maila thau ma umrincha haina” (Mushrooms only grow in dirty places) and other things mostly which aren’t true at all. So, let us continue looking into some more misconceptions about these magical organisms.
4. Mushrooms have little or no nutritional value:
Awareness about mushrooms and their nutritional benefits has risen considerably in recent times however a lot of people seem very sceptical about the wonders of the mycoverse. When in fact mushrooms are packed with vital nutrients that we really need in the current time.
Apart from the culinary aspect mushrooms have been used as medicine. Mushrooms of the Reishi (Ganoderma) family have a known history of use in Chinese and even Tibetan medicine since eons. Reishi mushrooms are used as immunity support in these schools of medicine. Current day science has found wonderful things that this mushroom and others can do in boosting the quality of human life itself.
The fabled yarchagumba or yarsagumba as it is known in Sikkim is also a medicinal mushroom that people have coveted and consumed in the state. In fact, it was a surprise to know that a lot of people who have even eaten this mushroom did not seem to know that it was a mushroom. We will slowly also learn more about this and many more magical mushrooms!
5. Toxic mushrooms smell bad and edible ones smell good:
You can identify a very small number of mushrooms from the very typical smells that they have. There are some fungi that smell like carrion or faeces and many that smell fruity. While smell is used in identification of some mushrooms, the fruitiness or the foulness is not an exclusive indicator of either toxicity or edibility. You need several identification markers besides smell to correctly identify a mushroom.
A lot of people seem to not like the ‘mushroomy’ smell that most mushrooms have. We have often heard people say, “Yo chyau ta ganaudai cha” (this mushroom smells like a mushroom). Even the common button mushrooms (Agaricus bisporus) and the oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus_ have a slight fungal/mushroomy smell to them however this should never be taken as an identifying feature.
6. Mushrooms that grow on wood are safe to eat:
A word of caution here to anyone looking to forage mushrooms in the wild. Not all mushrooms that grow on wood are safe to eat. There are plenty of mushrooms that grow on wood that can make a person very sick or could even prove fatal. Many commonly edible mushrooms in our state like the Shiitake, Wood Ear mushrooms and even wild Oyster mushrooms can be found growing on wood. However there are mushrooms like the Funeral Bell (Galerina marginata) which also grows on wood and is a tricky and deadly mushroom that can kill you if ingested. This mushroom has many lookalikes that are edible and can be found growing very close to each other so one should be very careful when picking mushrooms of this colour.
We repeat, NEVER EVER EAT A WILD MUSHROOM THAT IS UNFAMILIAR TO YOU (Please bold this warning). Every year we hear news of people dying from across the state after eating the wrong kind of mushroom. This is happening mostly because of lack of identification guides, research and because of the gap between traditional foraging knowledge and the existing scientific knowledge.
As we look properly at the numbers, very few mushrooms are edible (4-5% of all known mushrooms so far) and very few are toxic (only around 2%). However, there are many mushrooms and categories of mushrooms that we consciously stay away from eating as identifying them correctly can be very tricky.
Since we have seen as many as ten deaths a year even among foraging communities which have been traditionally consuming wild mushrooms for ages, we cannot stress enough on the importance of proper scientific study of wild fungi in Sikkim. We hope that soon we will be able to bridge this gap between science and traditional knowledge by involving some researchers into the process of identifying and cataloguing the immense fungal wealth in the state of Sikkim.
