Myriad colours of mushrooms

At a time when there is a lot of work being taken up on the issues of conservation of

genetic resources, destruction of forests, extinction of species and the effects of global warming, one notices that most of such work lacks substantive content on fungi or any micro-organisms.

The scant attention fungi have received in the biodiversity debate is due in most cases to a lack of awareness among biologists of their significance in evolution, ecosystem function and human progress.

There is an urgent need to broaden the biodiversity debate by focusing on its fungal dimension. The alarming rate of destruction of unexplored tropical and temperate mushroom habitats makes mushroom conservation a key issue for Indian mushroom research.

This is also essential to bring about better diversity and adaptability as the local strains of a particular region are better adapted than the strains brought in from other regions. The mushroom laboratory at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bangalore has been conducting systematic explorations in the tropical rainforests to document and conserve the mushroom flora of India.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands form the largest archipelago system in the Bay of Bengal. The Andaman group has 278 islands and forms the northern part of the chain and the Nicobar group in the south comprises 28 islands. Only 11 islands in the Andaman group and 13 in Nicobar are inhabited.

The geographical area of the Andaman islands is 8293 sq. km. and 86% of it is under reserve and protected forests. Situated in the equatorial belt, these islands have a tropical climate with temperature ranging from 18-35° C and average rainfall between 3000 to 3500 mm.

With few exceptions, these islands are covered with luxuriant lush green tropical rainforests. The forests are home to six ancient groups of tribes namely the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarwa, the Sentinelese, the Nicobarese and the Shompens. These tribes depend on the forest for their existence and have a wealth of knowledge about the occurence and use of various medicinal plants and other forest products.

However, little has been done to establish a symbiotic contact with these tribals. The destruction of these forests will not only lead to the extinction of biological wealth but also the rich local and tribal knowledge nurtured by these tribes over the centuries. There is an urgent need to study, document and conserve the biological wealth before it is lost amidst modernisation.

Highly endemic flora and fauna

In the past, these islands have been the hotspot of anthropological studies. The islands are also a source of great joy for field biologists. A high level of endemism has been observed in the flora and fauna diversity of the islands. Overall 9% of the fauna is endemic to the islands which includes seven amphibians, 16 reptile and 244 species and subspecies of birds.

About 14% of angiosperms are endemic to the islands. These islands with rich evergreen forests and high humidity seem to be a perfect habitat for mushrooms.

However, no effort has been made in the past to document the mushroom flora of these islands. A wealth of ethnomycological information is also available with the local population as was evident on the explorations undertaken by us. But a lot needs to be done.

This account is the first step towards the documentation of the mushroom biodiversity of these islands. Many more explorations will be required to generate and document the complete knowledge about the availability of higher fungi and their uses in this region.

Exploration for the documentation of the wild mushrooms of Andaman was undertaken in the forest areas of Port Blair, Wandoor, Sippighat, Shoalbay, Rutland, Neil island, Havelock, Mount Harriet, Garacharma and Bambooflat forest regions of South Andaman, Rangat, Radhanagar, Mayabander, in North and Middle Andaman.

98 species documented

As many as 98 species of various types of mushrooms were documented. The local settlers and the tribals ate two-three species of mushrooms and its recognition was generally associated with trees.

The locals called the mushrooms Phooto. The dominant edible species according to local knowledge were oyster mushroom and puffballs. These were variously called as Lauki Phooto, a puffball with inner edible portion as white soft tissue, and Gurjan Phooto as it was associated with Gurjan trees (Dipterocarpus retusus) which is an important timber tree in this region and was regarded as local delicacy.

The various species of polypores were used as local medicine for healing wounds. The polypores were burnt and the ash mixed with oil and applied on wounds.

The other important edible mushrooms documented were Termitomyces robustus, pink Pleurotus sp, Dictyophora sp, Tremella sp. The important medicinal mushrooms collected were two morphologically distinct Ganoderma sp and white polypores. Yellow Ganoderma was collected for the first time from forest areas of Baratang. Other genera documented were Lepiota and cotylidia diaphana.

The most abundant mushrooms were White Craterellus sp and white polypores. Irrespective of the location, these two were abundantly present. These forests were abundant with beautiful brilliantly coloured polypores like Coltricia, ascomycetes cup fungus Sarcoscypha coccinea, Trametes sp. etc which have a great potential to be used as ornamental mushrooms which can also help in their conservation. The mushroom lab at IIHR is engaged in conservation and domestication of many of the economically important species for posterity.

(The authors were part of the exploration project)