2Fungi Volume 1: 3 Special Issue—Truffles 2008

A roundup of recent notes and sightings from the news and literatureEditor’s PicksTo the Editor

It was gratifying to see David Rose’s

important and erudite article on anti-

Semitism and Auricularia auricula-judae receive

wider circulation. Readers, however, may be

left with the impression that this practice is

all in the past, which is far from the case.

Apparently the pejorative “Jew’s Ear” remains

in use, at least among mushroomers in Great

Britain and on the continent, judging from its

continued use in mushroom guides published

there as late as 2004 (e.g., The Encyclopedia of

Fungi of Britain and Europe, Michael Jordan,

rev. 2004; The Pocket Guide to Mushrooms, Jean-

Marie Polese, 1999, original edition in

French; Mushrooms and Toadstools of Great

Britain, etc., Marcel Bon, 1987; Mushrooms &

Other Fungi of Great Britain, Roger Phillips,

1981). It is telling that Phillips’s Mushrooms of

North America (1991) avoids this odious

epithet. In contrast to the Old World, no

North American field guide since the early

years of the 20th century has found it

necessary to revive this prejudicial usage, and

all use the revised Latin name, Auricularia

auricula. This same pattern is evident on the

Web, where Wikipedia has an entry with no

explanation nor apology, and Tom Volk’s Web

site, which features it for Easter 2004 (!),

refers to “Judas’ ear fungus,” refraining from

“other translations” of the name which “some

would consider . . . pejorative,” without

reference to its anti-Semitic past. Several

British sites, including the well-known

BioImages, openly retain “Jew’s Ear,” while

many more use only the Latin, softening the

blow with acceptable common names such as

Tree Ear.

In an era when the American

Ornithologists Union has addressed such

racial prejudices, changing the name of the

Old-Squaw Duck to Long-tailed Duck in

order to avoid injury to the sensibilities of

Native Americans, it seems that the

mycological community remains far behind

the times, mired in the past.

—Joel Horman, Editor

Long Island Sporeprint

Gourmet mushrooms making news:Truffles are therapeutic . . .

A study recently published in the Inter-national Journal of Medicinal Mushrooms is thefirst broad investigation of therapeutic ac-tivities of hypogeous fungal fruit bodiesfrom North America—that is, truffles andtruffle-like fungi of the classes Ascomycetesand Basidiomycetes, respectively.

The research was conducted by RitaStanikunaite, James M. Trappe, Shabana I.Khan, and Samir A. Ross, who evaluated 22species of fungi from 12 families in severalbiological assays. Biological screening re-sults indicate that one species showed anti-malarial activity, 11 species were active inanti-oxidant assay, nine species were activein anti-inflammatory assay, nine speciesshowed anti-tuberculosis activity, and twospecies showed anti-cancer activity.

Among the fungi examined were thetruffle and false-truffle species: Elaphomycesgranulatus, E. muricatus, Geopora clausa, Hy-menogaster subalpinus, Melanogaster tuberi-formis, Rhizopogon couchii, R. nigrescens, R. pedi-cellus, R. subaustralis, R. subgelatinosus, and

Scleroderma laeve. These species were note-worthy as they expressed therapeutic ac-tivity in more than one assay.

The results of this investigation indi-cate that this group of fungi has promisingtherapeutic activities that could lead to thedevelopment of new agents for the treat-ment and prevention of diseases. Besides allthis fancy talk, most gastronomes have longfelt that truffles were a wonder drug. Evenaddictive!

. . . and saffron milk caps are cultivated.A wild mushroom that is well known

to us mycophiles in the northern hemi-sphere is being grown for the first time thisyear in the southern hemisphere and incommercial quantities. The saffron milk cap(Lactarius deliciosus) is the first of a numberof exciting new forest-grown mushroomsthat will be produced in New Zealand overthe coming years. The cultivation of exoticwild mushrooms promises to add a newdimension to New Zealand cuisine but alsorepresents a step along the way to the de-velopment of a flourishing new high-valuefood export industry. Most highly prizedwild mushrooms are seasonal and do notstore very well. Growers in New Zealandhope to have a captive market for antipo-dean fresh mushrooms in Europe andNorth America.

Lactarius deliciosus world expert JorindeNuytinck told me that cultivating this andother mycorrhizal species (including truf-fles) has always been all but impossible. “Abig hurdle has been in preventing a suit-able host tree from being infected by othercompeting fungi,” she said. But it seems theresearchers in New Zealand now can claimsuccess. My thanks to the Illinois Myco-logical Association for the news tip.

And a final note for those familiar withthe difficult taxonomy of L. deliciosus (whowould likely be quick to point out that, inreality, we’re talking about a “complex” ofEditor shaves truffles . . .

3Volume 1: 3 Special Issue—Truffles 2008 Fungi

species and that those in North America maynot be the same ones found in Europe)should read the recent paper by Nuytinckand Verbeken (Mycological Research 111:1285–97) titled “Species delimitation andphylogenetic relationships in Lactarius sec-tion Deliciosi in Europe.”

While we’re on the topic of mycorrhizalmushrooms . . .

One curious little mushroom thatrarely makes it into the headlines is the“stalked puffball-in-aspic” or Calostoma cinna-barina. A quick glance at the photo of thisstriking beauty and you’ll understand howit gets its name. The stalked puffballs, anassemblage of oddities looking like Basidi-omycetes that couldn’t decide whether tofruit like a puffball or a mushroom and thushave picked something halfway between thetwo, have long been placed within the Gaste-romycetes (another, even larger and looserassemblage of fungi that mycologists didn’tknow what to do with). Well, that’s all start-ing to change; we now know that many ofthose species are actually boletes, or closelyrelated to them, at the very least. And nowwe learn that the shy Calostoma is to be no

longer considered a lowly saprobe, as longthought: it’s actually a mycorrhizal species.Such were the findings Andrew Wilson, ErikHobbie, and David Hibbett published in arecent issue of the Canadian Journal of Botany(85: 385–93). Saprotrophs and mycorrhizalsymbionts get their carbon and nitrogenfrom different sources. Using this knowl-edge, the researchers designed an experi-ment that involved tracing radioactive car-bon and nitrogen back to its source andfound that for Calostoma it was coming froma tree host—Quercus (oak), to be specific.

Cystidia: What do they do, anyway?Many species of fungi have “sterile cells”

called cystidia that project from their gills.Although cystidia are an important taxo-nomic character to those of us who use amicroscope, their function remains unclear.Among several possible functions, cystidiamay protect fruit bodies from predators ormay serve to attract spore-dispersing organ-isms, including various insects. Despitecommon knowledge of cystidia (we seethem whenever we put a mushroom underthe scope), we have little knowledge aboutthem.

Calostoma cinnabarina. Photo: David Work

Two Japanese researchers, Nakamoriand Suzuki, set out to test the hypothesisthat cystidia may defend against grazingmicrofauna. Collembola are minute insect-like arthropods, ubiquitous in the forest. Nodoubt anyone who has brought home wildmushrooms has seen these tiny “springtails”jumping off a pile of chanterelles or float-ing in a bowl of soaking morels. In fact,they’re now considered to be the most im-portant consumer of organic material in theforest, among animals anyway. The re-searchers used fruit bodies of Russula bellaand Strobilurus ohshimae and report that col-lembola were found dead on parts of themushrooms of these species where cystidiawere abundant. If basidiospores but no cys-tidia were present, the collembola ate fit-fully until sated. Thus, these findings sug-gest a role in spore defense for cystidia(Mycological Research 111[11]: 1345–51).

From the Editor, cont. from page 1

And finally I want to acknowledgesome individuals without whom thisSpecial Issue would not have beenpossible. First off, our sincere thanks toJim Wells of Oregon Wild Edibles(www.oregonwildedibles.com) forgraciously donating a large parcel ofchoice Oregon truffles. (See cover and“The Wild Epicure” for images.) Also,thanks to the Inn at Stone Ridge, NewYork for providing our own David Workwith a space in which to develop some ofthe dishes and recipes in this issue (aswell as providing a beautiful 18th-centuryback-drop for several of the Editors totaste those dishes). We at FUNGI

applaud the efforts of Jim Wells, CharlesLefevre, and others who are committedto educating the world about the Oregontruffle and the goal of preserving thistreasure through its sustainable harvest. Iurge you to find out for yourself why theOregon truffle truly is a world-classtruffle by attending the 2009 OregonTruffle Festival. I hope to see you allthere!