Exploring which mushrooms are edible after rain at Fushan Botanical Garden

The northeastern region often gets rain, and in damp environments, macrofungi grow very well. Take Fushan Botanical Garden, which is damp year-round and has low human disturbance, as an example: apart from winter, when there are none, all three seasons of spring, summer and autumn offer a rich variety of mushrooms to be discovered and admired. Now, in May, there are Mycena, Marasmius, Ganoderma and Amauroderma appearing in some corners of the park; as long as the rain keeps falling, you can see them, but once there are 2 days of sunshine, they turn into dried mushrooms.

Fushan Botanical Garden is located in Yuanshan Township, Yilan County and Wulai District, New Taipei City, at an altitude of 500 to 700 m, with an annual average of 18.5°C and an average annual rainfall of 4125 mm. Li Chun-yu, assistant researcher at the Fushan Research Center of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, says that only when it rains can you see Fushan Botanical Garden in its true form, so don't worry if you finally get an entry slot but end up encountering wet, rainy weather, because this is precisely the most beautiful moment at Fushan Botanical Garden. Besides its already rich animals and plants, it is also an excellent place for mushroom watching. However, Li Chun-yu specially reminds everyone that no matter how beautiful or how plain the mushroom looks, always follow the three no's: "don't touch, don't pick, don't eat."

Fushan can be called a natural classroom for the diversity of low-altitude fungi in Taiwan. According to Macrofungi of Fushan, published in the 89th year of the Republic of China, the Fushan forest has a total of 47 species of ascomycetes and 228 species of basidiomycetes. Li Chun-yu says Taipingshan also has many, with species even richer than those at Fushan Botanical Garden, because Taipingshan is even more humid and the mushroom situation there is even better than at Fushan. In fact, Fushan and Taipingshan are both in the northeastern region of Taiwan, and their rainy nature has created conditions in these 2 mountain forests that suit the growth of mushrooms.

Between Grain Rain and the start of summer, weather fronts bring continuous rain, humidity rises greatly, and together with gradually rising temperatures, the vitality in rotting wood, fallen leaves and soil is awakened. Li Chun-yu says that mushrooms of all different appearances then make their colorful debut. There is the Gymnopilus (Gymnopilus sp.) with a red scaly cap, the petite and lovely Panus conchatus (Favolaschia manipularis), Panus (Panus sp.) and Lentinus (Lentinus sp.) clustering and pressing out under repeated watering of sunlight and rain. In Fushan's famous display area "Forest Oak Wonderland," the symbiotic Scleroderma (Scleroderma sp.)。

Mushrooms are not very seasonal. In the Fushan forest, as long as it is not winter, a few rains will bring them up, and they are quite easy to find. As the season reaches mid-to-late May, Mycena, Marasmius, Ganoderma and Amauroderma can be seen. How should one seek out the mushrooms of Fushan Botanical Garden? Li Chun-yu helps point the way: Forest Oak Wonderland has more symbiotic fungi, where Russula or Scleroderma can be seen; the sympetalous flower area has saprophytic mushrooms, where Lentinus and Panus can be seen; Panus is in the ethnobotanical area; Lentinus can be found in the small gymnosperm area; and as for Panus conchatus, it hides in the Camphor-Oak World.

Panus growing on dead fallen wood.

The fruiting bodies of Lentinus clustering out.

Scleroderma is very common at Fushan.

Young Gymnopilus mushroom, does it look like lychee peel?