Mushrooms Expert Stresses Crucial Fungus in Tibet

[tripsis]

Source.

Mushrooms comprise up to 8.5 percent of the Tibet Autonomous Region’s gross domestic product –– more than mining and industry combined. Mushroom expert Daniel Winkler led a virtual tour of Tibet’s booming mushroom market Wednesday evening in the Plant Sciences Building.

Winkler, an environmental consultant, spoke about the vital economic importance of mushrooms to rural Tibet. Despite increases in mushroom harvests, especially of the insect-fungal hybrid caterpillar fungus, Winkler showed evidence that mushroom collecting can be sustainable in Tibet. The Cornell Mushroom Club, Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe biology department, NWAEG, and associate professor Kathie Hodge sponsored the lecture.

Tibet bears a long, rich history of mushroom collecting. Harvested mushrooms range from locally relevant varieties, like boletes and morels, to extremely lucrative fungi that are exported to Japan, China and Europe. In much of rural Tibet, mushrooming provides a substantial source of income.

The two most important mushrooms to the Tibetan economy, according to Winkler, are the matsutake and the caterpillar fungus. Local collectors sell their harvests to local or provincial dealers, who then sell the fungi to wholesale companies.

Matsutake alone bring in the equivalent of 3 to 5 million dollars to rural regions of Tibet. “That’s one of my fascinations with mushroom money,” Winkler explained. “It really goes to the most remote places. It goes to people who otherwise really have no chance to compete in an economy where they lack education and an access to market.”

The matsutake is associated with the roots of evergreen oaks. Winkler paraphrased David Aurora, author of “Mushrooms Demystified,” to describe the smell as a cross “between a funky sock and a cinnamon candy.”

Since the 1990s, Tibet has exported most of its matsutake to Japan. “The Japanese have a preference for baby matsutake, which is an issue for sustainability, since they want them before they have started to release spores,” Winkler explained.

The fruiting bodies, commonly called “mushrooms,” of grasslands or forest floors are extensions of underground fungi. Mushrooms produce spores, which can be spread by air, water or Tibetan mushroom collectors, that grow into new fungi. As a result, spreading spores is essential for future seasons of mushrooms. To ensure sustainable fungus collection, mushrooms must be able to develop spores before they are picked.

The caterpillar fungus is another money-making mushroom in Tibet. Literally a body-snatcher, this fungus, Ophiocordyceps sinensis, grows out of the head of a ghost moth larva that has burrowed under ground. The fungus is a parasite. Fungal spores infect adult moths, which eventually lay infected larvae. The larvae grow for three to four years until the fruiting bodies can protrude, and release new spores.

“When the larva is not infected, it will dig itself down … to over-winter, to protect itself. Tibetan winters are extremely dry …. When it’s infected, the larva will stay about half an inch below the surface. So the fungus is controlling the last movements of the insect.”

The caterpillar fungus is prized for its medicinal qualities by Tibetan and Chinese traditional medicine. Mention of the mushroom first appeared in a Tibetan text from the mid 15th century. Today, the caterpillar fungus fetches a high price of about $2 to $7 per mushroom in China, where it is prized as an aphrodisiac, an immunomodulating agent and a status symbol, claims Winkler.

Mushroom collectors spend up to eight hours each day hunting for the barely protruding stroma of the mushroom, which resemble local shrubs found in the grasslands of the Tibetan plateau. From Winkler’s calculations, caterpillar fungus collection makes up to 67 percent of cash income in some northern Tibetan provinces.

Because the money is so good, Winkler explained, the collection of caterpillar fungus is increasing at an alarming rate. According to his data, caterpillar fungus collection has been increasing 20 percent each year, as more collectors join the hunt.

To relieve the pressure of over-harvesting the caterpillar fungus, Winkler points to the Chinese for research on picking practices. According to Winkler, no Chinese groups have conducted studies on picking practices. His own proposal with Tibetan colleagues for sustainability research was denied by the Chinese. “It’s too touchy when a foreigner does caterpillar fungus.”

“They’re doing DNA, medicinal research, artificial cultivation ,… in many universities, but nobody on site [studying] what happens when you pick in different places, or if you don’t pick here. None of this is happening — for such a precious resource. Sustainability is not just a fantasy,” Winkler said. “Mushroom picking seems to be actually sustainable.”

[bℓσωηG]

There's gold in them hills.... It's a power drug in China and grows on a caterpillar.

 

 

• The demand for Yarchagumba, a fungus that grows on a caterpillar and is found in the Himalayan states, has suddenly gone up in China
• Some in the trade suspect this is because of the Olympics. Prices have hit Rs 7-10 lakh per kg.
• Villagers in Himalayan states are often found collecting it illegally from protected reserves
• The trade in Yarchagumba is harming the fragile habitat in the upper reaches, prompting wildlife experts to call for regulation

Improbable though it may sound, an exotic fungus has triggered a gold rush of sorts in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

Considered a performance enhancer, Yarchagumba is a much-sought-after ingredient in traditional medicine in China. But some trade observers suspect that the Beijing Olympics has pushed prices to a never-before high this year. In 2007 a kilogram of the fungus sold for about Rs 4 lakh, but prices could now crest anywhere between Rs 7 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.

Given the high value associated with this fungus, over-exploitation and smuggling has become rampant and menacing. In the past two weeks, there have been at least two foiled instances of smuggling of the fungus. The first one involved an Assam Rifles jawan who was reportedly caught with a few lakh of rupees and about 500 grams of the fungus in Bageshwar, Uttarakhand. The second incident took place in Sikkim, where three smugglers were nabbed by the state forest department on July 2 with 17 kg of the fungus on them. In the past two years, there have also been two murders in Uttarakhand that some claim were linked to the trade in the fungus.

Yarchagumba, scientifically known as Cordyceps sinesis, grows on caterpillars of the Hepilus fabricius moth. Spores of the fungus grow inside the caterpillar and produce a stalked structure that grows outward from its body. The collection season usually begins with the onset of spring and lasts a few weeks. In India, it is found in the Himalayan stretches at an altitude of about 3,500 metres. The fungus contains proteins, peptides, essential amino acids, and Vitamins B1, B2 and B12, among other nutrients.

Most of the harvest is exported illegally to Nepal to be sent onward to China. While some have speculated about a link between the present surge in the trade this season and the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, there is no hard evidence yet to back that claim. That may, however, be a possibility as the fungus's popularity first soared after the 1993 World Athletics Championships in Stuttgart, when Chinese female athletes shocked the world by smashing records in several track and field events. Their coach, Ma Zunren, gave part of the credit to a tonic containing the fungus.

The potential of Yarchagumba has not, however, received much official attention yet. "We are trying to grow it artificially on grain and come up with a processed form that may be used by Indian drug companies," says A.N. Shukla, head of forest pathology at the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun.

Meanwhile, every spring villages in the hills empty themselves as the able-bodied set out for the meadows in search of the fungus. This unregulated exploitation poses a major threat to the fragile ecosystem of alpine meadows that are known for their exuberant but short-lived burst of plant life during summers. The habitat shelters endangered animals like the musk deer, snow leopard and Himalayan brown bear, besides several protected species of flora. All this may be in danger if the collection of the caterpillar fungus is not checked.

For, during collection, hundreds of people often camp together. Besides digging and trampling, these people also end up using wood from trees such as rhododendrons and junipers as firewood. About 500 pieces of the caterpillar fungus can be found in a hectare and it takes about 4,000 to make a kilogram. "To collect them people go to extremes. This is likely to have a heavy impact because the ecosystem is generally not subject to such intense exploitation over a short period," says Samir Sinha, head of traffic at WWF, which monitors wildlife trade. The money that comes from the fungus is also believed to sustain trafficking in protected species. "There are growing reports of this link from various agencies," he adds.

The trade in this fungus is also beginning to have a far-reaching social impact in the regions where it grows. Awash with money from selling the fungus, people have turned super-rich overnight in some hill towns. "Suddenly you see guys zipping around on bikes," says Chandra Singh Negi, a zoology lecturer at the Government Graduate College in Pithoragarh, a hotbed of the trade. "And during the collection season school attendance drops by as much as 80 per cent in some schools." The keen eyesight of the young helps in finding the fungus strands camouflaged in the grass.

Aware of the risks posed by such an untrammelled exploitation, the Uttarakhand government now authorises only certain panchayats to collect Yarchagumba. The harvest is then handed over to either the Van Nigam or the Kumaon Vikas Mandal Nigam for trading. "That has helped control the problem of social conflicts but one cannot stop illegal collection or smuggling completely in this terrain," says Ram Gopal, the district forest officer from Pithoragarh.

The problem, Sinha explains, is that the caterpillar fungus is not as yet protected under any Indian or international wildlife legislation. "Which means there is no effective barrier against its collection or trade. The law is very ambiguous on Yarchagumba. The only way to penalise somebody presently for collecting the fungus is if it's carried out of a protected area," he says. "What is needed is a framework that allows the locals to benefit without harming the environment." For that, the state governments have to first formulate an action plan to regulate the trade.

http://www.outlookin...cle.aspx?237960

Edited March 14, 2010 by blowng

[bℓσωηG]

I wanted to see a pic of that catapillar fungus and found this in a search interesting stuff, fungi are growing on me!

[ThunderIdeal]

there are various skin treatments for that blowng.

[bℓσωηG]

hahaha i thought that after i wrote it lol, actually healthy skin is covered in yeasts as is the intestinal tract. I am new to mycology but find that i already have clean habits formed over the years of kombucha brewing which also needs cleanliness and aeration.