Marvelous Mushrooms
With more than 150,600 described species, fungi is one of the most diverse assemblages of organisms on earth. Fungi comes in many forms including rusts, truffles, mushrooms, puffballs, yeasts, and morels. Mushrooms, however are probably the most well known fungal types.
A mushroom, as defined by Chang and Miles (2004) is “a macrofungus with a distinctive fruiting body that can be either hypogeous (grows or lives below the ground surface) or epigeous (grows or loves above the ground surface) and is large enough to be seen with the naked eye and picked by hand.” Mushrooms inhabit a wide range of habitats but are most diverse in warm, tropical regions. There are possibly thousands of species of fungi living in The Bahamas.
There are three main types of fungi. One type of fungi feed on dead or decaying matter such as leaf litter and rotting logs. Mushrooms seen in this environment include Pycnoporus sanguineus. The second type are parasites, feeding on living plants and animals. A famous example is the fungus “Cordyceps”. The third type of fungi, the mycorrhiza, forms mutualistic relationships with plants. Mushrooms in this category include Amanita and Boletus, both of which are represented in The Bahamas.
While most of us are aware that some fungi are edible, others can make you sick and some species are deadly. Mushroom collecting is not a hobby past time in The Bahamas as it is in European countries and the United States. While some edible species are found in The Bahamas, most mushrooms in the country have not been assessed and so should not be collected for consumption. If you are not a mycologist, a scientist who studies fungi, please LEAVE THEM ALONE!!
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Ganoderma sp.
A Hygrocybe Mushroom
fact sheets
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posters
Fungi play a crucial role in Bahamian ecosystems, aiding in plant decomposition, nutrient recycling, and disease prevention. The Bahamas hosts various mushroom species, including some edible varieties—but also deadly ones. Mushroom hunting is not a common practice among Bahamians. Visitors should handle mushrooms with caution and never consume them unless absolutely certain they are safe
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resources
Abulude, F.O. and Muhammed, N.M., 2013. Fungi: A review on mushrooms. Knowl. Glob. Dev, 1, pp.18-31.
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Miles, P.G. and Chang, S.T., 2004. Mushrooms: cultivation, nutritional value, medicinal effect, and environmental impact. CRC press.
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Phukhamsakda, C., Nilsson, R.H., Bhunjun, C.S., de Farias, A.R.G., Sun, Y.R., Wijesinghe, S.N., Raza, M., Bao, D.F., Lu, L., Tibpromma, S. and Dong, W., 2022. The numbers of fungi: Contributions from traditional taxonomic studies and challenges of metabarcoding. Fungal diversity, 114(1), pp.327-386.