Much More Than Mushrooms: The Hidden World of Fungi

The arrival of autumn is usually accompanied by the mushroom season, although the rains have arrived a bit late this year to the Serranía de Ronda and the forests are a bit slow. The drop in temperatures following the first significant rainfall in recent weeks hasn’t helped either.

“There are very few mushrooms still,” the guides at the mycological days in Cortes de la Frontera, one of the areas with the greatest presence in the Ronda region, almost unanimously repeated.

And with a small quantity of edible mushrooms still, it was necessary to look further into the forests of the Grazalema and Los Alcornocales natural parks, where different search groups were distributed.

Leading one of them was Beli Casillas, a local mycologist who knows the terrain almost like the back of her hand. “Some of them had started to wake up, but the cold has suddenly stopped them,” she notes. This fact means that the awakening of the mushrooms could come much more significantly this year in December, January, and a few weeks of February.

Mushroom born on a piece of dead wood. / Javier Flores

These types of sessions, beyond locating edible mushrooms, aim for a different goal which is to learn about the complex world of mushrooms and to start identifying them. Going out into the field to collect them without the necessary knowledge to identify them correctly can turn into a risky activity.

“These types of sessions are a good way to start learning about the world of fungi, it’s crucial to know how to identify because the difference between an edible and a toxic one can be very small,” explains Casillas.

She also warns about the use of guides. “They are very useful, but you have to read what they say, often we just look at the pictures and depending on the time it was taken it can change a lot, it’s not a fixed image, there are many characteristics of that mushroom that we don’t see in the photograph and that are described in a good guide, you have to read them,” Casillas insists.

As for the edible queens of this vast world in this area, the five most important are: Egg yolk mushroom, boletus aerius, chanterelles, macrolepiotas, and the cardoon mushroom. Along with these, others like the trumpet of the dead or the mountain delicacy cannot be forgotten.

Participants in the sessions at Cortes de la Frontera. / Javier Flores

But beyond this edible world that reaches the kitchens during this season, the world of fungi is much more and forms a fundamental element for the development of forests, to the extent of participating in all their stages. They even play a fundamental role as recyclers for the decomposition of dead woods.

And the fact is that 95% of the plants on the planet are mycorrhizal, which means they are associated with one or several fungi. “This association benefits our environment, allowing it to grow and live in better health,” she maintains.

Precisely, one of the experts looking at this other part of the forest is Dr. Pablo Pérez, a biologist specializing in ramarias, who has highlighted the great importance they have for nature, this other unknown world of fungi.

/ Javier Flores

“I think they don’t see this other part of the forest because they haven’t been taught to look,” he points out. He also notes that “for those of us who are very fond of mycology, finding a very large boletus is not as thrilling as finding small hidden things under the wood or in holes, there are real treasures, although you need a magnifying glass because they tend to be tiny.”

In this respect, he suggests that “the secret is everything hidden beneath the soil, those who have seen the movie Avatar, that connection of the vegetation of that forest communicating among itself and holding all the information, that exists, it’s inspired by nature and what fungi are doing, they are connecting plants to balance the forest.”