THE POISON FACTOR

Rex Burress

During the warm November rains of 2016, an immense growth of fungi has been reported, especially along the coast that is always a prized retreat for choice edible species, such as “Boleteus edulis!”

Of course, not all mushrooms are edible; in fact some are deadly poisonous to eat. Actually, only about 4% of the estimated 60,000 fungi species worldwide are considered tasty, with about 1% deadly. And therein develops some Great Controversies about the role fungi plays in various habitats. The fact that the poison factor exists and that mushrooms are difficult to identify, easily endangering the amateur forager, has caused one particular mycological club along the coast to try and eliminate by hand one particular deadly species, Amanita phalloides, in one test area well infused with what is considered an invasive, worthless mushroom.

When anything invades, you wonder what the transportation vehicle was and where it came from. Down by the Feather River Nature Center one fall, a poisonous white mushroom popped up from the rubble. It was the deadly white Death Angel Amanita, the same kind that grows in other parts of the world. How did it get there?

Generally, eradication of any kind is to be treated with caution, and removal can easily get out of hand with unknown effects to the environment. Time after time we've seen animal and plant introductions that have unintended consequences. Rabbits out of control in Australia, mongoose devastataing more than snakes on Trinidad, bullfrogs bumping smaller native frogs in California, star thistle monopolizing meadows, and countless other ecological tragedies both intentional and accidental.

The consensus seems to be to leave the A. phalloides alone and simply learn to avoid picking it. Usually, an organism's presence, even if toxic, has some unseen good for another species, such as certain mushroom mycelium “roots,” providing nutrients to plant roots, especially trees, in a symbiotic relationship of helping one another. Examples of nitrogenous exchange abounds in many plants. Plant toxins are usually used by the plant as a defensive mechanism, but modified poisons are useful not only in deterring plant consumers from eating the plant, but often present a medicinal formula for the benefit of mankind.

My most vivid and valid reference to saving endangered species came from the man instrumental to my getting a naturalist job with the Oakland Park Dept, William Penn Mott, Superintendent of Oakland Parks in 1961 at a time when “saving nature” was in its infancy. Mott believed, as did my immediate supervisor, Naturalist Paul Covel, that a “useless” species might have some unknown gene that could someday cure diseases like cancer, and that no species should be totally eliminated. Mott became Director of National Parks in 1985.

John Muir was a leading advocate of saving species through preservation of their habitats in the late 1800's, focused simply on the salvation of beauty in nature without deeper scientific ties, realizing “everything in the universe is hitched together” for mutual benefit. He contended, “People ask what poison oak is good for and why it was even created, never considering that perhaps it was made for itself.”

Additionally, what is poison to one thing can be harmless to another. I have seen banana slugs munching away on Death Caps with no apparent harm. Deer eat fungi, too, although I don't know if they avoid Amanita phalloides, but many animals are immune to certain toxins. I have seen deer feeding lustily on poison oak, so P.O. has practical reasons for existence in the web of living things as well as a personal reason for being.

Why do mushrooms make toxins? Where did the fungi get the chemical know-how to make toxins in the first place? Tom Burns, scientist at U.C. Berkeley said the quick answer is; “we really don't know.”

John Burroughs had it right: “They know without knowing they know.” Vincent Van Gogh had it right: “As for me, I know nothing with any certainty, but the sight of the stars makes me dream.” Wayne Dyer had it right: “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at begin to change.”

“The 'control of nature' is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal Age of Biology and the convenience of man.” --Rachael Carson