[PCA] Excerpts from FAOs July '05 Non-Wood Forest Products Digest

[Patricia_DeAngelis at fws.gov]

The following articles dealing with U.S. native plants were excerpted from
FAOs July 2005 Non-Wood Forest Products Digest.  You can see previous
issues and sign up to recieve the electronic version of this Digest as soon
as it becomes available at: www.fao.org/forestry/site/12980/en

NOTE: Articles pertaining to US medicinals are not included below, as they
were distributed over the Medicinal Plant Working Group (MPWG) listserve.
See: <http://www.nps.gov/plants/medicinal/index.htm> if you are interested
in joining the MPWG listserve.

Patricia S. De Angelis, Ph.D.
Botanist - Division of Scientific Authority
Chair - Plant Conservation Alliance - Medicinal Plant Working Group
US Fish & Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Suite 750
Arlington, VA  22203
703-358-1708 x1753
FAX: 703-358-2276
Working for the conservation and sustainable use of our green natural
resources.
<www.nps.gov/plants/medicinal>


Mushrooms: Morels in Alaska (USA)
Source: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Fairbanks, AK, USA. 28 June 2005

Biologists studying mushrooms and other fungi for the Fungal Genomics
Project at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) would appreciate it if
mushroom pickers shared with them a mushroom cap or two--especially the
most unusual looking fungi of their harvests.
            There are nine known subspecies of morel mushrooms, not all of
which occur in Alaska, said Gary Laursen, a senior research biologist with
the Institute of Arctic Biology. There are two species of black morel--the
most common and popular fruit in this state. But there may be more. No one
knows for sure because a true scientific taxonomy of Alaska mushrooms has
yet to be completed.
            Alaskans may have been sautéing a whole new variety of morel
mushroom for years and not known it. Laursen and four colleagues are
focusing on fungi specifics beyond the common names that most fry cooks
would care about. "Common names tend to cluster what we as taxonomists
might put into two or three different species," Laursen said.
            He and others connected with the mycological herbarium at UAF
are examining and describing all varieties of Alaska fungus for the
project. Broader public interest in mushrooms this summer--given the
possibility of commercial quantities of morel mushrooms popping up after
millions of acres of Alaska's Interior forests burned last year--means a
chance for the scientists to, perhaps, land an interesting specimen or two.
            As Laursen put it in terms of hunting mushrooms in general,
"the more eyes you have in the woods the more you find."
            As incentive, Laursen noted that this is a scientific first for
Alaska and those whose mushrooms are found useful in the study would be
listed as contributors in documentation of the project. "We like to get
people's names. ... They're given credit in publications," he said.
            Looking closely at sponge-like morels, the surface looks like a
field of pits and ridges. The mushrooms actually are called”cup” fungi
because the pits on their surface serve as cups where spores are produced.
One species may be all brown, one may have brown pits and white ridges, and
one might have white pits and brown ridges. The combinations are endless in
grays, yellows and variations of colour and shape. "There are a lot of
subtleties that a taxonomist would use to delineate a species," he said.
            The scientists not only look at the shape, colour and size of
the mushrooms, they consider where individual fruits grow and do
microscopic and chemical tests on the fungi as well. Microscopic views look
at the individual spores, of which a single mushroom might produce
billions, and the cell makeup of the stem, cap and other parts of the
fruit, Laursen said.
            Chemical tests are then performed to sort out the RNA of the
mushroom. RNA, Laursen explained, is half of the familiar helical DNA
ladder that has become well known thanks to television and movies. "Saw the
ladder in half down the rungs and one half is the RNA," he said. The
scientists actually focus on one small portion of the RNA as an identifier
of mushroom species.
            But, Laursen is quick to emphasize, the RNA finding is just one
piece of the puzzle. "It's information to help delineate the species along
with the macro and microscopic information," he said. "You have to look at
the whole picture. It's not like DNA fingerprinting with humans."
            The mushrooms are quite a puzzle for scientists, Laursen said.
People know morels pop up after a fire, but exactly what nutrients are at
work and in what quantity, what specific temperature and moisture
combination is at work and even whether the mushrooms are specific to
certain tree species--having a mycorrhizal relationship--is unknown, he
said.
            Trees could not grow around Fairbanks without the help of
mycorrhizal relationships with fungus, he said. "Some have assumed morels
are mycorrhizal, but it has not been documented," Laursen said. To explain
the relationship, Laursen described fungus as a sprawling web of fibers
underground that digest nutrients in the soil. The mushrooms people see at
the surface are the equivalent of fruit that appear only when conditions
are just so. Tree roots also seek nutrients from the soil, but Interior
Alaska soil is so nutrient-poor that trees could not pull up enough
nutrients on their own. What roots do have are sugars produced in
photosynthesis by the tree. The fungi feed on the sugars, the trees feed on
the nutrients pulled in by the fungi, and the symbiosis is complete.
            Some mushrooms grow only with certain kinds of trees. Some
scientists have speculated that morels have some sort of relationship with
spruce trees, thus explaining the reason so many would pop to the surface
when a spruce forest burns. "The roots may still be alive under the
surface," Laursen said. "But they're throwing out all their sugars in a
last-ditch effort to survive. The morels may key on that and fruit in
response to the tree being stressed."
            The scientists ask those who bring mushrooms to note where the
items were found, what the ground was like and what types of trees were
present--if any. He asks that people bring mushrooms to the mycological
herbarium at Room 305 Bunnell on the UAF campus or call him at 474-6295.
For full story, please see: http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1413,113
~7244~2942103,00.html


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