Aug 10
2

Where are the Mushrooms This Year?

2 Comments

Paul Nelson has a good question, "This is the least fruiting season I've ever seen in 20 years. Could the drought and high temperatures have destroyed the mycelium? And if so what is the impact on future seasons? Any ideas?"

My theory is that it may have damaged the mycelium and some better weather will bring about a late fruiting season.

I revisited the Hurley Rail Trail Sunday and did see some sings that mushrooms are starting to come back. The cinnabar chanterelles that we found last week didn't make it. The field of small buds had dried up without developing further. But not far from there we found some young chicken of the woods and white oysters. There are also a lot of boletes.

More experienced Mushroomers: Please help answer this question.

This entry was posted on August 2, 2010 at 2:06 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Mushroom Hunting Questions and Answers by Ira Weiss 2 Comments

2 Responses to "Where are the Mushrooms This Year?"

  • Ira Weiss says:
    August 7, 2010 at 11:16 am

    David William Fischer responded on Facebook:

    The short answer to your question is that we don't really know in any definitive sense. Anthropogenic global warming is a huge and unprecedented experiment that's being conducted not in a laboratory but, rather, "clinically"—with the Earth's entire ecosystem as its subject.

    We DO know that rapid anthropogenic climate change, with its droughts, heat waves, torrential downpours and miscellaneous local, regional and global impacts, is stressing a huge percentage of the Earth's species. There is no reason to think that fungi, including ectomycorrhizal basidiomycetes, would be immune to its impacts.
     

  • Ira Weiss says:
    August 7, 2010 at 11:17 am

    Yes, but smaller geographic areas go through extremes regardless of the larger global picture. I think you're taking a very H.G Well-ian approach to the question. :)

    On a smaller, shorter time frame (seasonal) would drought-like conditions simply cause the mycelium to fruit later or not at all for the season? Any ideas or theories?

Leave a Comment