Meeting with Mushrooms in Murtoa
Fungi are a fundamental and often overlooked component of our ecosystems. Yarrilinks recently hosted ecologist Alison Pouliot for an interactive workshop in Murtoa designed to demystify Kingdom Fungi and explore their role in the environment, history and culture.
Upon arrival, attendees were treated to a display of many different types of fungi foraged from the environment by Alison. Due to our recent try weather, most of these were collected on her way up from the Otways, where she delivered workshops before heading to the Wimmera.
The table included species ranging from toxic to edible, from tiny to a giant bracket fungus, and also featured moss, leaves and branches to demonstrate the specific habitat types each of the different mushrooms would grow from.
We learned from Alison how fungi were once thought to be part of the plant Kingdom, and only more recently have been recognised as distinct. We also now understand they are more closely related to animals than plants. While plants have cell walls reinforced with cellulose, fungi have chitin, the same substance that makes up crustacean shells and insect exoskeletons.
One of the reasons fungi are so important ecologically is their interaction with plant roots. Through close associations with plant roots, they are able to effectively increase the root surface area of plants several-fold, leading to more efficient nutrient and water extraction from the soil. Alison demonstrated this using a piece of poly pipe and a jumble of pantyhose!
Alison also administered a pop quiz. She issued a challenge for someone to identify edible species on the table. One of our attendees immediately put her hand up to have a go. She identified saffron milk caps with confidence, honey mushrooms with a question mark, and wasn’t fooled by the ghost mushrooms masquerading as chanterelles. Alison genuinely seemed impressed!
This discussion also brought up a few important points about culinary use of mushrooms: Not all species are equally edible! Some are edible but not palatable, some require special processing before eating, and some cause adverse reactions to some people but not others. We don’t understand why or who will be affected, so it’s easier to proceed with caution. Other species might have a very similar looking toxic species, highlighting the need for extensive research (and preferably verification with an expert) prior to trying any. Alison reiterated that there are no hard and fast rules to distinguish between edible and toxic species – all those old tales have exceptions!
We finished off the day with a trip out to a local woodland to try to see some fungi in the flesh. A paltry 8mm of rain received the week before wasn’t quite enough to get the mushrooms sprouting, but we found plenty to speak about. Fungi, clinging to slow growing bulokes, is actually a symbiosis of organisms from two kingdoms: an algae (plant kingdom) and a fungus! The algal partner photosynthesis and the fungal partner provides anchorage and nutrient and water uptake. We did find two different species of bracket fungi in the end – these are hard, shelf like fungi that often grow in a horizontal fashion on the trunks of trees.
A big thanks to the Murtoa Neighborhood house for providing our delicious catering on the day, and to local volunteers who helped wash up dishes, move tables and sweep up pine needles during the cleanup. I’m always so impressed by the collaborative and helpful mindset in our communities – everyone lends a hand to help events run smoothly. We’d also like to thank the local landholder who allowed us to visit their woodland for our field walk.
This event was funded by a Victorian Landcare Grant.