science environment

Foraging For Fungi Stories

By Toni Tabora-Roberts (OPB)
Nov. 15, 2013 9 p.m.

Deep in the forest of our media landscape, fungi have been emerging. I thought I'd compile some of the recent news and some from the archives for those who want a full-on fungi fix.

In the troublesome fungi category, a new study shows the fungus that causes the deadly white-nose syndrome in bats is here to stay. One of the authors of the University of Illinois study is mycologist Andrew Miller. As reported in the L.A. Times, Miller says the fungi, known as Geomyces destructans, loves itself some bat and cave:

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A hibernating bat is a sort of prime rib for this fungi – but the rest of the cave is its salad bar. The only hope is that bats will develop some sort of immunity because the fungus isn't going away," Miller said.

Fungi of the yummy variety have made headlines, too:

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Our pals at Oregon Field Guide aired a segment this week about mushrooms that includes a story about a mycologist whose forested backyard holds 300 some fungi types and a team of researchers who discovered an underwater mushroom:

You can learn more about that aquatic mushroom from our story Searching In Streams For Oregon's Aquatic Mushroom and by watching this video:

And finally, a vintage find from the video vault of our colleagues at Outdoor Idaho. The episode first aired on Idaho Public Television in 1989. They tagged along with a mushroom hunter as he foraged for morels, which he describes as "real choice for the table." The mushroom segment begins at the 12:40 mark:

All this mushroom business is making me hungry. I'll be foraging my local farmers market for some this weekend.

-- Toni Tabora-Roberts

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