Mushrooms carrying forest mushrooms on logs enrage the naturalist – you act like lunatics and impulsive barbarians

Condemn mushrooms by announcing their capture on social media

Mycologist of the Center for Natural Research dr. Jonas Kasparavčius says that fungal growth affects nature, but it depends on where and how it develops.

“If all Lithuanian mushrooms were evenly distributed in all Lithuanian forests, the impact on their nature would not be very significant. Such a small effect can be partly useful, because a little damage to the cover of fungi and moss can have a somewhat stimulating effect on the fungi ”, says J. Kasparavičius about the good effect in the forest.

Unfortunately, the scientist warns that the “good” forests, which are known to all and are more easily accessible by car, are generally flooded en masse.

“Even in the case of civilized proliferation of fungi, the forest can suffer a little. Due to the peculiarities of growing and boiled trees, shrubs, ponds, swamps, relief, not all places in the forest are equally passable. This means that even well-compacted paths can form in places that pass over time. In these places not only grass, shrubs and moss are crushed, but also the soil is compacted, its permeability is reduced into the air, very necessary for fungi, and the fungus that grows in it is physically damaged ”, explains the specialist.

The mycologist points out that in the presence of severe dryness and the absence of fungi in many forests, the boletus found in a forest become a real sensation on the Internet. Unfortunately, such advertising of mushroom growing sites is not appropriate behavior.

“The popular forest is flooded with mushrooms, convinced that there will be enough boletus for everyone. Meanwhile, all the mushrooms that grew there were already carefully collected by the first mushroom that found them and cut them in all directions. The newly arrived mushrooms are determined to tear up the ground, but they only uselessly trample the forest floor and moss. It’s good if you don’t use rakes – although this rampant fad was common in the past, there is still talk of “such great people,” says J. Kasparavičius, who does not recommend taking mushroom photos in social space.

According to the interlocutor, some mushrooms often check every lump, every lump in the moss, in the hope that there is a fungus sprouting there. When one or more boletus are found, especially the small ones, still germinating, after a while the moss or cover that surrounds them can sometimes look like “workers” in a herd of wild boars.

“They will all be carved, counted, and even photographed down to the smallest boletus. Because the number of boletus, not weight or size, is the most important measure of greatness, and if the boletus is of record size, at worst the cases, one adapts ”, describes the specialist the behavior of modern fungi.

Call not to uproot everything: you have to leave another boletus to the “variety”

According to the mycologist, each fungus disperses tens of thousands of spores, from which in theory tens of thousands of new fungi could grow. Unfortunately, not everyone grows and not everyone survives.

“If the boletus population does not regenerate regularly, that is, it is not gradually supplemented with new young individuals, then, like the human population, it ages, it has more difficulty adapting to the challenges of environmental change or, to the long, it doesn’t hold up to many more competitors. After all, we don’t collect multiple “combinations”: they spread their spores in the tens or even hundreds of thousands each year, and if not in quality, over time they begin to outpace their competitors, this case boletus “, explains the specialist.

The scientist adds that mushrooms make a negative selection of their most precious mushrooms. The only way to survive is to grow solitary, small, hard to notice, and underdeveloped fruit bodies.

“The boletus may not disappear so quickly, because the fungus has been alive for many years, but if we take care of the Lithuanian forests, it would be worth leaving at least one other overgrown boletus for the ‘variety’ motto:” After us there is a flood “, – J. Kasparavičius shares those thoughts.

60 species of insects live and feed on boletus

When asked if mushrooms feed on forest animals, the interviewer lists which animals feed on mushrooms and who are the most damaged.

According to J. Kasparavičius, the most important fungi, both as a house and as the sole source of food, are the fungal mosquitoes and representatives of some species of drosophila flies. These insects are born and grow on mushrooms.

“The insects of each species are adapted to live in the fungi of one or more related species in particular, while others cannot live or feed on them. For example, at least 60 species of insects live and feed on the fruit bodies of boletus, ”said an employee of the Nature Research Center.

J. Kasparavičius says that hoofed mammals also feed on fungi: elk, deer, deer, and some rodents. Mushrooms are dried for the winter by squirrels, mushrooms and forest mice are tested.

According to the mycologist, this year is not the most fungal

When talking about the damage that the forest suffers due to the fungi that visited it, the mycologist also names the garbage.

“The animals do not bring or leave garbage and debris in the forest, unfortunately sometimes it does not go out. Good if the forest is wet after the rain. I will not even talk about compatriots who deliberately transport household and construction waste to the forests ”, the mushroom specialist is outraged.

Was this year especially abundant in mushrooms? “This year mushrooms can find a lot of mushrooms, especially boletus, but it is definitely not the year with the most mushrooms. There are ex and much more mushrooms. I understand that some mushrooms will not agree with that, but those whose memory reaches another decade they must also remember the happiness of a better and truly record year. And not just boletus “, the mycologist does not say that this year is particularly fungus.

According to J. Kasparavičius, the royal boletus was the most popular mushroom so far.